Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1890 — HOW IS IT EXPLAINED? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOW IS IT EXPLAINED?

PAUL JOHNSTONE’S PERILOUS MIND-READING FEAT. He Drives Blindfolded Through Crowded Street* in Chicago and Pick* Out a Name on a Hotel Register—His Dream of a Collision Cmnes Partly One. [SPECIAL CHICAGO CORRESPONDENCE.]

TH E performances of the late Washington Irving Bishop pale before the accomplishments of a new psychological wonder. The feat of mind-reading, in the attempt of which Bishop lost his life | in New York a year and a half ago, has been successfully accomplished in ChL

cago by Paul Alexander Johnstone. Mind-reader Johnstone drove blindfolded through the crowded streets of the city from the Auditorium to the Grand Pacific Hotel, and, still with a handkerchief tightly bandaged over his eyes, picked out of an old register a name that had been selected for the test by a committee of disinterested citizens. It was a similar feat which killed Bishop and it nearly killed Johnston®- A doctor worked over him for ttyee hours to drag him out of an attack of congestion of the brain into which he had been throw# by his adventure. The doctor saved him, but he will never’attempt the feat again. He has had enough. At 2 o’clock In the afternoon a score of people comprising representatives of the press and a special committee sat in the south parlor of the Auditorium Hotel and watched with considerable Interest the nervous antics of a pale-faced young man in a closely buttoned Prince Albert coat, who was about to undertake what Is conceded the most difficult accomplishment in mlnd-rcading. The committee selected to supervise the undertaking and see that It did not* partake of the appearance of a “fake” consisted erf Dr. G, E. Butler, B. A. Johnson, editor of the Lumber Trade Journal, Charles Lederer, the artist, W. C Wright, and Thaddeus Dean. These gentlemen sat together In one end of the room and listened with some incredulity

to the announcement of what Mr. Johnstone proposed to do. “A portion of the committee will leave here in a carriage and drive by some circuitous route to the Grand Pacific Hotel, * said the restless and excited young man. “There you will select a hotel register and mutually agree upon a name therein, fixing in your minds the appearance of the signature and the date of the same. Then you will return here, and after I have blindfolded myself and covered my head with a cloak, I will drive over the same route to the hotel and pick out the name in the register and write it. Keep the exact particulars of the drive in your mind, as I must depend on your recollection of what happens to guide me. Don’t drive too far, as I fear that it will require all my strength to complete the difficult test at the hotel. ” An open carriage was waiting at the Michigan avenue entrance of the hotel. W. C. Wright was to remain with Mr. Johnstone, and the other five gentlemen of the committee went down and took their places in the vehicle, with Mr. Dean at the reins. It was arranged that he should do all of the driving and not leave the seat during the test. The committee drove north on Michigan avenue to Monroe street, west on Monroe street to Wabash avenue, south on Wabash avenue to Adams, west on Adams to

State, south on State to Jackson, west on Jackson to Clark, and then north on Clark to the entrance of the Grand Pacific Hotel. Leaving Mr. Dean at the reins, the other committee-men went to the desk and were given a register full of names. The book was taken out to the carriage, and, after some discussion, the committee decided on the name of J. G. Butler, Jr., Youngstown, Ohio, the date being Aug. 35,1890. Leaving Mr. Lederer to guard the register, and see that no one touched it in the meantime, the committee drove back to the point of starting. Durinc their absence Johnstone paced the floor like a caged tiger. Dr. Butler and Mr. Johnson were selected to take charge of him in preparation for the drive. They blindfolded him and then placed over his head the velvet cloak. Theft Dr. Butler traced on the wall with his finger the route they had driven, indicating the turns made and the number of blocks in each direction. When he concluded the young man clutched his hand and rushed down the stairway two steps at a time to the carriage. He was assisted to the seat beside Mr. Dean, given the lines, and In a moment was guiding the spirited team along Michigan avenue, while a dozen cabs and carriages filled with students of psychical phenomena rattled along behind. When the cloaked driver swung his team west on Adams street, instead of Monroe, It looked as though he bad

fafled at the very start. It was the only mistake lie maue. He drove west on Adams one block to Wabash, then south to Jackson, w’est to State, south to Van Buren, and west to Dearborn. Here he seemed to lose his bearings or realize that a mistake had been made. Thu drive up to this point had been attended with several difficulties and delays. The streets were filled with vehicles and a crowd of 500 curious people followed the carriage. At the corner of Adams and Dearborn streets the tongue of the carriage ran into the wheel of au express wagon and the Consequent stop and excitement probably assisted in diverting the mind of the driver. At the corner of Dearborn and Van Buren streets Johnstone alighted and led a member of the committee to the middle of the street. After standing a moment he appeared to recover his bearings, for he hurried back to the carriage and drove without further hesitation to Clark street, where he drew up in front of Gore’s Hotel, just one block south of the Grand Pacific, thus proving that the only error he had made was in

turning from Michigan avenue to Adams instead of Monroe. When Informed of his mistake he asked Mr. Dean to fix his mind on the proper direction to take. Mr. Dean apparently selected the right direction, for a moment later the venerable gentleman was being violently pulled along the pavement toward the Grand Pacific. A jostling crowd fell in behind. Turning into the entrance, the ' mind-reader hurried to the exact spot where Mr. Lederer had been left with i the register. Here his strength appeared .to desert him, and he would have fainti ed had'not a glass of liquor been put to his lips. He was allowed a few moments’ rest in a private room and then was led behind the desk in the rotunda, with the book before him and the members of the committee standing about. Taking Mr. Lederer by the hand, the blindfolded man began rapidly turning the leaves. When he reached the proper place he exclaimed: “That’s it, Aug. 25! Is that right? Tell me, quick, is that right?” “Yes, that is the right page,” said Dr. Butler. At this point the young man again came very near going into a nervous collapse, and several minutes before he could proceed. “Now, gentlemen,” said he, “think intently of the appearance of this signature. ” He leaned over the page, beat it with his hands, passed his palms nervously across the foreheads of those about him, and then asked that a coat be thrown over his head. This was done, and after further lightning maneuvers suddenly called out: “A paper and pencil, quick. ” They were handed him, and leaning on the book he wrote an almost correct facsimile of the signature before him, “J. G. Butler, Jr.” A 3 if doubtifig the correctness of this, he again called for. a

pencil and wrote the name a second time. “Am I right?” nervously shouted Johnstone. “You are,” shouted the committee, and the big cjjowd cheered the accomplishment of a wonderful effort. Johnstone burst into tears when he heard the shout, and he was carried away sobbing. His temperature and pulse were remarkably high, and his heart-beat was as rapid as the thumping of car-wheels on the joints of a shortrailed track. Nearly everybody else who saw the torture he endured while he was trying to find the name felt about as bad, and the committee looked like ghosts in plug hats. When Johnstone came down from his room he reeled between his attendants. He was driven home and there he had the attack which nearly ended him. He fell over onto a lounge, his face became purple, his jaw dropped, and his eyes lost all their natural light and seemed about to pop from his head. “This ends him,” said his manager, but there was life in the boy when Dr. J. H. Law came. The Doctor labored over him and brought him to consciousness. “I will never try it again,” he muttered, and then became delirious. In his ravings he went over the afternoon’s adventures and three men fought hard to keep him from jumping through a window. The Doctor said the strain had produced congestion of the brain. But he had successfully accomplished the marvelous feat, and not one of the committee was in any doubt as to the exhibition being a genuine case of mindreading, self-induced hypnotism, or something else just as wonderful.