Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1880 — A Mesmerist’s Joke. [ARTICLE]

A Mesmerist’s Joke.

Several well-known citizens were talking together yesterday in the billiard room of the United States hotel, when Carpenter, the mesmerist, came in to see if the bill poster had left any of his programmes. Two or three gentlemen began to poke fan at the professor, and intimated that there wax some trickery in his performance. Finally the mesmeric operator got upon his dignity, and offered to give a free exhibition, then and there, of his skill. He said he wonld so place one of the party when under his influence, that when he (Carpenter) had caused the subject to grasp his own nose, he could not leave the room ■without taking his fingers from his nose. The wager was accepted, and one of the party, a gentleman from Windsor, gave himself np to the influence of the mesmerist, who placed him by the side of an iron post or pillar, told him to close his eyes, and made a few passes over his face. He then took the gentleman’s arm, brought it around the post, and put his nose between his fingers. A few more passes, and Carpenter said, “Now, sir, yon cannot leavethe room without taking your fingers off yonr uoee. ’ The victim opened his eyes at once and saw tbe point, not of his nose but cf the joke—for he was obliged to let go the hold of his nasal appendage in order to let pos L—Hartford

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He asked a Cincinnati belle if there was much culture in that city, and she replied. J£oJu* bet your boot. w*ra. coltc.ed Georas Washington never told a lie, bnt then Martha never skirmished in his pockets and insisted on knowing all about letters written in a femininenaod. _ A **■> •*** how old she was rjpHed: I was married at ifl,my bushand was then 30 Now he is frwice r-Vfe “that makes me twice 18. Pm 36."

Cheyenne men bet on anything. Two of them pat np five dollars apiece on a waiter that one could bold a wasp longer than the other could, and the fellow who robbed the i,nt° r t < h or^K 00 b ‘* I h * od expected to win; thLt °T to know *■? th. fe U « wh. IM • ndi «weStoU»e £ errt of how to swear the shingles all off the