Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1895 — AN EDGED PLAYTHING [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AN EDGED PLAYTHING

- HE Doctor paled; decidedly It was i\ something more fcs |T '|h than mere embar- - rassmeut that caused his unwilling-

ness. “I have given it jap, ladies,” said he; “I have nothing more to do with magnetism.” “But why, why, Doctor?” the pretty pleaders persisted. “Put us to sleepone of us—you must, or tell us the reason why.” ~ “Well, so be It,” sahl he, at lust, stttT visibly reluctant. “I will tell you why; It may teach you a lesson. “Eighteen months ago,” lie began,' “I went into the country to see a friend—we will call him Paul if you please. Though old comrades and devoted ‘chums,’ for a lopg time the chances of life had separated us, particularly his marriage, which, for certain reasons, had obliged him to locate for a while upon one of his properties, situated, as •I have said, in the depths of the country. Bat often and often my thoughts carried me—a trifle enviously, in the midst of my hard work—toward that forgotten corner, where his hours were passed in the quiet routine and bliss of a domestic lifd. “Nor was I mistaken in the picture my fancy had drawn; serenity, repose, breathed from the very trees, with their great moss-covered trunks, against which an old chateau leaned in the mingled shade and shine of the sunny Provence woods. “Paul met me at the station. His wife , J did not bafi?r® dinner, indeed—a beautiful woman, with dark, brilliant eyes, which flashed, when not shielded by the long, carting lashes, with the light of burnished steel. She had a superb figure and a complexion the tint and texture of old ivory, through which was flowing vigorously the rich red current of a healthy blood. Very, very beautiful she was, but, oddly enough, as I looked at hep I felt a sense of deception somewhere under that fair exterior.

“Was it fancy? Or was this full, robust beauty but similar to a too-fevvid summer that forces the sap to rise so fast that the fruit turns sour? I do not know, only that this woman entered with difficulty into the idyl I had evoked froiu the slmdowyalslciTdrihese oTcT woods, that seemed always whispering and murmuring to themselves. “Her intense vitality seemed to shatter this setting of peace and serenity. Moreover, we were not alone: another guest had arrived—a young man and a close neighbor. From the moment of his coming, too—or did' I -fancy that, also?—Paul, my friend, seemed less genial. The first joy in his eyes at my arrival had calmed; I saw him now in his habitual state, doubtless, a little aged, slightly constrained, with that vague, nervous reserve of the distrustful husband who in his inmost thougnts suspects treachery. “I had no time, however, to ponder long on these reflections; old memories, serious and gay, crowded thick and fast upon us in the ease and comfort of that well-ordered dining-room, looking out upon the lawn, the soft melancholy of the coming twilight slowly enwrapping ns and carrying hearts and minds both far back into the pa it. “Dinner was nearly over when a chance word or question turned the conversation upon a subject no less absorbing then than now, ladies”—and the doctor bowjed courteously to the circle of eager listeners closely clustered about him—“turned, I say, upon the subject of hypnotism and hypnotic suggestion. “My friend, from the first discoveries, had watched the advance of these studies with the liveliest interest, and many and frequent had been the discussions between himself and his wife concerning them, she denying the phenomena arising from these experiments and stubbornly denouncing them as humbug and charlatanism; and he affirming that strange things could aud did happen, as he knew from his own experience, a certain evening in Paris, when he had offered himself as a ‘subject’ as Incredulous as she, and had been put to sleep promptly and made to accomplish la his sleep things of which they told him afterwards. *“Bah! They duped you!’ Insisted bis wife. ‘Doctor,’ suddenly appealing to me, ‘help me to get> this rubblßb out of bis head, or Paul will certainly go ew-* :- r " \

“Forced to take sides, I was obliged to admit that I myself was deeply inter* ested in these matters, and had witnessed things that I did not dare to doubt She was still obstinate, still mocking; she would believe what she saw—no more, no less. “ ‘lf Paul is a subject, as he declares,’ said she, ‘the thing, too, Is easy enough; convince me—you have done such things, you say—by trying It here and now.’— - * —“Paul was W n Hng.‘ T locked intently at him; his eyes wavered curiously from my gaze; he wasa marvelouasub-' ject and fell Immediately under my will. “We passed into the drawing-room, placed him In a chair, and I had not made six passes over his brow when he was in a sound hypnotic sleep. “ ‘Well, he Is off,’ said I. “‘lmpossiblel No!’ -^sr~ “She bent over him, called him, pinched him—no movement; raised his arm—it fell inert like a log. “ ‘Quick, quick, suggest something!* said she, a strange eagerness showing suddenly in her face. ‘“■You would, perhaps, feel the proof stronger, madame, did you make the suggestion yourself.’ “She appeared to think, murmuring half aloud: ‘lt must be an unaccustomed act, something unusual, that he can not divine; that does not enter into his habit of life.’

“She looked about her. Near by on a table a magazine lay opened at a recent article on ‘Hypnotic Suggestion,’ a slenbetween the folds. She turned the leaves hurriedly. “ ‘Ah, we have it at last!’ said she, putting her finger upon a certain paragraph; ‘an experiment just made—successfully, they say—at the hospital of La Salpetriere. Repeat it with Paul, and I shall be convinced.’ “The experiment was to suggest to the patient at a fixed hour a predetermined act—the act In this case suicide with some harmless object that the ‘subject’ should be made io believe a poniard. “‘Willingly,’ I responded. - : “She handed me the paper-knife. ‘This is harmless enough, isn’t it?’ she said, yielding it to me with a charming smile; ‘it would not hurt a fly.’ “ ‘Perfectly harmless,’ and I held up the little pearl dagger before Paul’s eyes.

“ ‘Do you see it, Paul?’ said I, slowly and impressively, ‘this poniard here? Well, I am going to put it on that table yonder; to-morrow, whetrthedunebeon bell rings—the luncheon beli, remember—you will come here, take this poniard and—kill yourself!’ “Then I roused him. He remembered nothing and felt nothing, only a little comic uneasiness concerning the act that he was to accomplish and from which he was determined to defend himself. “The evening finished gayly with a rubber of whist, ending at 10 in order to give the handsome :«young neighbor a silent listener to what had been going on—time enough to reach home at a reasonable hour. “We were walking, Paul, his wife, and I on the terrace next morning when the luncheon-bell rang. Paul raised his head, listened a second, turned brusquely and re-entered the chateau. His wife had becqme very pale. “‘Come, quick,’ said I; ‘he has gone for that paper-knife!’ “She remained motionless. ‘“To what good?’ she said. *T see already that suggestion has reason in it, for Paul has gone. He Will come back madder than ever, I suppose.’ “I did not wait for her to finish; I hastened to the drawing-room, where my ‘subject’ had gone. “I ran; I threw open the door, and Paul was there—dead, face downward on the floor—a dagger in his heart!” “A real dagger, Doeter?” cried the mistress of the house, laying her hand softly upon the Doctor's arm. “A real dagger, madame. I turned to the table —the little mother-of-pearl pa-per-knife was gone. Who had taken it? Who had put the other—the real dagger —in its place? “God knows; but she, Paul’s wife, and he, the neighbor who dined with us that night, were married ten months ago.”—Translated for the San Francisco Argonaut from' the French of Relbrach.