High School of Commerce - Caravel Yearbook (New York, NY)

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. Q :ww-'ire .. F Q i thi lilm .l li I if jluii fi mmllw, MPH If V 0,1 ' lllllluulullllll ' lim, I TIME In ,it ll R ' f ly!! Nl Q 'I 'il l ,N V t it I b W so I I l l I N 4 j ' X nzyhllffi. fl H . I I ' Mbtimi ' 1 ' I JIIWS CCDNVERSION WILLIAM MEYER, IQI3 I I HERE was one subject upon which Jim and I could never agree. That was hypnotism. Jim simply wouldn't admit that there was any such thing or science or whatever it is. With all the enthusiasm of a stock broker trying to sell a gold brick, I argued with him and endeavored to show him the error of his ways. But he wouldn't take any stock in it. After the smoke and the heat of the argument had Cleared away, I still saw the sameunconvinced expression on his face, and the only thing that pre- vented me from pounding him was the fact that he is at least thirty pounds heavier than I am. I But that is all changed now. Jim believes in hypnotism as much as I do. His conversion came about in an odd way. One afternoon we wereoff duty-if being in the army may be called on duty. Not having anything else to do, we went around to see a friend of mine who had left the army on becoming the heir to some fool uncle or other. When we arrived there, my friend was just leaving to take in a private exhibition of hypnotism. iThis was just what I was waiting for. Jim and I were invited to come along, and the three of us walked off- to the tune of Jim's grumbling. . YVe soon reached the place-a fairly large reception room into which we were conducted amid a silence so profound that we could almost see it. There were several ladies and gentlemen in the room, and after the arrival of a few more spectators the exhibition began. First, the Professor, who was an intelligent looking man of about fifty years, introduced himself and told us what he meant to do. Then he turned to one of the ladies present who had a husky young baby with her, and asked her to lend the child to him. She wasn't very enthusiastic over this sug- gestion. Some of her relatives, however, persuaded her to let her child be a pioneer of science, or something like that. 83

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1 X! RICHARD H. WEST JAM ES R. WILKINSON ALFRED WIENERS EDGAR R. WDRTHINGTDR N44 U74 -c: vn,'g A E: . , -4, F---s-' ' f-1-'mea-as tx- ff, , 'QQ' , -1- ,Hu..HllHf- R 113121-fl: 'Ul'llIllIll L ? 82

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COMMERCE YEAR BooK,'191Q The Professor said that he would .hypnotize the baby-which had never been done before. Then he would hypnotize himself, and after a few minutes some one should shake them gently and they would both wake up. He said that this would be the best exhibition of hypnotism ever given, either publicly or privately, and so forth. I After this peroration, the hypnotist waved his hands around and started to do some funny tricks. We all became very quiet and rather nervous. I had never seen a hypnotist act like that before, and have never since. He was all right, however. For the baby soon closed his eyes and fell into a regulation hypnotic trance. The Professor then started on himself, and if a man, sitting nearby hadn't caught him, he would have fallen to the floor-he put himself to sleep so hard. . There we were, then-with two hypnotized persons in our midst. The silence itself was weird. lldy, but it was creepy! For a while we all sat staring at the two main figures. Then we looked at one another in a timidsort of way. Finally somebody ventured to remark that it was time we shook them, as per orders. , Whereupon two men arose and shook the Professor and the baby as though they were handling dynamite. The Professor opened his eyes first. He looked around sort of sheepishly, and when he saw the baby's mother, he jiggled around and cried: Da-dal We all thought this was great, so we clapped our hands in' applause, and I ungently prodded Jim in the ribs with my elbow. The applause awoke the baby. He looked around very intelligently, stroked his chin as though he thought he were a bearded scientist, and said: Ladies and gentlemen, this is a most prodigious and precarious predica- ment for any man to be in! , ' That made us all go nearly crazy. We jumped up and began to crowd around the infant phenomenon. Jim turned -fiercely to me and said it was all my fault, he was so excited. The mother let out a yell and would have run out of the room with the child, but some one stopped her. In the meantime the hypnotist was standing around with a dazed ex- pression on his face, making funny sounds. Somebody made him sit down in a chair, and then poured water over him. That only made it worse, for he began to cry. It was all very queer. Suddenly the baby said: Don't you people know what has happened? Why, it's simply this: The babyls spirit and my spirit have become twisted, and are now in the wrong places. I really don't know what to do- about it. I have the mind, but the baby's physical strength is not enough for a hypnotistf' The baby's mother began to cry, and the Professor began also, in sympa- thy. Une of the men told her to take her baby home, and maybe the thing 84 '