Just to pass the time away in the afternoon I believe that I will place some of the good townspeople in a sleep. We are sitting in the lobby after dinner, smoking and talking over various things that have come to our notice in this and foreign countries. Mr. Smith, who sits across the way and who has developed a good deal of curiosity in his life and who, when a boy, used to ask more questions than all the rest of the children, asks me if I really am an Egyptian.

"Oh no," I return, "but I have studied in Egypt and it is for that reason that I advertise under the name of an Egyptian hypnotist." After which I proceed to tell the company many things that befell me in Egypt. As a traveler I am backed up in my assertions and reminiscences by Mr. Peters, who has always told his fellows that he sojourned in Egypt. Well, there is a fighting chance that he has. At any rate, he knows enough to coincide with me, for if he did not, the rest of the company would disbelieve him and he would never hear the end of it. It tickles him, as the phrase goes, for now he will never again be assailed with the remarks that have hitherto been hurled at him. He is immensely pleased and he is good for ten tickets himself.

So we pass away the day. I place two or three in the somnambulistic state and give a little demonstration for the doctors. They are pleased and decide to look into the science and see if there is anything in it for them.

In the evening I shall put my subject to sleep in the window in which the casket is displayed. There has been much talk about that feature of the show and many are excited over it, some thinking that it is radically wrong and others thinking that it is not wrong. So, with the variations of opinions, there will be a large enough crowd present at the appointed hour to look into the process carefully. This is a great advertising scheme and is well worth the trouble that may be put upon it.

For two hours before it is time to place the subject in the coffin for his twenty-five hour sleep, crowds of several hundred people have been gathering, until there are about a thousand on the street and in front of the drug store. Truly, an air of mystery surrounds everything and the village seems to be different - that is, to the denizens. Rut even we, seeing this sort of thing all the time, feel the tingle to it. There is something about the profession that makes it attractive to all who follow it. Day after day we follow the same sort of thing, we sec the crowds gather, sometimes very large and at other times small. We get the same thing all the time. Yet, for the man without a family, or for the practical woman who is beyond youth's follies, there is nothing like the hypnotic exhibition. I view my audience; my open-air audience as I muse thus, for I feel that there is something in this profession quite above the ordinary.

As psychology deals with the minds of beings, so it is that the Professor sees the mental side. He lives in that atmosphere all the time. If he is adapted to read the character of those with whom he comes in contact, he learns much of great value; if he is not, he finds something else just as interesting.

But the hypnotist does grow to be a character reader. This is not the youth who has just learned and feels that he knows it all. But I mean the good, entertaining, successful operator. There may always be poor operators on the road; some there are who should never approach an audience. But there are others who are fitted to that kind of work and they arc successful.

I look out from the front of the store. I have these people here for a purpose. I want them to see the work, of course, but the advertising that it will give me is what I want out of it. If that is the case, I am not unwise in the least to make an opening speech before the crowd gathered to witness this feat. I may get a great many patrons right there. The inexperienced in any line think that a certain amount of effort will bring success; that anything beyond that certain amount is superfluous. But the man of experience will tell you, reader and student, that it is not a matter of doing a certain amount of work and then stopping, but it is a matter of doing work all the time. There is that great system of waste and repair in all branches of nature and it is just as true in business. Here, I will admit, there is every reason to believe that I will have a great audience for a town of this size. My manager and myself will make much money. We will likely have the S. R. O. sign out as it stands. But our name and fame will ever go on and on. Someone will hear of us in another town. We are ever looking out for the present and building for the future. So if I put this subject in the casket and have him do the long sleep I will get a greater crowd. We will find room for them all if we have to place chairs in the aisles. Somehow or other, there is just enough human weakness in theatre and business managers to crowd the houses to their utmost capacity when the opportunity presents itself! And why not? Here is where I figure the business of it all: In most cases I am paying a stipulated amount for the hall. This ranges from three to fifty dollars. My hotel and traveling expenses are so much no matter what audience I have. In Belleville I will clear myself when I get between thirty-five and forty dollars. All I get over that will mean a greater profit for the company. If I get ten more dollars through an additional effort, that will be ten more profit. There is a little philosophy and more common sense to the scheme. Follow it up and you will find that your efforts are rewarded.

It is seven o'clock. The evening is not cold and the crowd is as large as I could ever hope to have it in Belleville. There are many of those who will see the show tomorrow night and there are many of them drawn through idle curiosity.

I have a box out in front, upon which I will presently climb and address the audience, who are very attentive whenever I make a move in that direction.