"All close your eyes, tightly, keep them closed. That's right. They are fast now, very fast; you cannot open them. Try!"

They struggle in vain and I am now at liberty to tell them that they are at a banquet. In the meantime, I will let them sleep, so I repeat to them a few suggestions along that line, and with their heads drooping and their minds at case, I proceed, with the aid of my two subjects -Harry and Albert - to bring the things they are to eat. First, I bring in a large pasteboard ham. I manage to get hold of these things in grocery stores. Or the boys or Harris see to that. The next thing that is brought out is a large cloth link of sausage. It is nearly three feet long and part of the property of the company. Then we have a cloth pie that is twenty-four inches in diamater. These are laid beside the sleepers in turn, just as they are brought out. I fancy that the audience has already forgotten its interest in the deeper thought and the laughter that greets each newcomer in the field of victuals will warrant my statement.

THE BATTLE.

It is a good idea to have a few little things like this. It serves to break the monotony of the show. You are mixing real comedy with the hypnotic act and all tends to lend more color to the performance.

The next article of food that is ushered in is a doughnut but little smaller than the pie. This also is of cloth. Then comes a wooden sandsandwich, about a foot square. This is painted to represent rye bread and ham and the whole is tacked together. Then we bring on our chicken, likewise made of cloth, and which excites quite as much merriment as any of the others. These are brought on one at a time to give the audience the full benefit of the farce. After the chicken a wooden "bone" three feet in length is placed beside one of the sleepers. These articles of food must be of about the same size; else they will contrast too strongly. Next we bring in our papier mache edibles. There are two loaves of bread, a large green bullfrog, a couple of quarters of beef, a young pig, several apples of impossible size and other fruit in proportion, and other articles which add to the grotesque clothing of the scene.

Beside each of the sleepers is placed an article of food and in front, piled on the floor, are several others. I now pace before the sleepers, telling them that when they awake they will find some very fine food before them; they must eat heartily and they will find plenty. When I count to the given number they slowly open their eyes and begin to view the "spread" with great satisfaction. The girl over toward the right has taken up the large bone and is soon engaged in eating the meat she supposes clings to it. The audience are convulsed, laughter runs riot. The other subjects fall in line and are soon engaged with their respective "contracts," as the funny man in the audience will call them.

The man with the paper ham is having a terrible time and he is sinking his teeth into the pasteboard and imagines that each time he is rewarded with a mouthful of delicious ham! The boy who has captured the cloth pie is slamming it everlastingly against his face trying to bite off large pieces, and his neighbor, Mr. Williams, is just as ardent over his doughnut Together they present a funny scene. Amid the laughter in the audience, I can hear some one call out and ask if it is as good as mother used to make." Those who hear it cheer the caters on and all are soon engaged in such a banquet as was never seen before in Belleville and which will likely never be seen there again.

The "rubber hen" has fallen to one of the young ladies and she is certainly making merry in her efforts to get that bird dissected. She is a somnambulist who has to sec things actually happen to believe them. She never doubts that she has a real chicken, but she does doubt that she is eating it. This could not have happened better. Here is a young woman who is doing everything in her power to eat that cloth chicken. She cannot make an indenture with her teeth and she is wildly determined to accomplish her feat. In her efforts she forgets her dignified bearing and has the chicken in both hands forcing her face down into the cloth, but to no avail. Somewhere in that audience she has a particular friend ; that particular friend will ever recall the banquet, and it is quite certain that this girl will never really be through with that chicken!

Those who have the papier mache bread and fruit are intensely in earnest over their efforts and are actually enjoying the feast. One of the boys has sprawled himself out on the floor and is dividing his time between a loaf of bread and an apple, which, were they actually that size and "real," would last him a week. Another one has the apple between his knees and has bent over it in his desires to satisfy his appetite.

"That apple is sour, very sour," I say, pointing toward the boy on the floor. He sits up and commences to spit with all his might. What a face he is making over it!

I turn to the girl with the hen: "Your face is stuck to that hen and will be until I snap my fingers." She has the chicken jammed up to her mouth and there it stays.

"And you, Mr. Williams, will find that doughnut very cold, but you cannot let go of it; you will have to hold on to it until you hear me snap my fingers".

Mr. Williams, already much abused, tries with all his might to drop the doughnut, but it is useless trying.

"There, that pie is stuck all over your face and your hands are dirty! What a job you have made of eating that pie. Now put it in your lap. That's right. It is stuck there and your hands are stuck to the pie. Keep them there until I snap my fingers".

So I go from one to another until all of them are in some grotesque position, their troubles being aroused by the edibles and not by the shouts of their friends in the auditorium.