As I pass down the aisle after my venders, I notice a boy of about nineteen who looks very self-conscious. As I glance at him going down, I notice that he has given up to severe concentration. I know that he feels that all the audience were lower than he and looking directly at him. He is the subject who can be "fetched" with little effort, and, although I have enough subjects, it is to the end of entertaining the audience that I decide to get this one also. The matter has come before my notice within the fraction of a second, it might be said, and I have made up my mind while I am taking but one step. I pause directly opposite this boy, look at him sharply, make a rapid pass with my right hand before his face and say, "Hurry up, get up, come!" He is looking wildly at me, he arises and the applause that greets this new feature is immense. "Hurry and tell those boys that they have sold out and bring them back onto the stage." I go with him and remind the four salesmen that he is authorized to bring them back. They look at him blankly and follow. I allow the five to go before me and they are seated - with the exception of the new boy - by the time I am with them.

It will be quite in keeping with general events to make this new subject do something real funny before I go on with my performance with some of the others. So I take him before the audience and tell him that he is a cow. He gets down on his hands and knees and is soon eating grass; at least, he thinks that he is, which is far better. The three boys who were with him in the audience are laughing themselves hoarse, not alone at his present antics, but at the thought of the future fun they will have with him!

While he is thus busily engaged, I tell him that he will awaken when I snap my fingers and that he will then get up and take a seat with the rest of the subjects. I snap my finger and he blinks his eyes and then looks sheepishly at the audience. The last he remembers was looking at me as I paused before him; the rest has been a blank and he racks his brain trying to ascertain what he was doing on the stage when he was awakened.

I will now take about eight of my subjects and have them pick strawberries. The strawberry act is as essential to the hypnotic show as the climax could be in the melodrama. It is a time-honored act that is looked forward to with interest. I might add that it is not alone the grotesque part that appeals to the audience, but it is the accuracy that is shown by the subjects in going through these various performances. They - the audience - seem to be unconscious that they enjoy this part, but it is the strict adherence to natural effects that really entertains them. Student, bear this point in mind, for it will serve you well in dealing with an audience: You will notice in writings, in speeches or in acting, those who succeed are they who come the closest to nature and natural effects. When we read something that appeals to us as particularly true of ourselves, we like that writing. Thus it is that the audience, seemingly thoughtless, admire anything that is true to nature and nature's effects.

As there is nothing in this next act that would reflect in any way upon a young lady, I will have three in this scene - the strawberry-picking party. When I have selected my eight, I ask them to draw their seats up in front, so that I can work upon them as a class. It is best to take a number like this and put them all "under" at once, as those who remained awake would be apt to refrain from their task were they to be put to sleep one at a time.

"I want you to watch my finger as I move it backward and forward. When I have moved it to the right the seventh time, you will all have to close your eyes and go right to sleep. Now, watch my finger".

I move it slowly from right to left and back again, standing so that the audience can see the movements. Everything is very quiet in the hall. It always is if the operator explains to the audience that it is necessary to have it quiet. Audiences are always polite if they are treated in the same manner. When I move my finger back to the right the seventh time, all their eyes have closed. Some of them have been closed since my finger returned to the right the third time and only two out of the eight have remained awake until the seventh time my finger returned.

"When I clap my hands twice, you will all awake and be in a field where there are lots of nice wild strawberries. You will immediately get down in the grass and commence to eat them. They will be there and the grass will be there; there will be a few stumps in the field, but you will look out for them. When I clap my hands twice you will awaken.

I pace backward and forward a couple of times to give them a good sleep and also to make the act a little more impressive than it otherwise would be. Then I clap my hands loudly - but only once! The audience look, expecting to see them awaken, but when they realize that they still sleep a little laugh goes through the house. They, in their waking states and in full possession of their conscious senses have forgotten that there were to be two claps, but the hypnotized subjects have not forgotten it and there is not a move on their parts. I now clap my hands loudly twice and they all start. Some - the more active somnambulists - are on the floor in" an instant, pushing aside the imaginary grass and eating the berries. Others take longer, while one girl shows a disposition to sleep. I repeat the suggestions to her loudly, but she has sunk into a lethargy. Here is a case in which the inexperienced operator will find his heart growing weak. These cases are rather frequent and must be treated "heroically." That is, the subject must be brought to the waking state without delay or - well, there might be a bit of a sensation. These subjects, although coming into prominence every now and then, are not met in every town. They would, likely, make long sleepers. If left alone they might come out of the sleep in half an hour or they might sleep a week. I believe that it is a constitutional weakness and I have noticed that those who act in this manner are usually pale, they wabble perceptibly when they are going into a sleep and they want to drop down limp and lifeless and seem to take on a condition of anaesthesia, which makes it very uncomfortable for the operator. But this is a phase of stage work that will come before every operator and I must deal with it as a part of the instruction to the aspirant to stage honors.

EVERYTHING IS FUNNY.