First, I must draw the attention of the audience to the berrypickers. I will give them suggestions so that their acts are sufficiently funny to keep the audience in good humor; then I will work upon my sleep-laden subject and bring her out before any one really knows that anything has transpired.

"See," I call to my subjects; "there are some monkeys picking strawberries with you. They are very funny and you will have to stop and laugh every few moments. Now, pick the berries with them!"

And the audience are taken, completely captured by the funny antics of the pickers.

I now step to the sleeper and say to her sharply, "This chair is getting very warm, you will have to move; it will be impossible for you to stand it much longer; it is getting hot, very, very hot; this chair is getting hot and when I snap my fingers it will be so warm that you will wake right up, wide awake".

I repeat these suggestions, giving them tone and intensity. It is not the best thing to do, I will admit, this working so directly upon the nervous system of my subject, but I must do something to awaken her, and these forcible suggestions will do it. She squirms from time to time and is getting uneasy. She tries to shift her position, but I give her no opportunity whatever. I keep up my suggestions until I see that the time is ripe for the snapping of the fingers, so I snap them loudly in front of her eyes, one, two, three times! She blinks and opens her eyes and looks wildly round.

"You are all right," I assure her; "now keep wide awake: take a few good breaths and you will feel all right." And I snap my fingers again and she wakens with a start. These subjects will often pass from the deep sleep into a state of active somnambulism. Their condition will so closely resemble the waking state that the operator will believe that they are all right unless he is accustomed to dealing with this class of people. Should he leave them alone, they will almost immediately pass into a state of sleep and he will have it all to go through with again, which is not pleasant, especially before an audience. Violent suggestions, therefore, are the best. That is, suggestions that act with force directly upon the nerves.

I have my subject awake and make her change seats, going to the opposite side of the stage. She is soon all right and is talking with one of the others and watching the antics of the subjects on the floor. When she starts in to laugh heartily I know that she has passed from under the cloud completely and that there is no danger of further trouble, so long as I do not try anything else along the lines of hypnotism with her, and I am quite positive that I will not!

The audience have paid but little attention to this subject. They have been busy watching the boys and girls - yes, and men - who are picking the delusive strawberry and having a good time with the monkeys.

"Now, I want you all to get good handsful of strawberries and then turn around this way and eat them".

They obey and are soon heaping their hands full of the fruit which cannot be seen by others, but which is so real to themselves. When they have gotten their hands full, they turn and are facing the audience, some of them seated and others stooping. They present a grotesque sight as they hold their hands before them, waiting for the permission to eat the fruit.

"Now, you can all eat your berries just as fast as possible and try to see who can eat his the fastest".

When they believe their mouths are full, I say, "My, but those berries are sour; I don't see how you can eat them. But you are going to eat them even if you do have to make faces over them".

Then their faces are puckered; some seem to enjoy the sour taste, while others squint and make terrible faces over the job. Truly, one cannot blame the audience for laughing, and even though I see this class of procedure right along, night after night, day after day, I can see the funny side of it. Again, it is so "true to nature," as the average man would express it, that the audience are mightily pleased over the sight. I can see many in the audience with wrinkled faces, unconscious of their imitation; doing the same thing that the subjects are - obeying the laws of suggestion!

While they are in these very funny attitudes, I advance and snap my fingers before them several times and they awaken, most of them still wearing the grimaces that were caused by the extremely sour fruit. And they look about them, first at the audience, then into their empty hands, then upon the stage and then at each other, dimly realizing that something has transpired, but not knowing exactly what it is.

How many times have you, students, when children, awakened in the night-time or in the morning, wondering where some toy or some candy has gone to; something, in fact, which you possessed in dreamland only and which has gone from your grasp - how many have done this very thing? Slowly the picture fades, the mind works in vain to hold the fleeting memory and it vanishes! There is a blank, a wondering what it is all about and finally the active conscious mind introduces something new and the phantom has faded! I have known children to be cross all day because they have had a shadow of this memory and wanted to know what it was they wanted! A strange complication, to be sure, but it is common among children and sometimes happens among grown people. So it is with these subjects. At first they missed something; their environments were gone, their strawberries had gone and a sour taste in their mouths was leaving. They tried to retain a knowledge of something, but it slipped away from them, and the laughter of the crowd was of little consequence to them. Then it grated on their cars; their attention was drawn to the auditorium and then they realized that they were - well, dupes! And all this took but the interval of ten seconds!