Washington city is agitated over the antics of a hypnotic tramp, who has scared the nervous suburbanites almost into hysterics. According to several excited parents, he is in the habit of hypnotizing their little boys and girls and making them steal to provide for his wants. The man is described as a well-dressed and polished man, 25 years old, rather tall, with dark mustache and deep-set eyes. Mrs. Martha Hays, one of the complainants, declares that the tramp took her son, Willie, into the railroad yards and hypnotized him by making him gaze at a bright metal disk. After he had got him under the influence, the mother says, the tramp made the boy go to her house and steal a quantity of clothes and provisions. Another case is reported where the man is said to have used his influence on a little girl and caused her to go to the grocery store where her family dealt, and get him a dozen cigars and a pint of whisky. She deceived the grocer by stating that the articles were for her father. Several other cases of the kind have been reported, and the police, who at first were inclined to regard the thing as a joke, are now seriously looking for the man with the deep-set blue eyes.
[tags]Ann Arbor Register, September, 1895[/tags]