A Brakesman's Dream.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 179, 15 April 1873, Page 7

A Brakesman's Dream.

Recently, in Alton, 111., a man while I under the influence of a dream nearly killed j his wife. Edward Kalkins, a brakesman J on the Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Railj road, who was newly married, had been 'doing extra work, taking a sick friend's i train in addition to his own, and so had no sleep for forty-eight hours. Naturally he was very tired when he went home, and after going to bed soon fell asleep. The dreams he had, and their almost tragic termination, are graphically described by a local newspaper : " Again his foot was on his native platform, and he heard the warning toot of J the whistle for brokers. The shadowy train bore him swiftly on ; the telegraph poles fleeted past quicker and quicker; the whole country fled by like a panorama mom ted on sheet-lightning rollers. In his dieam he heard far-off another roar, and, svinging out by the railings, he saw another train coming at lightning speed around the curve. Both trains were crowded with passengers; in another moment they would rush together, and from the piles of ruin a cry of agony would shiver to the tingling stars from the lips of the maimed and dying. The engineers had seen their danger, for at that moment, in his drean, he heard the whistle calling for brokers Round loud and unearthly. With the strength of desperation he gripped the brake and turned it down. There was a yell of piin, and ' Ed.' woke to find himself sitting up in bed and holding his wife by the airs, having almost twisted oft* her head. Tint's how 'Ed.'s' wife came to wear a piect of red flannel round her throat, and coaiphin of a wry neck."