A SAD DREAM REALISED.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 68, 4 September 1880, Page 2

A SAD DRE AM REALISED.

Those who have scoffed at the belief that events which take place at a distance, 'are made knowji by the agency of dreams— and we confess we ourselves have hitherto been among the number — will pnuse m their scepticism, after hearing the following facts for the truth of which we are prepared to vouch. -On Thursday morning, Mr. James Linton, the Mayor of this town, received a telegram for Mr, Robert Linton, of Karere, and upon opening it it contained the sad intelligence that Mr. Jame3 Armstrong, the owner of Akateio Station, and his nephew had been drowned m Akateio River. As Mr. Armstrong was Mm. Robert Linton's brother, Mr. James Linton, took a buggy and proceeded m company, with Captain John Mowlem, to. E^arere, to tell the sad news. On arriving at fiuriiside they saw Mr. Robert Linton m the grounds, and gave him the telegram. As might have, been expected he was terribly shocked, but after trying to calm himself the party proceeded toward the hou^e. No sooner did Mrs. Linton see them entering the. door, than she said, "Oh, you have bad news, I know ; two men have been drowned." This was before the telegram had been handed to her, but ifter reading it, she calmly exolnimed, *' Ah, it's poor James nnd Archie." She then related how the night before she had dreamt that she saw two men crossing a river m a boat when it upset. Her husband, whom she thought was standing by, was about to rush into the water* when she dragged him back, saying, "Don't go m; there are plenty of pole) about and we ran get them out that way." Just then she caught sight of one of the faces deep under the water, and it shot across her mind that it was one which she had seen before, but could not recollect where. When handed the! telegram, and having read its contents, she exclaimed, " Ah, the $»cc I saw was poor Archie's." The difficulty of recollection may be accounted foij. by the. change which years had made m him since she- saw him. A day before receiving the telegram shfttojd her husband about the dream, and stated that she felt quite- convinced there would be bad news ; indeed such a hold did the! conviction obtain upon her mind, that the\ bitterness of the oalamity had hee% forestalled before th c receipt of the news* The above is a plain relation, of what took- place, and we have purposely given the... qpspes of tliose having any connection with the sad affair, so that there could be uo |pjsible dq.ubt of their accuracy. Numberless stories have been told of peraons appearing to $heyv friends, and it was. afterwards J found that ; the time of the visit tallied to a minute with death of the yisitantT "ft it rektfcd qf

the wife of Elder Mathews, that when on her death-bed she joined her husband's hand m that of a young ward of his, and made them solemnly "promise that at the' end of one year from that night they would get married. They gave the required pledge, thinking it was merely a whim of the dying woman; and after the funeral obsequies, thought no more about: the matter. Qn the anniversary night of her death, Mathews was m London, pursuing his profession, and the young lady m Leeds, with some friends. During the night his dead wife appeared, and holding up her finger m an. admonitory manner, said, ;• ."_ Charlfs, Charles, remember your promise," and disappeared. The very . same happened to the young lady, and their, letters crossed on the way retailing the occurrence. _ The circumstance had suoli a 'weight with thetiV that th«y determined to carry out their promise, and the late Charles Mathews was the issue of that marriage.. Dre.imsv hayis. m all ages and countries been .believed. .in' at", incications of the future, and although, of course, as a rule the phantasies of s "slumbering brain fully bear out the proverb " idle as a dream," yet unfortunately there are occasions when by some jMjrbJplpgical agency supernatural communications take place, fair beyond the power of mortal ken. It is somewhat singular, however, that whenever the:laws r of nature are, as it were, s*t aside, and spiritual interchanges tnkes place, the messages are always the harbingers of death or! woe.T Wallenstein, in.hit, ljfty and poetic : view ;of the subject, says,/; ..-■■.-'■■; . As the sun, Ere it is; risen, sometimes paints its image In the atmostphere, so, often do the spirits Of great events stride on before the events,. And m to«day already walks to-morrow.' -'