AN AWFUL DREAM. GROUNDWORK UPON WHICH MIGHT BE BUILT A HARROWING TALE. A Horrible Nightmare Which the victim Could Not Shake Off Even When Awake—The Illusion Aided by a Mirror.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 165, 14 August 1886, Page 5

AN AWFUL DREAM. GROUNDWORK UPON WHICH MIGHT BE BUILT A HARROWING TALE. A Horrible Ni g htma r e Which the victim Could Not Shake Off Even When Awake— The Illusion Aided by a Mirror.

An old mend of mine, in whose word I have every confidence, met me on Chestnutstreet yeateVday afternoon: • He had in his hand a copy of the " Daily News," with jthafc particular dream of which . I had i spoken marked < in., blue pencil. •« There," said he, < V you are just the very man I want to see. I've gofc a dream' for you, if you care to hear it, that would be a bang-up foundation-stone for Edgar Allen Poe to build up a structure of 1 ' Horrors', besides which< the * Black Cat// and? facts in the caee of Mr, Valdemar would be, tame. lam not an immoderate eater or drinker, and usually Bleep soundly every night. It had been my custom, , for years to goto bed between 10 and 11 o'clock. I ■ always' breakfast at 7, lunch, at 2 and dine at 6. When I add to this that I have not changed my diet for twenty years* and that I am? not imaginative man. you will wonder how -my mind should be filled with such strange thoughts as those lam about to relate. , , .. " I went to bed as usual on Sunday night and slept,' I should judge, until about midnight. Something then awakened met, and I got up' and lighted the gae. 1 did not know what caused me to get out of bed and go back again. No sooner had my head touched the pillow than I felt myself transported to a neighbourhood which seemed like Fourth ' and , Bainbridge streets. I walked 'along Fourth, and .as I reached Bainbridge a small dog ran out of a market:house and caught me by the leg, I drew a revolver which I had in my hippocket ' and shot the animal through his head,, . The noise eeemed to attract the attention of dozens of other dogs that rushed on me from all aides. All tbia time I was. conscious that 1 was in my own bed. at home, but felt that my soul, or my reason— if the term suits you better— was ejoing through this strange experience. Gradually the consciousness of being in bed faded out and I Eeemed to be in the road fighting: off these curs. I had just succeeded in putting a bullet through the body of an enormous hound when a little misshapen negro ranout of ahouseon Fourth street. He seemed tobe frantic with rape, anddemanded why I had killed hie dog. I made no answer but .retreated, feeling a sudden and unaccountable 'Bpasm of fear. I ran into a house on the west side of Fourth street with* the little dwarf close at my heele. I managed to shut the vestibule door and lock it before he .had fairly reached the top steps. I walked through a long hallway to what seemed like a circular platform, In the middle of this there was a sort of well guarded by atf iron railing, and outeide of this railing I could seethe opening of a spiral btairway leading down to I knew not where. As I reached this platform, a door leading from the room, on my right was suddenly opened, and a dog, precisely similar to the dog 1 had first seen in the markethouse, darted out and flew at my face. I seized the brute by the throat and choked him until life was seemingly extinct. Then I walked over to the well-like place and threw the body of the dog over the railing. I heard it go bounding down until it reached -the 1 bottom, which seemed to be a great depth, "All this had taken but a moment, and the hump-backed negro was still struggling at the door to yam an entrance. It instantly flashed across my mind that his anger, which even then seemed to be frenzy, would be intensified should he discover that I had killed another dog, and I started to run down the spiral stairway with a halfformed intention ot concealing the body of the ot&et dog. I went down and down," and the constant turning made my brain whirl. "I reached the bottom at last and found myself in a vaulted chamber. The spiral etairway ended at the mouth of a bricked wall. I looked about to find the dog, but could not see him ; and while I was speculating as to whether I had tossed him into the well or not, my eyes became more accustomed to the gloom, and I saw ranged about the edge of the well twelve skulls, which, from their size and conformation, I took' to be skulls of infants. I was just about to retrace ray pteps and ascend the Stairway when again I eeemed to become a dual entity. I knew that I was in my own home and in' my own bed. but I could see myself standing in front of the twelve skulls, and I actually wondered how my second self would escipe. Then happened' a most remarkable thing. I became fully awake, although I still saw myself at the bottom of the stairway, Burrounded by the skulls. I lifted myself on my elbow and made sure thatl'was not dreaming. I leaped cut of bed on to the floor and walked over to the bureau. To my intense amazement I caw that the mirror was lighted up with a strange glow, and in a dim vista I could see myself groping about in the vaulted chamber. I must explain to you that the first sensation on awakening was what I saw in my mind's eye, »nd the second sensation after getting out of bed was an ' -actual seeing with the natural eye. I even went so far as to wipe off the surface of the looking glass with my handkerchief, but the illusion was not dispelled. I perceived the misshapen dwarf force his way into the entry and creep stealthily along until he reached the spiral stairway. His eyes were blazing, and his every movement seemed to remind me of what I had read of the evil one. You cannot imaginethe strange feeling of horror and apprehension that took possession of me as I watched this black fiend peer over the railing as he drew from his breast-pocket along, keen knife. " This knife he whetted on the sole of his boot and then, with a diabolical grin, he began to noislcsply descend the stairway. Ko words in the English language could describe my agony at that moment. I saw my otherself, all unconscious of danger walking about the dismal place, and I saw, the murderer getting nearer and nearer, his face growing more devilish at every step he took. My heartseemed to stand still and I became, as it , were, a helpless spectator of what promised to be my own execution. The negro had then reached the foot of the stairs, and crouching low he waited until the victim was within, a foot of him and sprang forward. The knife was aimed at the throat, but it missed and struck the side of the head. This I caw plainly in the mirror. At the same moment I felt a sharp pain under the ear. As soon as the blow was struck I saw my other self turn and grapple with the dwarf, who dropped his knife. , The two figures swayed backward and forward, sometimes right at the very edge of the well, sometimes scifa'ping the walls of thej| apartment, and again rolling over and 'over on the floor. I felt every throe that was made, and as the struggle went on I jEound myself panting I for breath, .while I leaned -with my elbows on my bandar and' gazed with startling , eyeballs n< t°7 tae glass before v me. ' h will •' riot { weary kk ~ you with a detailed- de-. scriptibn of- what* must soem to you the' veri.eßt nonsense. Suffice" it- to cay that a^the end of whatjse'ein'ed'to.'Be'ah hour'of/timej I "saw the nggrlolefc go' 1 his' hold and' fall back with hw head hanging 1 over the edge' of the

wdl.^.imi|LXTei|o(ltJ^^ti>^bat a senaa of fiendish joy I experienced when I Baw the successful wrestler^Thyßelf, pick up one skull: after^^hei other and hurl them at the proatratesiorm, jandthowjj recovered f my breath when I saw the figure go up the stairway, through the hallway, thencVto'the street,' and ih'ffoe direction iof home. That was the most curious -'eensation- of all. knew T "was home looking into rintoT the mirrbrl* ' There J could' 'be no- mistake about it. I was fully conscious* of Imy surroundings^ -There was the bed," the waeh'stand, arid the, pitctier., -Thereiwero my coat and vest on the back of a chair. 'I looked behind the bureau 'to satisfy myself thati'-'no one was playing a trick on me.^l satisfied l myei 1 ' that I waB alone n the room and that no one was near me,- Then I returned to the mirrot and saw, as plainly as I see you now, my other self walking up Fifth street to Race, dutßace to Thirteenth, and down Thirteenth to where, if I told you, you would say a fool lived. Then the vision faded elowly out. ; , 1 put jDn,my clothes and' went out into the street.