A BRAKESMAN'S DREAM.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1076, 30 May 1873, Page 3

A BRAKESMAN'S DREAM.

Eecently,in Alton> 111., a man, while under the influence of a dream, nearly killed his wife. Edward Halkins, a brakesman on the Chicago, Alton, and St. Louis Eailroad, who was newly Carried, had been doing extra work, taking a sick friend's 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 he 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 tho warning toot of the 'whistle for brakers. The shadowy train bore him swiftly en; the telegraph poles fleeted past quicker and quicker; the whole country fled by like a panorama mounted on sheetlightning rollers. In his dream he hears far off another roar, and swinging 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 engineer had seen their danger, for at ■ that moment, in his dream, he heard the whistle 1 calling for brakers sound loud and unearthly. "With the strength of desperation he gripped the brake and turned it down. There was a yell of pain, and 'Ed' woke to find himself sitting up'in bed and holding bis wife by the ears, having almost twisted off her head. That's how' Ed's' wife came to wear-a piece of red flannel round her throat, and'complain of a wry neck." As mental, Jiko physical, diseases aro infectious, wo may confidently expect a sad increase of mortality among j the brakesman's -wives, occasioned by

busbanda decapitating them, under the impression that they are brakes. It is likely that' life insurance companies will increase their rates to such persons, and eventually brakesmen may find it difficult to get married until after they have attained conductorships.