The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-10-21

Mr.. Hector M'Donald, of Canada, was
recently on a visit to Boston. When he
left, bis family were enjoying good health,
and be anticipated pleasant journey. The
second morning after his arrival in Boston,
when leaving his bed to dress for breakfast,
he saw reflected in mirror the corpse of a
woman lying in the bed from which he had
just risen. Spell.bound, he gazed with
features Of the corpse, but in vain he could
not even move his eyelids; he felt deprived
of action, for how long he knew not. He
was at last startled by the ringing of the
bell TOR breakfast, and sprang to the bed to
satisfy himself If what he had seen reflected
in the mirror was real or an illusion. He
found the bed as he had left it; he looked
again into the mirror, but only saw the bed
truly reflected. During the day he thought
much upon the illusion, and determined next
morning to rub his eyes and feel perfectly
sure that he was wide-awake before he left
bed. But, Notwithstanding these precau-
tions, the vision was repeated, with this
addition that he thought he recognized in
the corpse some resemblance to the textures
of his wife.
In the course OF the second day he received
a letter from his wife, in which she stated
that she was quite well and hoped he was
enjoying himself among his friends. As he
was devotedly attached to her, and always
anxious for her safety, he supposed that his
morbid fears had copjured up the vision he
had seen reflected in the glass and went
about his business as cheerfuly as usual
On the morning of the third day after he
had dressed, he found himself in thought in
his own home, leaning over the coffin of his
wife. His friends were assembled, the
minister was performing the funeralservices,
his children wept--he was in the house of
death. He followed the corpse to the grave;
he heard the earth rumble upon the coffin,
he saw the grave filled, and the green sods
covered over it; yet, by some strange power
he could see through the ground the entire
form of his wife as she lay in her coffin.
He looked to the faces of those around
him, but no one seemed to notice him ; he
tried to weep, but the tears refused to flow
his very heart felt as hard as rock En-
ragged at his own want of feeling, he deter
mined to throw himselfup the grave and
lie there till his heart should break, when
he was recalled to consciousness by friend
who entered the room to inform him that
breakfast was ready. He started as if
awoke from profound sleep, though he was
standing b. fore mirror with hair brush
in his hand.
After composing himself he related to his
friend what be had seen, and both concluded
that good breakfast only was wanting to
dissipate his unpleasant impressions. A few
days afterward, however, he received the
melancholy intelligence that his wife had
died suddenly, and the time corresponded
with the day he had been startled by the
first vision in the mirror. When he returned
home he described minutely all the details
of the funeral he had seen in his vision, and
they corresponded with the facts. This is
probably one of the most vivid instances of
clairvoyance on record. Mr.. M'Donald
knows nothing of modern spiritualism or
clairvoyance, as most of his life has been
passed upon farm and among forests. 1t
may not be amiss to state that his father,
who was Scotch Highlander, had the gift
of "second sight. Boston Traveller, 10th
inst.