Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1871-07-21
ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE
Work DURING SLEEP. Those eases in wi

Work DURING SLEEP Those cases in which
the brain is hard at work during sleep, instead
Of being totally oblivious Of everything may be
the mode in which the activity displays itself
Many of them are full of interest. Some men
have done really hard mental work while at
slccp Condorcct finished i train OF calcula-
tons in his sleep which had much puzzled HIM
during the day. In 1876 Il collcglan noticed
the pcculiaritics of icllow-studcnt, who was
rather stupid than otherwise during his waking
hours, but who got through some exec llent
work in geometry and algebra during sleep.
Condillac and Franklin both worked correctly
during some OF their sleeping hours.
The work done partakcS III many cases more
of the nature of imaginative composition lhll
Of scientific calculations Thus Il stanza OF
excellent verse is in print which Sir John Her
,chcl is said to have composed while asleep,
and to have rccollcctcd when he awokc.
Goethe often set down on paper, during the
day, thoughts and ideas which had presented
themselves to him during sleep on the proceed,
ng night \ gentleman one night dreamed
that he WAS playing IN entirely new game OF
cards with three friends; when he awOkc the
utcl in the dream, came one by one into his
memory, and he found them SO ingenious that
he attcrwarl frequently played the game Cole
ridge is said to have composed his fragment OF
.kubIa Khan during sleep. lie had one
evening been reading Purcha $ Pilgrim; some
of the romantic incidents struck his fancy; he
went to sleep and hisbuSy brain composed "ku-
III, Khan" When he awoke in the morning
he wrote out what his mind had invented III
sleep, until interrupted by y visitor with whom
he converscd for an hour on business matters;
tut alas he could never again recall the thread
Of the story, and thus ''Kuba Khan remains
= fragment. DR.. Good mentions the case OF
! gentleman, who, in his sleep, composed an
ode in six stanzas and set it to music. Tartlnl,
the celebrated Italian vloinlst, one night
dreamed that the devil appeared unto him,
challenged him to Il trial OF skill on tho fiddle,
and played piece wonderful Tor It's beauty and
difficulty; when Iartini awokc he could not re-
member the exact notes: but he could repro
ducc the general character Of the music, which
he did in composition ever since known rs the
Devils Sonata Lord ThurlOw, when L
youth at college, found himself one evening un-
able to finish piece Of Latin composition which
he baI undertaken; he went to bed full of the
subject fell asleep, finished his Latin III his
,lcp, remembered it next morning, and was
rnmplimented on the ttlicitous form which 1t
presented. ALL the Icr Round.
"ClncUMSrANrIAL EVIDENCE 49, From the
Cleveland Herald A remarkable case. show
ing the danger of trusting implicitly to
circumstantial evidence, has recently been COM
plctcd in Toledo Nearly three years ago
robert Sharp was found dead, with shots and
slugs in his brain a man named Harrington
who had been on intimate terms with the de-
ceased, was arrested for the murder, The teS-
timony was wholly crcumstantial, but SO skill
fully worked up by the detectives that
Harrington WAS convicted and sent to the pcnl-
tcntiary. His lawyers had become Interested
in tho case, and, although Harrington was 4
poor man, they determined to fight his cause
to the end After Il long and arduouS struggle
through the District and Supreme Courts, an
order for new trial was obtained, and that
trial has lust closed. The main points in the
evidence on which he was convicted were the
apparent correspondence of the shot in the body
Of the dcai man with that in the shot-bag be-
longing to Harrington; the correspondence OF
pieces of newspaper found near the scene OF the
supposed murder, and assumed to be part OF
the gun-wadding with Il torn paper in llarrlng-
ton residence and a piece in his vest pocket,
and that the motive for the murder was to DC
found in the alleged fact of Sharp having come
to Toledo with several hundred dollars OF
money, which Harrington knew, and that no
one else was so intimate with Sharp.
On the second trial it was rendered doubtful
whether there wasa similarity in the shot. ltwas
clearly proven that the pieces of paper alleged
to have been picked up at the scene OF the
murder were not there ut the time Of tho finding
Of the body, nor fora day or two afterward
and the inference was unavoidable that they
were put there by the detectives to aid them III
working up the case against Harrington.
1t was further proven that Sharp was destitute
when he arrived in Toledo, and that Harrington
was doing his bcst>to aid him in procuring
employment To crown all, an alibi was
satisfactorily proven. Harrington was declared
innocent, and the jury voluntarily gave him u
letter, signed by every member, repeating III
emphatic terms their bcliefof his entire innocence
of any knowledge of the supposed murder, and
hearing testimony to his uniform good character;
The public sentiment unanimously conceded
with this verdict. The former employer OF
Harrington immediately took him back into
service. 1t causes an unpleasant shuddcr to
reflect that perfectly innocent man, OF good
character, suffered two years OF degrading
punishment, and narrowly cScapcdan ignomlnl-
GUS death, for acrille which he knew nothing.
1t isanothcr warning against implicit trust IN
wholly circumstantial evidence, and protest
against the detectives in working up case
against one they choose to suspect.