Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-12-29
WASTED PREsENTIMENTs.

presentiments realized, of dreams fulfilled
OF words lightly spoken, but carried out
In manner that the speaker little expect
cd. A list of such stories is at every.
bodys fingers ends; but It has been my
lot TO meet with several instances, of an.
other class OF stories, much less frequent
~ commented on, but to my mind even
more curious cases, mean, in which a
peculiar warning has been-all but, and
yet not quite-borne out by subsequent
events so that the intimation could not
be passed over as altogether trivial, and
yet missed its mark. Several such occur
rences have been related to me by wit
nesses in whose testimony have full con
fidence, and | will proceed to give them
without further preface:
Doctor j., a retired physician in deli
cateAbealtb, resided, some years ago. in
one of the principal towns in the west of
England. He was one night seized sud
denly with violent illness, and within
an hour or two was pronounced to be in
hopeless state. Doctor j. being a
Roman Catholic, the Reverend Doctor
", priest of that communion, was sent
for to administer the last rites of religion;
and, soon finding that his presence could
be OF no further use to the unconscious
sufferer, he bethought himself how he
could best procure female companionship
Tor the poor wife, who was quite stunned
by the sudden blow. With this intention,
he hastened, in the early morning, to the
mouse OF an excellent elderly lady, a pious
member OF his congregation, and a friend
of Mrs. j. The lady had not vet left her
room and he simply sent up word that
he wished to speak to her In a few mo-
ments she came hurrying into the room,
with every appearance of agitation,
and, before he could explain his sad err
rand, she seized his hand breathlessly, ex-
claiming: go Doctor ", how thankful
am to see you l have had the most
frightful, vivid dream about Doctor and
Mrs. j. y 81 dreamed that l went to
call at their house, and that Mrs. J. came
down to meet me in a widows cap, with
her face all swollen with tears, and she
said to me; o Mrs. NJ my dear hus.
band is just dead; and he desired me to
say that you will he the ncXt.'n "And
how did you tell her :" Doctor VS. au-
ditOrs were wont to ask at this part of
the narration; to which the reverend
gentleman invariably answered, Il dare
say it was very cowardly, and dare say
1t was very foolish but did not tell her
at all bolted ~
So far the story is like many another
tale of the marvellous, but the usual Sc
quel is wanting for though DIR. j. died,
Mrs. Nj. lived on for many wears and
certainly was not 1.-the next" unless in
some mysterious sense confined to the
world of spirits.
In the early days of our New Zealand
colony, Mr.. F., younger son of an Eng
lish peer, settled there with his family.
Having hurt his arm, he was advised to
try rest and change of air, and accord
ingly lie set out for trip to the other
island, leaving his young wife, whose nu-
merous and constantly increasingnursery
duties kept her at home. The time fixed
for his return was drawing near, when
Mrs. 2. was one night awakened by
scream from her eldest child, little girl
four or five years old, who was sleeping
in the same bed with her mother. The
child had awakened suddenly in a par
oXysm OF terror, and for some time no
sOothings were of any avail all she
would do was to point persistently to one
corner of the room, while she sobbed
out, "Oh poor papa poor papa all
dripping with water! all dripping with
water !"
OF course, she was first pettcd and
then laughed at, scolded for silly little
gIrl, and assured that papa could not pos
sibly have been there; but when Mrs. p.
reflected that her husband was probably
at that moment on the sea, it is not to be
wondered at that she felt her heart grow
sick with anxiety A few DAYS later, as
she and her children were sitting down to
breakfast, she saw one of their few neigh
bors riding up to the door. That he
should have come away from his home
in the busy morning hours betokened
something unusual, and no sooner had
1,p lcp1-o1 In, Z, Il l..
" Tell me at once, my husband is
drownedm How did you knOw?" he
responded thus confirming her fears and
he handed her copy of local newspa-
per, in which she read that the steamer
by which her husband had intended to re-
turn had foundered at sea. The date tailed
with her child's dream, and that circum-
stance seemed to her conclusive; so
that when her friends tried to
point out to her that there was
no proof of her husbands death
she only answered that she had received
fearful warning, and gave herself up to
her sorrow. At the end of a few days Mr.
p. quietly walked in, and was astonished at
the agony of almost terrified Joy with
which his arrival was greeted. 1t was by
the merest chance that he had not been
in the lost vessel; he had taken his pas.
ShSN, tIN lioh dNlNlll1 EOnC Ou DudIu,
when he was struck with the extreme
lowness of the bulwarks, and thought
that, should there be bad weather, he,
with his still helpless arm, might be in
some danger of being washed overheard.
lie therefore returned to shore and ar
ranged to come by the next ship instead
So there the story ends, except that we
will hope that no time was lost in admin
istering dose of physic to the trouble
some little dreamer.
The next story, perhaps, ought hardly
to be placed in the same category with
the others, since it is possible that the
warning may have prevented its own full
tillment
My great-grandmother was an active
Lady Bountiful to a very rustic country
population, over whose affairs, temporal
and spiritual, she exercised a benevolent,
II slightly tyrannical, sway. Among her
most frequent pensioners was Soft Billy,
as he was called; poor, half-witted lad, ,
generally quite harmless, but subject to
occasional fits of temper, in which he was
hard to deal with. One night she dream
ed that she was walking along lane in
the neighborhood, when, from gap in
the hedge, Soft Billy suddenly jumped
down into the path before her, brandish-
ing reaping-hook. His flaming eyes
and distorted face showed that his dark
hour" was upon him, and in another
second he had flown at her, his fingers
were gripping her throat with deadly
strength, the steel flashed before her eyes,
the very bitterness'of death was rushing
over her and she awoke; awoke quivering
all over, the cold Precipitation standing on
her forehead, and her heart beating to
sutiocation. 1t was long before she could
force herself to meet Soft Billy, even in
hepresence of others, and for months she
avoided the lane which she had traversed
in her dream At last, some sudden case
of distress in the village called for her
presence, some sick child was to be phys
LII LII.