Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-03-06
STRANGE DREAMS.
Three Singular and Significant Wis.
lens.

A recent writer narrates the follow
ing significant dream relative to the
DR.. Parkman murder, and which, in
| all its unpleasant details, was dreamed
twice over:
DR.. Webster, Professor of Chemistry
in Harvard College, was convicted of
the murder of his acquaintance-we
can hardly say his friend-Dr. Park
man. A lady, well known to the lit
erary world, and then residing in
London, had, some years previously,
paid a long visit to the United States,
during which she became intimately
acquainted with Dr. Webster, who
showed her much Kindness and atten-
tion. After her return to England she
continued to correspond with his fam
lily, and one day, in the early autumn
of lS48, a gentleman related to DIR.
Parkman called upon her, with an in
PRODUCTION from Professor Webster.
On that night she went to bed at her
usual hour, but soon experienced
horrible dream. She fancied that she
was being urged by DR.. Webster to
assist him iE cOncealing q set of hui
man bones in wooden box, and she
distinctly recollected that there was a
thigh-bone which, after failing to
break it into pieces, they vainly at
tempted to insert, but it was too long.
While they were trying to hide the
box, as she fancied under her bed, she
awoke in a state of horror and cold
perspiration. She instantly struck a
i.slN fri, 70
ton of her horrible vision by reading.
After a lapse of two hours, during
which she determinedly fixed her at
tention on the book, she put out the
lights and soon fell asleep. The same
literal dream recurred, after which she
did not dare-although a woman of
singular moral and physical courage
to attempt to sleep any more that
night. Nothing more at the time was
thought of these dreams, but soon after
the news reached England that DR..
Parkman was missing; that the last
time he was seen alive he was entering
the college gates, and that the janitor
was suspected of having murdered
him. On the writer mentioning this
to the lady she at once exclaimed:
ooh, my dreams DIR. Webster must
be the murdererp The next mail but
one brought the news that the true
murderer had been detected. And at
the very time when the lady's dreams
occurred DR.. Webster must have been
actually struggling to get the bones
the flesh having previously been
burned-intU wooden box such as
she had seen, and that after attempt
ing in vain to break the thigh bones,
he had hidden them elsewhere.
The Lafayette, Indiana Journal, is
the authority for very singular
double dream: 1.-TWO ladies', residing
in different parts of that city dreamed
about the same hour in the night that
man, whom neither of them dis
tinctly identified at the time, lay a
corpse in their respective door-yards
Both awakened their husbands with
their meanings and alarming cries. In
the dream of one of the ladies the vic
tim was near neighbor, and she be-
sought her husband to go at once and
call on the said neighbor and inquire
if all was right. The husband, refus-
ing to go, attempted to quiet his wife
with the assurance that her fears were
unduly aroused by o stroke of night
mare. Nothing could induce her,
however,to sleep; and early on the en-
suing morning she fastened to the
house of neighbor and found him in
so precarious condition that he died
three hours afterward. On hearing of
the event the other lady recognized in
the deceased the Identical features
which appeared in her dream, and
whose tragical expression so much
disturbed her.
A case bearing some resemblance to
this is related by one Helmore, the
first mate of the brig Red Jacket in
1874. While at sea, after having
weathered terrific gale in the lati-
tude of Bermunda, Helmore, retired
to his berth, and Immediately fell
into troubled sleep. He dreamed
that his father, who had died twelve
years before, came to him with the in
telligence that his uncle John, with
three companions, were exposed to
the sea in an open boat, and that it
was in his power to rescue them. At
ter having conducted the sleeper to
the scene of the wreck and back again,
the visitor informed him that to ac-
complish the desired end he must
slightly turn the ship to the South
east by Easterly course, whereupon he
departed. Aroused by this dream,
Helmore communicated the same to
the pilot, and they together concluded
to make the experiment, unknown to
the Captain, and, suiting the action to
the word, changed the vessels course
two points to the East. Having kept
her so for four hours, or until day
break, they were actually awarded for
their pains by the welcome salute
from The ratllns of Boat ahoyW
What is very remarkable is the fact
that one of the four rescued men was
the veritable uncle John alluded to in
the dream, whose brig, the Joseph
Brown, from Liverpool fer Jamaica,
had sprung leak and sunk ten days
before A most extraordinary coinci-
deuce is still further afforded in the
fact that the uncle dreamed the night
previous that he and his comrade
would be picked up by passing ves-