The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-01-04

and the stories OF the "white lady" grew,
and spreading, attracted the attention of
the chroniclers.
This in substance is Forse's narrative.
And it has pleased the world to accept
it as q pretty story of somnambulism.
Petite adopted the current legend, and
reproduced from an old miniature the
portrait of the lady Hampden. For the
purposes of art and poetry the story
might properly enough be left where
these workers have brought it. But
there is another and a curious physiO-
logical side to it,
Lady Hampden died in 1928, and it
appears that one of her daughters in
herited her peculiarities.
There is in the Warwick Register of a
succeeding year a curious account of an
accident which befell a lady living
upon the borders of Warwickshire. Her
nude body was found in neighboring
grove one morning, and the p0St-m0rtem
examination decided that she died of
fright. This was the daughter of Lady
Hampden. In preparing the papers
which were subsequently published I'M
der the title of 'The Night Side of Ma
turc," Mrs. Grove, for some reason, re-
iected one which, in attempting to throw
new light upon 'The White Lady of
Watford," brought to the surface a
number of extraordinary facts.
This paper, prepared by a physician
who has since become eminent in psycO-
logic science, was afterward read before
the British archaeological society, and
is at present part of their archives. 1t
purports to show that the origin of the
stories of the "White Lady of Watford'
and the cause of the death of Lady
Hampden's daughter are to be found,
not in an apparition, nor yet in SOM
nanbulism, but in what he calls cut
imania, and he proceeds to give num-
Der of cases similar to that already mar
rated, in which an irresistible desire
amounting often to disease) to free the
body from its conventional covering, has
given rise to the most ridiculous and
unwarranted stories.
He also declares that while this mania
has oftenest manifested itself in woman,
it is not necessarily associated with i'm
modesty or indiscretiOn. 1t is an or
ganic impulse which is in some way con-
nected with the health of the individual,
and may be transmitted through a
whole generation. He says that several
members of the Hampden family were
we'll aware of Lady Hampden's nocturnal
excursions and that they did not at
tempt to interfere with them, but
merely took Auch precautions as pre-
vented her exposure. This reads curl
ouslv enough, but when the doctor de-
cIares that she could not have lived if
she had not been allowed to take this
bath of freedom, our establishment is
softened into pity for the eccentric in
valid.
How far the misadventure with the
savages in the Marquesas may have in
Auenced the progeny of the Hampden
can safely be left to DR.. Oliver Wendell
Holmes to determine in fiction.
Those who are interested in an entire
ly new field of psychologist inquiry-who
has often experienced in sleep the ex-
quisite delight of wandering disrobed, or
in waking hours have, at the seaside or
elsewhere, been lifted into new Condi
tions of existence as the elements come
in contact with the body, will find in the
paper just alluded to a curious mass OF
suggestion World.
@--e.9-@@1@@
kCA TTERINCI THE RELICS OF OLD
HICKORY.