San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-09-07

frances sne was nOtlceu W Uo III NcfJ
low spirits, and at last burst into tears
On being asked the cause of her tears
she said she could see her betrothed In
London flirting with another girl
Shortly after came a letter from hel
guardian with such accounts OF the
young mans behavior with the girl Of
whom Lillian had been jealous, that the
engagement was broken oil.
She told most of our fortune in her
sleep; but in my case, am bound to
confess, without success. Whether she
was more correct in regard to herself, l
do not know. She foretold that she
would be killed by fall from her horse
at the age of 80. But 1t seemed unlike
ly she would live to that age If her SOM
nambulism continued, as after these
frances she often had the most fearful
illness, both heart and brain being af-
fected by them. One of the worst of
these came on after trance she had
fallen into at church; she walked, still
asleep, out with us afterward, but I'M
luckily woke in the Champs Elysees,
and was so terrified that it was with diff
ficulty we got her home. When at
length we did so, she had terrible ill
ness, from which she was scarcely ex-
pected to recover. She had the best
physicians in Paris, and they one and
all declared hers to be the most Won
derful case of somnambulism heard of
in the present generation, with one ex-
ception-that of young man, the par
ticulars of whose story, however, do
not know.
The disease Cfor such it really was)
was accounted for by them as the re-
suit of an over amount of brain, caus-
ing consequent pressure. She may be
said to have had brain for waking
purposes, and one that acted when she
was asleep. What one brain knew, the
other did not. Evidently the sleeping
brain was the cleverest. The waking
brain lacked intelligence. While the
sleeping brain was active, she was in a
state of somnambulism, and could do
things that could not possibly have
been attempted in her waking moments.
Her condition was, of course, unnatur-
al it was diseased-very curious and
unhealthy. The cleverest doctors in
Paris who were consulted could do
nothing for her. !
What became of this extraordinary
girl after she left school do not know.
| quite lost sight of her, and have done
so for quarter OF a century. But still
her portrait often reminds me of her.
1t is in water colors, somewhat coarsely
but cleverly drawn, and gives a good
idea of her. Her massive braids of hair
it especially exhibits to perfection; she
wore it in coronet over her head in
style peculiar to herself. The picture
has, however, a disagreeable impression
upon those who look at it, from the fact
that the eyes seem to follow you wher-
ever you 60.
For ourselves at school, l can not say
whether we felt most fear of our unusu-
al school-fellow or most curiosity about
her, curiosity which we were always
able to crafty in her sleep. She was
conscious herself that she often said
jhings in these frances which she would
not have said when awake, and used to
BEG us not to repeat to her any of the
Kings she had said to us, which, how
aver, our natural sense of honor would
nave forbidden us from doing; nor, in
Iced, did we take any unfair advantage
If her popularity, only when she was
Inclined to talk in her sleep we were
content to listen, and to gather some
portion of her unusual history.-Chana-
'e7s'S Journal.