The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-05-15
THE CASE OF EDW. ALLEN.
A Man who was Executed for
Murder in the Other World.

"A Mali WHO WIS EAOCuOOU hui
Murder in the Other World.
To the Editor of the New York World ::
The singularly interesting investi-
CATION into the power of the mind over
the body, which have lately been
made by DR.. William A. Hammond,
an account of which I read in
The World few days ago will, /
think, be rounded out and made
more valuable by the manuscript [
herewith inclose, and which you are
at liberty to publish if you should
see fit to so do. 1 was personally ac-
quainted with the late Mr.. Edward
Allen, the subject of this paper
which is half memoir and half auto
biography. In its original form. as
it was sent TO me by his mother
shortly after Mr., Aliens death, the
paper would be a great deal too
long, 1 judge, for publication in
newspaper, aud therefore I have
changed and condensed it as much
as possible. remain, sir, yours
respectfully, r. c. DAVID.
New York.
became acquainted with the late
Mr.. Edward Allen in Union College
in the year 1868. he being then a
Sophomore and I a Senior. He
joined a secret society of which l
was a member. We were thrown
much together, and seon came to
feel a warm personal regard for each
other, which continued on both sides
down to the night of Mr.. Aliens
strange and lamentable dissolution,
or execution in another world, or
death from the workings of a too
lively and excitable imagination up
on highly wrought nervous system,
as the case may be. Mr.. Allen was
graduated duly in the ycar 1855,
and at once set out for Europe, in
tending to attend lectures at Held
elberg as long as it pleased him to
do SO, and then to amusa hims self in
any way he might choose. for he was
wealthy and full of youthful eager
ness. He was not an imaginative
man nor an intellectual Que; but he
was good, bright, genuine and i'm
pressionable = perhaps, though no
one who knew him then could have
thought so-far too impressionable,
for in after years the impress of an
experience through which he was
soon to go drove him to insanity and
death. l say to insanity, for what
ever theory of his case may be offer
ed by materialists and alienist ply.
sicians, or by those who believe that
the spiritual world car and does
sometimes interply with that in
which we live, there car. be no doubt
that Edward Aliens brain was dis
eased; whether the disease was the
cause or the effect of what his soul
experienced in a world which is not
ours, is question upon which I do
not feel sufficient certainty to ex.
Dress an Opiuion.
He wrote many letters to me while
he was abroad, and for three years
they all showed how thoroughly AL
len was enjoying himself. He trav-
elled everywhere and studied in va
rious cities few weeks. For some
reason which / never understood,
and probably it was a mere whim.
he took to reading all the books he
could find which dealt with dreams
and dreaming. He seems to have
studied the subject closely, and | re-
member that in one of his letters
he asked me to send him copy of
a work on the subject which had
just come out in this country. But
hewever much he might think of
other things. pleasure was the main
object of his life and he sought it
everywhere. without particular scru-
pulousness. Suddenly he wrote me
that hewas in love with the divine
Clara Won Prancken, who, to Judge
from his descriptions of her. was
goddess. He never wearied telling
of her glorious dark eyes, ber voice.
her divine form. and her wealth Of
love-. He would marry her off hand
and certainly he was deeply In love
with her. On the very eve OF their
marriage he learned indisputably
that she was an Infamous woman
who had led q notorious life In vi.
enna.r The shock nearly killed the
poor boy, and to add to his troubles
ssssA sas