Morning journal and courier., 1880-11-24
Some Strangely Fulfilled Dreams.

1
 | Dickens once had a dream which was fnl- l filled, at least to his own satisfaction ''Here" | he wrote on May 30, 1863, ''is curious case | at first hand. On Thursday night last week, | being at the office here.'' in London, q | dreamed that I saw lady in a red shawl l with her back toward me, whom supposed ! to be E. On her turning round I found that l I didn't know her, and she said, I am Miss Napier All the time I was dressing next l morning I thought, What preposterous | thing to have so very distinct dream about I nothing! And why Miss Napier? for I had never heared of any Miss Napier That same Friday night I read. After the read | ing came into my retiring room Mary Boyle ! and her brother, and the lady in the red shawl, whom they presented as Miss Napier. These are all the circumstances exactly told" l This was probably case of unconcious cere- | bration Dickens had no doubt really seen 1 the lady, and been told that she was Miss Napier, when his attention was occupied with other matters. There would be noth- | ing unusual in his dreaming about person whom he had thus seen without noticing. Of course 1t was @ strange coincidence that she of whom he had thus dreamed should be intro | ductoed him soon after-possibly the very | day after. But such coincidences are not in- | frequent. To suppose that Dickens had | been specially warned in dream about l unimportant 8 matter as his introduction to | Miss Napier would be absurb for, fulfilled | or unfulflled, the dream was, as Dickens l himself described it, a very distinct dream
 about nothing. Far different in this respect was the strange dream which President
 Lincoln had the night before he was shot, | If the story was truly told by MT. Stanton to | Dickens, the case is of the most curious | on record Dickens told it thus in a letter | to John Forster ''On the afternoon of the day on which the President was shot, there was Cabinet Council, at which he presided 6eiO at ha aT6 or- in- Chief of the Northern troops that were concenrated about here, arrived rather late Indeed, they were waiting for him, and on his entering the room the President broke of in something he was saying, and remarked Let us proceed to business, gentlemen.
 Mr. Stanton noticed with surprise that the
 President sat with air of dignity in his
 chair, instead of lolling about in the most ungainly attitudes as his invariable custom
 was and that instead of telling irrelevant
 and questionable stories, he grave and
 calm and quite another man. MT. Stanton,
 on leaving the council withthe Attorney
 General, said to him, That was the most
 satisfactory Cabinet meeting have attended
 for many & long day. What an extraordin-
 ary change in MT. Lincoln ? The Attorney
 General replied, We all saw it before you
 came in. While we were waiting for you, he
 said with his chin down on his breast
 Gentlemen, something very extraordinary
 is going to happen, and that very soon.'
 To which the Attorney General had observ-
 ed, Something good, Sir, hope p when the
 President answered very gravely, T don't
 know-I don't know. But it will happen,
 and shortly, too As they were all impress
 ed by his manner, the Attorney General took
 him up again. Have you received any im-
 formation, Sir, not yet dislcosed to us ? Mo-
 answered the President, but have had
 dream. And I have now had the same
 dream three times. Once on the night pre-
 ceeding the battle of Bull Run. Once on the
 night preceding such another (naming
 battle not favorable to the North His chin
 sank on his breast again, and he sat reflect
 ing Might one ask the nature of this
 dreami Sir. ? said the Attorney General.
 Well replied the President without lifting
 his head or changing his attitude, am on a
 great broad rolling river-and am in boat -and drift !-and drift!-but this is not
 business, suddenly raising his face and
 looking round the table as MT. Stanton en-
 tered-let us proceed to business, gentle
 men, Mir. Stanton and the Attorney
 General said, as they walked on together,
 it would be curious to notice whether any
 thing ensued on this and they agreed to
 watch. He was shot that night" Here the
 dream itself was not remarkable, it was such
 a one as might readily be dreamed by man
 from the Western States who had been often
 on broad rolling rivers. Nor was it's recur-
 renee remarkable. The noteworthy point
 was the occurrence of this dream three sev-
 eral times, and Gas may be presumed from
 the effect which the dream produced on it's
 recurrence) those three times only, on the
 night preceding great misfortune for the
 cause of the North. However, there is
 nothing in the story that cannot be attributed
 to merely casual coincidence, though the
 coincidence was sufficient curious. As three
 years had elapsed from the time of Lincoln's
 death when Stanton told Dickens the story,
 it is possible that the account may have been
 incorrect in some details