New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-02-04

| lngS, out never interrupted OraWaKeneO
her, and after some time the nocturnal
climbings ceased.
The second caso chat came under nv
observation was more varied and more
embarrassing. A young lady at school
| became a sonnambulist. She rose from
bed and walked in her sleep. The ladies
! who conducted the school became
alarmed, partly on the girls account,
and partly for the character of tho
school, a. it might injure their estab-
lishment were it known that the young
ladies practieed the habit of walking
| about the lawn i'm their night-dresses in
the moonlight. They had an impression
that if the girl were suddenly awak-
ened, death or immediate deprivation
OF sense might be the result; and this
led to the attendance of two naaid-serv-
ants, who were strictly enjoined to fol-
low the footsteps of the somnambulist,
to watch that no mishap should occur
to her, and to have all the doors opened,
and the way kept clear for the return of
the sleeping pedestrian. This contin-
ued for some time. But at length the
somnambulist's fancy took more adj
venturous turn. Skaters had come to
work on the roof Of the house, and the
sleeping peripatetic evinceI desire to
star-gaze. Accordingly, on the next
night, she turned to the slater's ladder.
and to the horror of her attendants.
assembled it, mounted to the roof and
walked along the gutter, with sloping
roof on one side I'd a low parapet wall
on the other. The attendants now be-
came almost frightened out of their
wits, and knew not what to do or think.
They feared to call out; for return to
consciousness in such place would al
most inevitably lead to her stumbling
on the ROOF or falling over the parapet.
Their terror was, however, not vet at
its height. The somnambulist came to
slight obstruction in the gutter; she
paused for moment, and then, without
hesitation, stepped upon the parapet.
and continued her walk upon the mar
row stone coping. Asingle slip. false
step, would have precipitated her from
a height of thirty or forty feet; yet to
awaken her would almost certainly have
led to the same catastrophe. The sleep.
ing girl continued her walk to tho end
of the coping, and then turning round,
lesumed her walk to the dormer win
dow, descended the ladder, reached her
bedroom in safety and lay down in her
bed; awakening in the morning quite
unconscious of her midnight danger and
OF her narrow escape.
was then = very young practitioner
in medicine, and was, up to this period.
although the medical attendant of the
establishment for ordinary cases of ILL
ness. not consulted on this perplexing
case, as it was naturally desired to keep
it concealed; but after the stroll on the
parapet wall, and the terror created by
it. it was thought that, with the object
OF preventing recurrence of a night
walk that might end in some terrible
accident. the young lady should be con-
signed to temporary residence in pri-
Xate asylum, where there would be al
ways both night and q day watch.
was taken into consultation next morn.
ing, and earnestly discussed the gravity
Of taking such step. It would be i'm
possible to keep it secret, and, even
were it possible, in her waking hours
she would look with horror on the COM
ing night, when she should be sent to
bed in q strait-waistcoat. In after
years, too, when perhaps she might
have 9 young family around her, the
thought might arise that she had once
been an inmate of such an institution,
and the "reminiscences would make her
miserable. I duly considered all this,
and suggested various expedients, such
as sedatives, sleeping draughts and net
work to be put round the bed at night.
All, however, had been tried in this i'm
stance, and all in vain.
I then thought for little, and hit
upon the following plan. I directed
her night dress to Be sewed up ct the
foot, 50 that it formed ) large bag, and
then had the sleeves heightened 90
much that each sleeve, after going
round the body, reached the front,
where it met the other sleeve, and was
securely fastened to it. The whole
dress was loose; but the long sleeves
prevented the hands from being used
to get rid Of the dress, while. from the
end being sewed up, the feet could not
ba used u progression. At the same
time tho dress freely permitted the |
sleeper to roll about from side TO side
in her slumber; and thus it differed
from the hideous strait-waistcoat then
IN vogue. Night came, and our charge
retired To bed n hnr .fAn1lad ninrkt.