The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-21
A SINGERS DREAM.
How Mrs. Sesuin-Wallace Anticipated the
West Shore Accident.

Omaha Bee.
All the world likes to talk about dreams
and half believe in them, spite of great pre-
tensions to the contrary, and much talk
about physiological causes. A dream story,
in which a late railroad accident was the
subject and a celebrated singer the dreamer,
has just come to light.
Zelda Seguin is with the Abbott Opera
Company this season, as everybody knows.
So far the company has spent much of its
time in the Northwest, drawing big houses
and receiving plenty of newspaper praise.
On the night of September 30 it was in
Omaha.
That night Mrs. Seguin dreamed that she
was in a railroad car near Utica n. Y. She
knew it was that locality, having passed over
it so often. AS the train flew along she
thought she saw the different points in the
scenery, commenting upon them from time
to time to young lady who occupied the
same seat with her. The young lady was a
chose friend and in the dream Mrs. Seguin
thought it perfectly natural that they should
be travelling together. She heard somebody
say "Diefendorf HILL" That part of the
dream she remembered with special distinct
ness. The popularity of dream dialogues
is that though one seems to be saying much
and hearing much, only few sentences of it
stands boldly out in the memory after
the dreamer opens his eyes on
a new day And SO, Mrs.
hours before the accident on the West Shore
road, dreamed she was whirling along near
Utica, and heard the name "Diefendorf Hip
spoken distinctly. Then she saw her girl
companions face turn to that very peculiar
shade Of white which only terror can pro-
duce-saw the same CHASTITY rIgidity of mus
Gle spread over the faces of the other passen-
gers, and simultaneously felt shock which
instantly expanded into grating, grinding,
horrible jar that seemed to splinter the very
rocks beneath the earth. Then all was sud-
denly blotted out in one vast engulfment of
darkness. Out of this Mrs. Segun seemed to
rise in that mysterious way in which we are
all extricated from dilemmas in dreams, un-
til she could look down upon the wreck
from the air above it. She
saw the two engines locked in
each others embrace, twisted, belching,
groaning as though in mortal agony; saw
also the cars which were thrown from the
track damaged aud crippled like great ami
mails, and withal saw in one Of them the
friend who had sat beside her but a moment
before. She was now lying elpless in the
dreadful mass of debris, her face death-like
and her form motonless. There the dream
stopped She told it the next morning, as
it was still fresh in her mind on waking up,
but did not, of course, think that it had any
significance What was her surprise within
three days to read of the accident which &C.
Shore road, and later to learn that the same
young friend who had sat beside her in the
dream had really been aboard the wrecked
train and been injured, Let the people
who explain such things by material reason
ing or those who wave them aside with
a sneer and a smile, tell, ii they can, why
Zelda Seguin, sleeping more than 1, 600 miles
west of Utica, should so accurately dream
out an accident three days before it occurred,
and associate friend with it whom she be-
lieved to be safe in her home in one of the
interior towns OF Pennsylvania. She had re-
tired after an evening of more than usual
honor. The applause had been generous to
embarrassment Nothing had occurred to
call up any thoughts of peril or accident.
Yet in her dream she felt the shock and saw
the ruins of the wreck.
Once before Zelda Seguin had remarkable
dream in regard to a public event which soon
after happened. Three nights before jim
Fisk was shot she dreamed she was walking
up Broadway, and IG~c> the entire street was
draped in mourning. The shutters of every
store were closed, and in white letters on a
background on every one was the name of
Jim Fisk" She turned into other streets
and it was the same. Everywhere there was
the drapery of mourning and the name Jim
Fisk" in white letters. This dream she told
next morning to her friends, and on the
third day thereafter was shocked beyond ex-
preston to learn that Fisk had been shot.
Yet she had never even seen him.