The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-10-17
A Strange Hallucination.

DR.. lyman Santee, a resident of Luz
zerne County, who at present is visiting
some friends at this place, has had per-
haps the most remarkable experience
on record. The Doctor is a man of me-
dunn size, about thirty years of age, of
great intelligence and undoubted We
racity. Though there is nothing in his
manner to suggest anything unusual,
yet the world in which he moves could
not be to him more unlike our own if he
lived on another planet.
When DIR. Santee was ten years
younger he one day took q stroll, as
cending an eminence of considerable
height at some distance from his fathers
house. The view from this point was
delightful IN the extreme, extending
away for miles toward the north ana
west. Far below the admiring youth
swept along the broad river; beyond it
were the rolling hills, which farther on
swelled into the rugged mountains,
where. range beyond range rose higher
and higher till the hazy SUBMITS min
gled with the wonderful blue of the sum-
mer sky. 1t was late in the day, and
the great red sun hung in the golden west.
lyman Santee, who in early life was
| somewhat given to idle fancies, on the
solitary mountain betook himself to the
strange task of contrasting the size of
his frame with the magnitude of the
scene before him; and it seemed to him
that he was only a manikin clinging to
the cliff above the plain. While in
dulging in this and similar thoughts he
became bewildered, and the size of ev-
erything around him suddenly dimin-
| ished to one-tenth of its former dimen-
sions. The great pine at his side became
a little sapling, the huge mountain on
which he stood but little mound, the
river below appeared only silver
thread, and the setting sun but a blazing
star in the sky. The great earth itself,
from horizon TO horizon, seemed only q
few acres in extent, while the sky ap-
peared to have fallen toward the earth.
Alarmed at this strange occurrence"
the Doctor remarked, in conversation
the other day, 81 left the mountain and
hurried homeward. The road seemed
no wider than cowpath. and the fence
on each side only few inches high.
came to a horse and carriage standing
by the roadside. The horse looked as
small as a poodle, and the buggy by no
means as large as . baby carriage.
Farther on / met a man-here / was
struck with amazement. He was the
first fellow-mortal had seen since had
been transferred to this Liliputian
world. He was surely no more than six
inches in height gazed on my own
frame and saw that was of the same
insignificant stature.
I'm giving the dimensions of the d.
minutive objects with which Ifound my
self surrounded" the doctor explained,
''when use the denomination inch, 1
refer to an inch as it appears to you and
as it had appeared to me all my life.
Likewise in comparing the horse to a
poodle and the buggy to a baby
carriage i refer to a poodle and a
baby carriage as they appear to you.
OF course, to me, these objects were now
infinitely small"
81 cannot describe my feelings" DIR.
Santee continued, s'when entered my
fathers house. Everything was so
painfully small. The house itself was
only so high"
AS he uttered the last sentence he
held his hand about two feet and half
above the ground, and then, after mo-
ment he went on.
There was my little mother, smaller
than myself. moving around like an
animated doll, preparing our evening
meal. Then my father came in, a mis-
erable dwarf like myself. There were
the table and the tiny dishes containing
our plain food, the little chairs, etc., all
no larger than the toys had played
with in my childhood.
The next morning when Mr.. Santee
awoke he was gratified to find that
objects had recovered their proper di.
mensions. Soon after this he began the
, study of medicine and graduated in
, Philadelphia in 1875. He, however, pre-
ferred the life of teacher to that of 9
physician, and from the first stood fore
| most in the ranks of successful instruct
ors-
In 1879, while engaged in teaching
, DR.. Santee suddenly found himsel
, transferred to miniature world He ha.
, since dwelt there, surrounded by 8
pygmy existence. He seldom alludes tC
, bis strange experience, and then only Il
his most Intimate friends. He continues
to teach, and his work is followed witt
, its usual good results. He has becom,
I accustomed to the remarkable state o
( things around him, if not actually recon
ciled to his lot, and scarcely hopes Il
I revisit the old world he so well remem
! bers, but which h6 is permitted to Sc,
: only in his dreams.-D0ldtd (Pd.) Cor
l Philadelphia Press.