River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-09-20
4 Strange Hallncination.

DR.. lyman Santee, resident of Luz
verne county, Pa, has had, perhaps, the
most remarkable experience on record.
The doctor is a man of medium size,
about thirty years Of age, Of great intel
ligence and undoubted veracity.
Though there is nothing in his manner
10 suggest anything unnatural, jet the
world in which he moves could not be
to him more unlike our cwn If he lived
on another planet
When DIR .Santee was ten years young
er he one day took 9 stroll, ascending
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 I'd west. Far
below the admiring you swept along
the broad river; beyond it we're the roll
ing hills, which farther on swelled into
the rugged mountains, where range be-
vond range rose higher and higher TIL
the last hazy SUBMITS mingled with the
wonderful blue Of the summer sky. lt
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
| mountain hetook himself 10 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 manikin clinging to the clilfaboye
| the plain. While indulging in this and
similar thoughts he became bewildered,
and the size of everything around him
suddenly diminished to one-tenth its
former Dimensions. The great pine at
his side became little sapling, the huge
mountain on which he stood but little
mound, the river below appeared only
| a silver thread, and the setting sun but a
blazing star in the sky. The great earth
| itself, from horizon to horizon, seemed
only a few acres in extent, while the sky
appeared to have fallen toward the
earth.
Alarmed at this strange occurrence,
the doctor left the mountain and hur-
ried home. The road seemed no wider
| than a cowpath, and the fence on each
| side only few inches high. He came
| to horse and carriage standing by the
roadside. The horse looked as small as
| a poodle, aud the buggy by no means as
| large as a baby crrriage, Farther on he
met a man, and was struck with amaze
ment. He was surely no more than six
| inches in height He gazed on his own
| frame and saw that he was of sthe same
| insignificant stature.
When he entered his fathers house
everything was painfully small. The
house ita.lf was apparently only about
| two feet and half high.
His little mother, smaller then hun
self was moving around ike an animated
doll, preparing the evening meal. Then
his father came in, a miserable little
dwarf, like himself Their were the ia
bic, and the tiny dishes containing food,
the little chairs, etc, all no larger then
| toys.
The next morning when Mr.. Santee
awoke, he was eratified to find the OBJ
iects had recovered their proper dimen-
sions. In 1870, while engaged in teach--
| ing, Dr. Santee again suddenly found
himself transferred to miniature world.
He has since dwelt there surrounded
| by pygmy existence He seldom al
| ludes to his strange experience, and
then only to his most inmate friends.
| He has become accustomed to the re-
markable state of things around him, If
| not actually reconciled to his lot, and
scarcely hopes to revisit the old world
| he 50 well remembers, but which he is
permitted to see only III his dreams.