Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-11-19


ground near him. He could distinguish
the form of something in the grass and
attempted to kill it, but it escaped. On
going into the house and passing into
an unllghted room he heard the same
sound again, this time on the floor. He
again attempted to stamp what APP
peared to be little animal OF some
kind, but again made it's escape into
the cook room, where it concealed itself
behind some barrels. Mr.. T-got an
iron poker, and thrusting it into the
place where the mystery was concealed,
was rewarded by killing the little ami
NAL, which proved to be rat. His re-
greet at thus thoughtlessly taking it's
life when he could easily have taken it
alive is lnexpressible. It would, indeed,
have been treasure.
AN OLD PROBLEM.
An old problem of the psychologists
has been revived by a letter to La Nat
ure, written by French businessman,
who mentions that for years ne has
been III the habit of waking himself at
any hour in the morning that he wished,
simply by impressing upon his mind,
before going to sleep, the fact that he
must wake at that time; and saying
further that he seldom varies five
minutes from the moment which he has
assigned himself. The New York
Evening Post, in speaking of his letter,
says that Napoleon I. is related to have
had the same faculty, but adds that It's ex-
istence has never been verified. We
imagine that this experience is not so
rare as the Evening Post supposes, and
that a person need not be a Napoleon to
be favored with this useful faculty"
We have very distinct recollection of
many instances in which we have our
selves tried the experiment with sue
cess, and at one time, when it was nee
essary for considerable period for us
to wake on certain days of the week
at very early hour, to take the first
train to the place where our services
were then needed, we had an opportun-
ity of studying the circumstances I'M
der which this peculiar species of self
control is most easily exercised. Dur
ing this period we found no difficulty in
waking regularly within about five min
utes of the time necessary to enable us
to reach the train comfortably, although
for portion of the time this involved
getting up long before daylight; but
we discovered also that in order to
wake with precision at the right
moment and to rest quietly until it ar
rived it was necessary to look at our
watch just before going to sleep. If we
neglected this precaution we were apt
to sleep uneasily, waking first an hour
or more before the proper time, and al
lowing ourselves in consequence only
short maps afterward until the minute
arrived for getting up. Whatever part
of our mind it might have been that
took charge of waking US seemed to be-
gin it's count of the hours from the
time at which we composed ourselves to
sleep, and if we did not inform our
selves of this our unconscious reckon
ing was correspondence uncertain, and
the effort to wake vague; but if we
took a clear note Of the time in the
evening we could sleep peacefully
through the whole of the allotted inter
val, sure of being aroused at or very
near its expiration.
Another condition Of waking we found
to be the occurrence of some small ex-
ternal event, through which, as it were,
the internal effort could take effect upon
our senses. A very trifing circumstance
the futter of leaf outside the win
dow, the chirp of bird, or any other of
the unnumbered sounds of early morn
ing-was sufficient, if it happened at
/ the right time, to wake us by sort of
magnifying process which at that mo-
ment gave the power of startling us by
noise which would at other times be
unnoticed; but without such sensible
impressions we think we should not
have walked. In fact, on one OF two oc-
casions we remembered to have been
impressed with dim consciousness of
waiting for something to happen before
waking, and a moment later trifing
sound would open our senses with a
little shock. To the necessity of wait
ing for this impression, small as it might
seem to be, we were disposed to attri~
butte the. variation of minute or two
either way from the exact moment as
signed for waking, which might other
wise be kept with exact punctuality. =
American Architect.