The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1884-01-31
TWO STRANGE DREAMS.
A Singer Sleeping in Omaha Sees
the West Shore Railroad Ac-
cident in q Dream.
New York Letter. !

All the world likes to talk about dreams,
and half believes in them, in spite of great
pretentions to the contrary, and much talk
about physiological causes A dream story,
in which a late railroad accident was the
subject and 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 20 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 often As the train flew along she
thought she saw the different points in the
scenery, commenting upon them from time
to time TO a young Lady who occupied
the same seat with her. The young lady was
close friend, and in the dream
Mrs Seguin thought it perfectly natural that
they should be travelling together She
heard somebody say, "Diefendorf Hill. y That
part Of the dream she remembered with
special dstinctness. The popularity of
dream dialogues, is that though one seems to
be saying much and hearing much, only
few sentences of it all stand boldly out in the
memory after the DREAMER opens his eyes on
new day. And So Mrs. Seguin sleeping in
Omaha thirty-six hours before the accident
on the West Shore road, dreamed she was
whirling along near Utica and heard the
name 'Diefendorf Hill" spoken distinctly.
Then she saw her girl companions face turn
TO that peculiar shade of white which terror
only can produce-saw the same ghastly ri
gidity of muscle spread over the face of the
other passengers, and simultaneously felt
shock which instantly expanded into a graf
ing, grinding, horrible jar that seemed
to splinter the very rocks beneath
the earth. Then all was suddenly
plotted out in one vast engulfment of dark
ness. Out of this Mrs. Seguin seemed to rise
in that mysterious way in which we are all
extricated from dilemmas in dreams. until
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 and crippled like
great animals: and withal saw in one OF
them the friend who sat by her side but
moment before. She was now lying helpless
in the dreadful mass of debris her face death
like and her form motionlesS. There the
dream stopped She told it the next morn
ing, as II was still fresh in her mind on wax
lpS up. but did not, Of course, think
that 1t had any significance. What
was her surprise within three DAYS
10 read Of the accident which occurred on
the LIST Of October on the West 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 ex-
plain such things by material reason
ing, or those who waive them aside
with sheer and smile, tell. if they can,
why Zelda Seguin, sleeping more than a
thousand miles west of Utica, should so ac-
curately dream out an accident three DAYS
before II occurred, and associate friend
with 1t whom she believed TO be safe in her
home IN one of the interior towns of Pennsyl-
wanna She had retired 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 a remarka-
Die dream in regard to public event which
soon after happened Three nights before
Jim Fisk was shot she dreamed she was walk
ing up Broadway and the entire
street was draped in mourning The
shutters Of every store were closed,
and in white letters on black ground
on every one was the name Jim Fisk. y
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 expression to learn that
FISK mad been shot Yet she had never even
seen him.