The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1886-12-15
Gift of Second Sight.

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There are wel.authenticated cases
in which entirely unexpected things,
seen to happen while the person see-
Ing them were asleep or in trance.
like state and Immediately described
to other people, occurred quickly after
ward, either just as had been foreseen
Or with little difference, says writer
in Iippincott's Magazine.
In atleast one case this has happened
twice to the same person. A young
ady living in one of the counties OF
Maryland has had such an experience
on two occasions. She is not at all
imaginative, and describes her two
presentiments in straigtfor-
ward matter. of.fact way, making
no attempt to account for
them, but accepting them rs q part OF
the unknowable. One morning she
was in an upper room with her mother,
when the latter, who was talking to
her, was surprised to see her eyes be.
come fixed and vacant. In few mo-
ments her natural expression return
I'd, and she told her mother she had
seen one OF her cousins, who was in
the house at that time, come into
the room below them with knife in
her hand, and that she stumbled and
lell and the knife cut her face. ~ saw
it as plainly rs ! see you now" she
said. Neither thought any more about
the matter until they heard some one
fall in the room below, and, on going
down, they found that the vision had
been exactly fulfilled, except that the
knife had not actually made wound.
Several years afterward, while the
same young lady was on a railroad
train with party OF friends, she fell
into a similar trance condition, last.
ing about as long as the former one,
and on it's leaving her she told her
companions she was afraid there was
going to be an accident, for she had
seen the mangled corpse OF the con-
ductor lying at the foot Of peculiar
embankment at the side OF the road.
She described this embankment
minutely, though she did not ren:em-
Der having seen it on any former
journey. About half an hour after
the train stopped, and it was soon
known that some one had been run
over. 1t was not the conductor, but
deaf man. who had been stepping
over the track, when the engine came
round curve and struck him, killing
him instantly. TIE train went on
slowly. and. as the car containing the
excursion party passed the scene OF
the accident, they eaw that it agreed
exactly with the description they had
heard.
In such cases ~ this it is hard to
know where speculation about their
nature should begin and in what di-
rection it should extend. The varl.
Gus forms of an extraordinary con-
seriousness concerning what is going on
at the time naturally suggest plausi-
ole theories; and as to that vivid rec
election of one whole past life which
sometimes comes with the near APP
proach OF death, the explanation Of
tered by DeQuincey is at least worthy
Of serious consideration. II is con-
ceivable that something in the mind
Of one person might influence the sub
sequent actions OF another; but it
could hardly produce in flew minutes
or hours a combination of circum-
stances not directly dependent on
mere human impulse. The most
natural view OF the matter is that
second sight" is really a special pow
En- possessed by ce.Sain minds, or by