Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-05-20
BLIND MEMS DREAMS.
Peculiar Visions OF the sightless In Their
Slumber6.

SAUNDERS.
Dreaming the happy hours away" is
the refrain of a once popular song.
There are few people. nevertheless, who
do not profess to prefer the pleasures of
the waking hours to those of slumber,
however bright may be their visions.
But to the blind who have in other days
looked out upon the beauties of nature
and met their fellows in the fullness of
sight, the happiest hours are those
which bring to them the oblivion OF
sleep and the sweet consolation of
dreamland. Superintendent Hall of
the Working Home for Blind Men in
West Philadelphia said yesterday in
conversation upon this subject: II have
no greater pleasure in life, now that l
have lost my life, than in dreaming,
for then, and then only, / catch glimpses
of the world about me. am no longer
blind. The scales fall from nv ewes
and l see like other men; see as did in
years gone by before the terrible afiiic-
ton came ON me and shut out the light
of day. In dreamland never seem to
have been blind. / am ut the home
to be sure, but, instead of having only
my fingers and my ears to guide me, /
can see the inmates. and what is stran-
ger yet, although in reality I have never
seen one of them, in my dreams they
all appear familiar to me by sight and
| not by their voices"
This curious experience of Mr.. Hall
seems to be that of all persons who have
become blind after the early years of
life have passed. The blind who have
been so afflicted from birth never dream
of seeing anything. The impressions
of their dreams are regulated by the
impressions made and ideas obtained
by the sense of touch or hearing, Of
ligent inmates of the West Philadelphia
Home" who came into the world
blind, says that, although he has read a
| great deal, he never dreams of the
things he has read about, and never
dreams of any thing or person with
which he has not in some way come in
personal contact. He dreams of mu-
sic, of the voices of persons he knows,
of such incidents as might happen at
the "home," or some place in which he
has actually been, but never of incl
dents in other places or in other lands.
OF landscape, picture, tree, or a
human being he never dreams. Even
although he has read descriptions of
localities, of natural beauties, of the
appearance of a street or city, no
idea of what they look like is formed in
his mind, and none comes to him in the
fancies of his sleep.
A blind man has been known to
e IL Il L. Al. ~. A
story: 81 heard a voice at the door and
said: Bless me if that amt john
and / took him by the sleeve; it was his
shirt-sleeve felt and ] was afraid of
him. Then dreamed that he contin-
ued to brighten me, as knew that he
was dead. | thought that | was being
pursued by his ghost. Then i woke
up and felt no more. Our blind friend
at the home often dreams of being out
on the street or in the country. but he
did not dream that he saw the street or
the scenery in the country; but he felt
the open air of the country and recog-
nized the street because he was dream
ing of one along which he had frequent
ly walked.
Curious and full of interest as are the
dreams of the blind of every condition,
there is class of blind people whose
sleeping impressions are of especial in
terest-that class of unfortunate people
who become blind when quite young,
at period when external objects and
the outward world generally has just
begun to make an impression upon
them. Such blind people sometimes,
but not always, dream that they can
see; but in their vision they see things
with the eyes of childhood and they
never dream of any scene or object ex-
cept those which like dim recollection
have remained in the memory from
what they actually saw before they be-
came blind. A blind man who was
stricken at the age of years and never
visited the country dreams of seeing
city streets, city houses, or city parks,
but never of country scenery, of rail-
road, or of river, and so vice versa.
| AS often as not this class of blind per-
sons dream as if they had never been
blind at all, and at other times as If all
memory of blindness had passed from
them. = Philadelphia Record