New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-06-30
ROMANCE OF A DREAMER.

i Vi =
readily remember a time when I was
wont TO ridicule those people who be.
dieve there aresuch things as God given
messages senttoy while sleeping, that
will bring you good orr lin accordance
with how you receive them. I was
one who considered these warnings,
ANTS, suggestions, merely the children
of an idle brain begot of nothing but
vain fantasy" I was in the habit of
referring to anything seen or heard in
my sleeping hours as comfy a dream"
All that is changed now. lam dream
rer. [ am not a spiritualist in the gen
@eraHy accepted sense OF that term,
yet have a strong and abiding faith
Ell q certain force of which we as yet
know very little-a force the power of
which seems boundless, which follows
mo given rule and is utterly beyond
control
The story am about to relate is, I
will admit, marvelously strange and
seemingly beyond the shadow Of real
aty- Had any one told it to me three
years ago should have pooh-poohed
it as nonsense. About it there are
many things which defy explanation.
All my attempts to investigate them
have been futile. It is impossible to
get to the bottom Just so far can
so and no farther. The lines, clear
and firm and symmetrical in the fore
ground, run off into a mist that defies
penetration.
Sixteen years ago l spent month
IN the Engadine. had been studying
art in Paris during the winter, and
had gone off on asketching tour among
Che mountains as soon as the sunny
days Of June had followed the smiling
days Of May. Travelling from place to
place | found myself one evening at a
quaint little inn in q village called
Be-gun. I had come down from st.
Moritz and was on my way back to
Paris and my studies. Never had
anyehing had seen so impressed me
as did the picturesque effects Of that
Aittie bunch of houses on the bank of
81 rushing river, above which pine.gird-
led peaks rose into the white moon
slight. The houses were low and deep
roofed, with overhanging eyes and
irickety balconies; and with windows
small and many -paned Firewood
was piled beside the doorway OF each
little chalet, and here and there as l
walked along the dusty, rocky road
way out of town, upon q log OF wood
Or LII q heavy, clumsy chair sat berry
Vlllager enjoying the evening and his
pipe never forgot Bergun, and often
would I take out the sketches made
there, and gaze on them with rapt in
terest, while I could imagine myself
once more in the heart OF the Alps, be-
side the rushing river, looking down
upon the rocky hills and the high sail
ING n,oon-
Three years had passed-over three
Years, 1t was in the latter part OF
November. I was home again in dear
old Philadelphia. My work had been
recognized as meritorious. | was q
member Of the national academy of
design, and | was gradually working
go gain q place in the front rank OF
Landscape painters. had been paint
ing all day, elaborat ting one of my En-
:gadine sketches. It was a picture Of
"a. rocky gorge, with a frail cambridge
crossing over stream which rushed
I'm q torrent through the gorge's mar
TOW confines. | had succeed in getting
a capital moonlight effect upon the
water, and when [ fell asleep it was
with a satisfied sensation that comes
after the successful accomplishment
OF a desired end.
taad never been given to dreaming.
Very seldom was my sleep any more
than 81 blank page, but on this. night
II dreamed dreams and saw visions. -
dreamed as never in my life I had
) dreamed before. 1 was in Switzer-
! land agaln-in Bergun, with it's pict-
; uresque houses, it's dusty roads,
Its noun talns, it's rivers, and it's
seass4s..ss batt was not alone. 1t seemed
Sa'as j had spent IL week there, and
that that week had been passed in
the society OF a family of New York
people Of The better class--intelligent
: and refined as well as wealthy. In
! that one night | experienced that Of
wllics IN my waking hours had never
mad anything but a very faint idea. 1
aaad always secuted love as a thingfor
poets to rave about, as something
sznore mythical than real, as something
bhat, ooaald be cultivated, but that
ws8uid soon die for want of attention.
believed firmly that | should never
aove unless forced myself intoit, and
that should be constant only be-
cause Of continual self-watchfulnes
and effort in that direction.
In chat one night my creed was ex-
r2ploded. I loved. The object OF my
alteration was the younger daughter
OF the family with which I seemed to
( have, spent the pleasant weeks. She
-arsls just is, but she was not to be
compared for one moment with the
chits Of girls whom had been accus-
toned to associate with that age.
She was q woman, and all that the
word woman implies. Moreover, she
was a. beautiful woman, beautiful with
~ chic, plquant beauty that I have
never seen or heard APPLY described.