The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-04-01
BILL NYE'S LETTER.
Somnambulism and Crime.

A recent article in the London Post
on the subject of somnambulism calls to
my mind several little incidents with
somnambulistic tendencies in my own
experience.
This subject has, indeed, attracted
my attention for some years, and it has
afforded me great pleasure to investigate
it carefully.
Regarding the causes of dreams and
somnambulism there are many theories,
all of which are more or less untenable.
My own idea, given of course in plain,
crude way, is that thoughts originate on
the inside of the brain and then 90 at
once to the surface, where they have
their photographs taken, with the un-
derstanding that the negatives are to be
preserved. In this way the thought
may afterward be duplicated back to
the thinker in the form of dream, and,
if the impulse be strong enough, mus
cular action and somnambulism may
result.
On the banks of Bitter creek some
years ago lived an open-mouthed man
who had risen from affiuence by his
unaided effort until he was entirely free
from any incumbrance in the way of
property. His mind dwelt on this mat
ter a great deal during the day.
Thoughts of manual labor fitted
as impracticable. Then other means of
acquiring property suggested them
selves. These thoughts were photo
graphed on the delicate negative of the
brain, where it is rule to preserve all
negatives. At night these thoughts
/, We're reversed within the think resort,
if | may be allowed that term. and mus
cular action resulted. Yielding at last
to the great desire for possessions and
property the somnambulist groped his
way to the corral of total stranger
and selecting q choice mule with great,
dewy eyes and real camel 's-hair tail he
fled. On and on he pressed, toward
the dark, uncertain west, till at last
rosy morn clomb the low, outlying hills
and gilded the gray outlines of the sage
brush. The coyote skunk back to his
home, but the somnambulist did not.
He awoke as day dawned and when
he found himself astride the mule of
another slight shudder passed the en-
tire length of his frame. He then fully
realized that he had made his debut as
somnambulist. He seemed to think
that he who starts out to be somnam-
bulist should never turn back So he
pressed on, while the red sun stepped
out into the awful quiet of the dusty
waste and gradually moved up into the
sky and slowly added another to those
already filed away in the dark NAV of
ages.
Night came again at last, and with it
other somnambuiists similar to the first,
only that they were riding on their own
beasts. Some somnambulists ride their
own animals, while others are content
to bestride the steeds of strangers.
The man on the anonymous mule
halted at last at the mouth of deep
canon. He did so at the request of
other somnambulists. Mechanically he
got down from the back of the mule
and stood under stunted mountain
pine.
After awhile he began to ascend the
tree by means of his neck. When he
had reached the lower branch of the
tree he made a few gestures with his
feet by lateral movement of the legs.
He made several Intellectual efforts to
kick some pieces out of the horizon, and
then, after he had gently oscillated a
few times, he assumed a pendent and
perpendicular position at right angles
with the limb of the tree.
The other somnambulists then took
the mule safely back to his corral, and
the tragedy of a night was over.
The London Post very truly says that
where somnambulism can be proved it
is d good defense in q criminal action.
1t was so held in this case.
Various methods are suggested for
rousing the somnambulist, such as tick
ling the feet, for instance, but in all my
own experience | never knew of more
radical or permanent cure than the one
so imperfectly given above. 1t might
do in some cases to tickle the feet of a
somnambulist discovered in the act of
riding away on an anonymous mule,
but how could you successfully tickle
the soles of his feet while he is standing
on them? In such cases the only true
way would be to suspend the somnam-
bulist in such a way as to give free
access to the feet from below and at the
same time give him a good, wide hori-
zon to kick at.