Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-12-15
A CHAPTER ON DREAMS.
Little DO We Know Of Them-Dyspepsia
a Prime Factor.

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Little DO We Know Of Them-Dyspepsia
a Prime Factor.
Many have discoursed learnedly upon
dreams, propounding wise theories and
making plausible suggestions, yet no one
has ever arrived at any real solution Of
the matter. 1t is only barrier of cloud
that bars the way TO knowledge thereof,
vet no fortress wall could be moro i'm
pregnable. 1t is but step from our
territory where,
Hollow as s breathing spell
Dreamland lies fozlorn Of light
but no man may set mp milestones along
that tracxless waste. We only know that.
when all things lapse to "a sleep and
forgetting the imagination becomes =
fiy-by-night, and the wits speed over
land and sea ike wild birds set free from
the cage.
There are few creatures exempt from
these nocturnal journeyings, however
brief and circumseribed they may be.
The dog "hunts in dreams,n the cat
fights its battles over again. and the bird
sings in its sleep, while even the most
commonplace person can usually give
some crude account OF his experiences III
slumber Certain dreams are common
10 all people--falling from a precipice,
down, down, TO some unfathomed gulf
striving to walk upon q floor that sinks
horribly beneath the feet--endeavoring,
in urgent haste, TO put ON garments that
drop Off turn wrong side out. and de-
velop other impish propensities-riding
in coach which suddenly crumbles to
pieces, and leaves one staring in the
road. So to speak, it is q marked pecu-
liarity of dreams that ''the bottom drops
out OF everything"
So rebellious are dreams, and so erratic
in their course. that they cannot be com
PEELED by any effort IF will; wild fire
could be more easily chained. We may
long ardently 10 see once more, in ''the
wilderness Of sleep. - some beloved ami
vanished face; yet this poor solace may
be denied, while alien images crowd into
the brain. Upon this subject Hazitt
wrote, Il never dream Of the face Of any
one ] am particularly attached to. have
thought almost 10 agony OF the same per
son for years, nearly without ceasing, 81
as to have her face always before me, and
to be haunted by perpetual conscious
ness of disappointed passion, yet never
in all that time dreamt OF that person
more than once or twice, and then not
wildly" Nor can the last impression
received by the mind before slumber
overwhelmsit be calculated upon; for We
may read Of Mother Blood's execution,
and dream, Immediately afterward, Of a
cabbage garden; or, transversely, we may
be Graded BY the most soothing. placid
meditations, yet the weird magician,
who bears the branch Of peoples, will
beckon us to follow through seas Of gore.
Experiment has proved that dreams
may be influenced, II not controlled,
through the inlets Of the senses; the thun.
der of drays upon the cobblestones sug-
gests . tempest to the dreamer, aud the
fumes OF sulphur CT the pleasant odors OF
aromatic water near his nostrils trans
port him to strage countries. For this
reason the noises of awakening life give
color and movement TO the visions that
chang upon the edge OF day, y rendering
them more real aud vivid than those
which come at dead of night
1t Is one Of TIE peculiarities Of dreams
TO seem 10 be tending toward some stu
penduous climax. aad then To turn away
with utter irreleysmcr The dreamer re-
mains imperturl<.lsir IN tie fnce OF the
most astounding transformations; il ami.
mails, and even inanimate objects, become
gifted with speech, he Is not surprised;
yet he is likely TO startled and terrified
b. the most triiling things II he dreams
OF being pursued. IL Is no, by q lion or
tiger, bur, perhaps. let US say, ly an in
distinct yellow bnr, lowering rear the
ground like q wiil-o'-.hc-w isp- ,ulspcak.
ably sinister to his ancy--daTting from
;hiekets, and gliding in and out among
the trees.
1t is somewhat Disseminating to realize
that dyspepsia Is one Of the prime factors
IN dream making. IL matters little
whether the conscience bc clear. il the
digestion be not IN equally good case.
Most people have experienced tho excita-
ton, the superscnsitiveness Of every
faculty, brought about by a febrile con.
dition Of the blood--thc lightness Of head
and limb. extending, as one fancies,
even to the loss of grayity--the strange,
unfamiliar aspect assumed by well known
objects about tho room; for fever, like
indigestion, is a fertile breeder Of phan-
tasms. New Orleans Times-Democrat