Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1888-12-31
A BOYS SECOND SIGHT.
REMARKABLE GIFT OF A BOY WHO
LIVED HALF A CENTURY AGO.

LIVED HALF A CENTURY AGO.
Found in 1.-THE Annals of Philadelphia
He Saw His Father Chasing n Jug-The
Incident of the Stolen Pocketbook-The
Seer Eventually Becomes a Wreck.
Looking over Watson's ANNALS of
Philadelphia" published in 1880. l came
across a remarkable story, which cannot
fail to be of interest both locally and
generally, even at this late day. The
author says:
1.-THE good people of Caledonia have SO
long and exclusively engrossed the fac
ulty Of second sight that it may justly
surprise many to learn that we also have
been favored with at least one case as
we'll attested as their own. / refer to the
instance of Eli Yarnall, of Frankfort.
Whatever were his first p%eculiarities, he
in time lost them. He fell into intern
perate habits, became q wanderer, and
died In Virginia, a young a
h remarkably gifted person was
born in Bucks county, Pa, and came
with his parents to the vicinity of Pitts
burg. The account Of him contained in
the narrative before mentioned is in sub
stance as follows:
When Yarnell was living near this
city, being then a child only Z years of
age, as he was sitting in the house one
day he suddenly burst into a fit of al
most uncomfortable laughter. His
mother asked him what pleased him SO
much. The boy replied that he saw his
father (who was not at home) running
rapidly down the mountain side, trying
to oyertake a Jug of whisky which he
had let fall. The jug rolled part way
down the declivity, but was caught by
the old man before he got to the bottom.
When the father reached home he con
tirmed the whole story, to the great sur
prise of all. After this the boy excited
much talk and wonderment in the neigh
borhood.
E E AT LONG RANGE.
About two years later the Yarnalls
were visited by a friend named Robert
Verree, with other Quaker relatives or
acquaintance from Bucks county.
Verree, to test the lads miraculous
power, asked him various questions and
among other things inquired what was
then going on at his own home in Bucks
county. The boy described the house,
which he had never seen; stated that it
was built partly of logs and partly of
stone; that. there was a mill pond infront
of the house which had recently been
drained, and concluded with a descrip-
ton OF the. people in the house, and of
two persons, a man and q woman, who
Were setting on the front porch.
When Verree reached home he in
quired who had been at his house at the
day and hour he had held his conversa-
ton with young Yarnall. He learned
that there had been q shower at the time;
and several of the field hands had gone
into the house to escape the rain; the
persons on the porch had been faithfully
described, ven to the color of their
hair. AS to the mill pond, the men had
drained it in order to catch muskrats. In
short, every detail given by the boy was
proven to be accurate.
The habit Of the young seer, when
asked to exercise his singular faculty.
was to hold his head downward. often
closing his eyes After waiting for some
time, apparently deep in thought, he
would declare what he saw in his visions.
He was sometimes found alone in the
fields, sitting on q stump and CRYING.
On being asked the cause Of his grief he
said he saw great numbers of men en-
gagged in killing each other. Although
he had never seen a battle, q ship or a
cannon, he described military and naval
battles as if he had been an actual
locker on.
FINALLY BECAME A WRECK.
Some of the Quakers who saw him be-
came much interested in the boy, believ-
ing him possessed of a noble gift, and
desired to have charge of his bringing
up. He was accordingly a~spprenticed to
a Frankford tanner, hut he attracted SO
much attention, and SO many called at
the shop to hold conversation with him.
that his master became annoyed and
tried to discourage such curiosity. The.
boy, therefore, began to shun questions
as much as possible, and seemed by de-
grees to lose his singular gift. He drifted
into bad company and eventually became
a wreck.
His mother never allowed him to take
any money for answering questions, bes
lieving that his visions were God given.
and that it would be wrong to turn them
to account pecuniariiy. Wives whose
husbands had long been missing and
were supposed to have been lost at sea
or persisted in accidents, and others
whose relatives had disappeared would
come to him for information. OF those
still alive, he would tell how they looked
and what they were doing. On one &C.
casion a man asked him in jest who had
stolen his pocketbook, and was much
K aback when the lad replied:
one; but you stole a pocketbook
from another mar when in a crowd.n
And the historian of the boys wonder
full deeds states that such was the fact.
This is about all there Is of the strange
narrative, which, like Sam Wetler's love
letter, ends 30 abruptly that the reader
wishes 1t We're longer.-Pittsburg Dis
patch.