Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-03-17
"THE DUCHESS
SIZE TELLS OF DREAMS THAT HAVE
COME TO LIFE.
Novels Born Of slespls's 1ntsrludss-A
story OF Greenland that Has sihc'
Become Pamous-A Dream that
Came 70 Life.
flor the Dispatch.l

nm rretched sleeper. Somnus,
that most desirable OF all the olympian
gods. rejects with heartless perslstency
ali NV advances, passing me by TO give
,est and oblivion TO more fortunate NOR
falls. Nevertheless owe him something;
ont Of these wskeful hours full many
scene il born though | confess that
however vivid they may be, however
earnestlv may seek to imprint them on
nv brain. have always found the great
est difficulty in reproducing them ID me
morning. am told 1t IS capital plan
to keen a tablet beneath ones pillow 80
that when 4 spark from the Prometheao
FIRE falls one NAV rise and embody 1t IN
writing Put rather than rouse myself
from the delicious languor that is my
only substitute for honest sleep trust 10
n treacherous memory, that often plays
we ial-e.
WILD, UNCATCHABLE DREAMS.
From this first early stage OF sleepless,
ness. inst As the dawn begins to break, L
find drop into the desired lnsensioihty'
and then come dreams strange, wlid'
uncatchable dreams, IN the Oeglnning
impossible 10 remember succinctly'
though trailing recollsctlOns OF them run
through the mind long sIterward, especi-
ally in working hours; but alter these
come the sft dreams, az / call them.
where rooms, gardens, tnrniture, STAND
ont 81 clear. so well defined. that 1t IS
impossible to forget them. And III these
rooms aud gardens &C sitting on the
dream lounges are forms, not shado"y
or vague in any way. but real. acting;
sneakiug creatures. more Intensely real
uprhsps in their dresm-liie than the
ilesL-ani-blood men and women among
whom IN our waking moments we I've,
and move, and have our beng.
SO many works are written on so many
subjects that the world should well stand
ttill To wonder a. them but OF all SUB
1ecis is there one so remarkable a6 that
of dreams? i hat old-new beilet That
each one Of Us is endowed with twin
existence has surely some grounds to 90
ON If We thinN OF dreams Once en-
tered into one Of them. and how alive
one t. Each feeling, passion, thought
| letrays itself. How genuine are the
SORROWS. how thorough the laughter
How fraught With acute misery the fear,
the horror, the despair How real are
al things IN tuat curious outside land OF
ours, and yet-how false
MARBLE HALLS.
We start. we wake, suddenly we find
onrselves. instead OF being the lordly
nroprietors Of "marble halls, owners IN
sad earnest Of but very ordinary coun-
trv house where gas is unknown and the
pipes in the bathroom are as rule con-
/ side1ablv out OF order. Not that these
sudden changes work MS sny very ma
terial harm. Madness has often follow
cd on far lighter shocks, brt to arise
from the most blissful dream to find 1t
all so much moonshine has never yet 30
far as | have heard, done harm to any
body. n.
Ii is ont Of these marble-hall inter
ludes that now and then the best stories
have been evolved. ! have myself once
or twice dreamed an entire tale--a short
one, truly, hut long enough to eatisiy a
magazine editor-and perhaps the inosl
curious part of it was that each time
imagined myself re7dUD the story out
OF some paper or other. 80 vivid seemed
the reading part That when ] woke IN the
morning | could hardly convince myself
that had nat read it, aud only an ex
animation of the paper that had figured
in my dream. and was then lying IN my
study. convinced me that the whole
thing was in reality mere fiction OF the
sleeping hours.
wrote those two stories almost wore
for word a. they appeared to me, anc
when printed they seemed to me to reaC
reasonably well. Thev have, at all events
run the gauntlet Of -nglish, American
and continental criticism, and ] have
not heard that they either excelled o.
fell short of my more ordinary work.
Twice only this happened TO me
Once again, however, lately l dreamed
a tale but one so strange, 50 weird, Sc
complicated that | have up to thu
shrunk from putting 1t into actua
words.