Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1889-08-30
HER HAIR TURNED WHITE.
The Vision of Which Miss johann
son Tells In Accounting for II.

]
kind. has been for some time "a sort OF
sight and wonder of the world among
those who have been associated with
her in Minneapolis and have heard the
strange stories which she tells. Mar
velous it is, and many who have heard
it believe that her experience has some
thing OF the supernatural about il. She
is twenty years of age and her hair is
as white aJ snow, silky, and SO long
that IL falls in braid well down to-
ward the ground. Her name is Wen
! della Johanson, and she has been in
! Mime apolis for some months, living
with friends, and, as they say when
not at work is going about doing
good Like the prisoner OF Chillon,
she can truly say;
My hair is gray, but not with age"
But that witness can not from long
/ years of mental and bodily anguish, as
did that of the one of whom the poet
sang. IL turned white in IA single night
while she slept and saw u vision, so she
! says, She believes that her snowy hair
is the mark Of Christ upon her and the
seal of her own redemption. Those
who know her say that her daily life is
such as some might lead whose whole
soul was wrapped up in the belief that
she stood on the very threshold of the
! pearly gates. She has told her story TO
several reliable people who cannot ac-
count for the strange phenomenon on
any natural causes. Miss Johanson
stops sometimes with friends at 2,3l9
Polk street northeast, and while there
she told her story to Mrs. Phoebe Dell
Plain. who lives next door at 2,317.
Mrs. Dell Plain is willing TO be quoted
TO the effect that the young lady has
hair of unnatural wilderness and face
that is always beaming with happiness.
Mrs. Frank +. Rea, who lives at 10
Iwenty-iifth avenue northeast, also
vOuches to the truth of the same state
ment. Others in the vicinity and in
other parts OF the city say the same.
Clergymen have heard of the case and
are puzzled over it, and physicians
point TO the book and say that such
things have happened before.
The story, as Wendela Johanson
tells it herself. is full of interest and
passing strange. She was born in
Sweden and when fifteen years old she
had dream one night. She thought
she was taken by a guide, who was an
old man, homely in appearance and
hateful to her sight, to the very brink
OF hell. All was darkness, more pro-
found than she had ever known before,
and there were sounds of the damned
that filled her ears and frightened her
SO that she was dumb and ready to
fall. 1t was as real as life to her. She
could hear the means and shrieks of
the lost ones coming up from the
bottomless pit. Some cried and cursed
themselves and their Maker, others
sent fearful shrieks up from the dark
ness. and some walled as in utter woe.
The noise was most terrifying, and as
the dreamer thought she was about to
be plunged down with the rest she
shrieked.
Il was standing within just three
steps of the brink" she said. land my
guide stood beside me in the dark
ness"
But she was not doomed to enter
this dark abode even in her dreams.
for soon there came the form OF an old
man. bent, and with flowing white
hair and beard. He stood beside her.
and the ugly one who had led her
there fled at his approach. In gentle
tones the white-haired man asked her
if she would not go with him and look
at the abode Of the blessed. and she
went gladly.
Ii her dream she stood within the
city, "whose walls are set with pre-
cious stones, the new Jerusalem.
She saw the redeemed about the
great white throne, and heard their
songs in a tongue that was not her
own. The light, she says, was not like
that Of the sun. 1t was pure white
light, that fell on everything with an
eject that she could not describe. She
heard little children singing praises,
and saw angels of old saints falling
down before the great white throne.
In the dream, her white-haired guide
led her TO the Savior, and he said 20
her:
"My child. do you wish to dwell for-
ever in this placer
II was so happy" said Miss Johan-
son, TO get away from the dark place
had seen that said / would be willing
to endure anything if | might be al
lowed to stay there.
She says that the radiant figure be-
fore her said to her that he would
put mark upon her that she might be
known of all who saw her for his own.
And then he stretched out his hand
and placed it on her head. saying that
her hair should ever after be white rs
snow. Then her dream faded from
her mind, and she slept naturally until
morning. When she awoke her hair
was as il is now--like snow, as she had
dreamed il was TO be.
When my mother saw me that
morning said Miss Johanson. she
did not know me. Ny hair had al ways
been brown before. When | spoke to
her and she knew my voice she
thought / must have been sick. but |
had not. felt perfectly well. | told
my mother my dream. and at first she
cried. but after awhile she stopped
crying and was glad, because she knew
then that | should always be good
girl. She was glad. and always be-
lieved that my hair turned white be-
cause was marked for one of Christs
own"
This is the story OF Miss Johanson's
vision. She told il in plain, natural
way. and rs If she firmly believes that
she bore the mark OF the Savior on
ba, bN oil ,-ho I'm