Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-07-18
THEOREMAfIC DREAMS.
WARNING RECEIVED BY A TEXAS
FARMER AND HIS WIFE.

Dreaming Of Raid Of Mexican Greasers.
which Was FULFILLED In the Pancho Parras
Massacre-The Neighbors Couldn't On
derstand why the Farmer Moved.
Impending perils may cast shadow
persistently ignored In waking state,
while the mind Is under the influence of
self deluding optimism-the wish that
is father to the belief in the significance
of the threatening danger. But in sleep
the voice Of the monitor cannot be ST.
fenced by such illusions, and warning
forebodings often take the form of dis
tinct visions, repeated with vividness
and frequency which at last cannot fail
to influence the actions of the individual,
In spite of all waking sophisms.
DREAMED IT TWICE.
remember the instance OF an Ameri-
can family that had settled in the
northern uplands of Cameron county,
Texas, but before the end OF q year re-
moved to the vicinity of larger settle
ment and sold their half completed
home for reasons that remained mys-
terry to their upland neighbors.
"We had selected that building site
after good deal of prospecting" the
first proprietor of that house told me a
few years later, ''and at first it seemed q
puzzle to me that nobody had pre-empted
it long ago. 1t was broad hill with a
fine prospect east and south; we had ain
abundance of timber, fine range, two
good springs, and ledge of soft lime
stone within a thousand yards of the
house, where you could shape out build
ing stone with common saw. | never
could hope to find better neighbors;
they actually got up picnic to celebrate
our arrival, SO glad they were to have
English speaking folks within visiting
distance.
1--WE had every prospect of getting an
improved road and postoffice, and three
months after our first entry l would not
have sold that homestead for ten times
my direct expenses. But about half a
year after that ranch seemed haunted
place and didn't feel at rest night or
day, though people that know me are
not likely to call me superstitious. Inever
was afraid of darkness even when was
a boy and a swarm of ghosts would not
scare me worth cent. But one night,
about q week after had got home from
a trip to Brownsville Landing, dreamt
our house was tackled by q band of
Greaser bushwhackers (Mexican bandits)
and that they shot me down and killed
my little boy with club, and then
loaded their horses with everything they
could move.
"Two nights after l had exactly that
same dream over again, and could see
every stick and stone in our yard, when
I tried to make break for our next
neighbor and was shot down just as /
rushed through the gate. l noticed the
very horses and saddles of that gang and
could have recognized every one of them
if ! had met them in daylight, and / now
do believe that did see them somehow
or other on that trip to the landing.
THE wfFR's WARNING.
1.-The idea began to haunt me when that
dream had come back for the third time,
though I never said word; but ono
morning my wife seemed uneasy till all
our farm hands had started to work,
and then asked me to come out in the
garden for q minute.
"'Do you think there are any robbers
in this neighborhoodY she asked me
when we were quite alone.
"'Why, did you see or hear anything
suspicious? l asked her back. ..l.
"'No, but l had such strange dream
last night, said she, with sort of
shudder. 1 dreamt gang of Mexicans
came to our house and made me run for
my life, end just before got through
the door saw them knock down little
Tommy with a club
"'Didn't | help your laughed.
"I don't know she said. Il saw you
collar one of them, and / kept calling
for you in English to save yourself, but
just as you dashed through the gate I
heard the crack of shotgun and then l
tainted
II made no reply, but that minute I
felt that we couldn't stay any longer,
and two weeks after I made up my mind
to move to Indianola. There were no
Mexicans in our immediate neighbor-
hood at that hill farm, and no serious
robbery had happened anywhere nearer
than Casa Blanca, but I felt that had
to look for new home if I expected to
get an hours peace, and it often seemed
to me that Twas doing sin if | let my
little boy out of sight for ten minutes.
So we made up an excuse about schools
and postoffice and managed to sell our
pretty place for a few hundred. The
neighbors thought / must be half crazy,
but Tcouldnt help it; and just TN weeks
after we were gone We got the news of
that Pancho Parras massacre. The
whole neighborhood had been sacked
and outraged, and as l know my boy,
am now morally certain that he would
have stood his ground and got himself
killed If he had seen any brute lay his
hands on his mother"
The very .homeliness of that account
impressed me with acenviction of its abb
'solute truth, and on the whole consider
it the most characteristic instance of
what Artemidoros would have called
"theorematic dreams. Felix L. Oswald,
NJ. D., in The Open Court.
A Diamond Experts Views.
Ialways smile when I SEQ articles in
tho papers telling people how they may