The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-11-15
THEY WALK SLEEP.
Queer Performances OF People
Who Are Unwilling Victims Of

Queer Performances OF People
Who Are Unwilling Victims Of
Somnambulism.
Many superstitious, weak-minded and
timid people are prone to regard with
awe person subject to attacks of SOM
nambulism as one possessed of familiar
spirits and on speaking terms with
ghosts and all sorts of dreadful things.
But such people are not nearly so COM
mon as they were in the days of puri-
tanic bliss, when even the astute resi-
dents OF bean-loving Boston believed
1t quite the thing to cast old wives in
to the sea, and if they survived the
pillows to hang them as witches. But
those ''good old tines are we'll out of
the way. Somnambulism remains,
however, and even here in Chicago
men and women, and sometimes maids
of fashion, have been known to do mar
velous thing in the silence of the
night. when ''golden sleep doth reign"
Early in the month of last September
well-known jurist, who resides west
of the Chicago river. went to a water
ing-place at Colfax, Iowa, for his rheu-
matism. The hotel was crowded and
the judge was placed in tho same room
with travelling man, who was to be
there only over night. 1t was bleak
and rainy and the wind reared angrily
through the tall trees back of the
hotel. And, as if to further prepare
the guests for tragedy, the landlord,
an old settler, related the story OF an
awful murder committed in the vicinity
years and years before to a party OF
chronic invalids in the parlor
At II o'clock the guests, sick and
we'll, were all in bed. At midnight
every one was sound asleep, and by
o'clock there was nothing save the
moaning of the wind through the trees
interlarded with an occasional snore
from some sound sleeper to be heard.
It was at this moment that the Chicago
jurist distinguished himself and scared
nearly 200 sickly men and nervous
women out of their wits.
"Help! Help! Murder! Help! Muir
der! Murder! Help! Help! O-h-h-h!'
walled the judge, in a voice that fairly
made the building tremble. and then he
moaned as one dying in awful agony.
With the first cry of help from the
Judge every man, woman, and child in
the hotel sat up in bed and let the cold
chills creep unpleasantly along their
spines. The next cry brought half the
guests to the floor and sent the other
half deep down beneath the covers, and
pell-mell, neck or nothing, heller
SHELTER, like a flock of stampeded sheep,
the frightened guests ran, men, women,
and children. arrayed in fantastic
slumber garments of all sizes, sorts,
and styles, from red flannel to pure
white cambria with founces, and
frills. until the corridor around the
judges chamber was packed so close
you couldn't have dropped a pin.
By this time the judge realized that
he had an attack of the nightmare,
so with the crowd of alarmed guests.
They were determined that the Judge
had been assassinated by some anarch-
ist. and were doing their best to kick
the door in with their bare feet. When
the door was finally opened and mat
tiers explained the motley crowd real
lied their lack of raiment and beat a
hasty retreat. But it was an hour be-
fore every one was in his own room. The
embarrassment caused some TO get con-
fused and enter the wrong apartment,
raising pitiful screams of modesty in
all parts of the hotel.
During the holidays young lady
from Monmouth, who visited the fam
lily of her uncle on La Sale avenue,
aroused the neighborhood and several
policemen likewise while in somnam-
bulistic state. The unc Gle and aunt
left the city one evening to be gone
over night. leaving the niece and her
two sisters with the servants in the
house. Fearing that burglars might
enter, the three cousins decided to
sleep in one bed. They were quite tim
erous, and lots were cast for place and
it fell to the visitor to sleep in front.
For better protection the windows
were nailed down and the croquet mall
let placed within easy reach at the
head of the bed. All went we'll until
shortly after 2 o'clock, when the visit
ing cousin sprang out of bed, seized the
mallet, and attacked the dressing case
in the corner of the room in a most
savage manner.
''rve got him! Two got him! Come
on, girls, I've got him!' she screamed,
and with each word she brought down
the croquet mallet with disastrous eff
feet. Smash went a perfume case and
crash went the mirror, while the two
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