Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-06-25
Cora Mattoon Lapsed into Uncon-
sciOuSness for 1 ) Days and had
Strange Experiences.
See tlreamet Of Talking with Depart
ed Friends. and Never Imagined
She was D ad.
On Awaking, Cora Declared Her
Chum Jennie was Dead as She
had Seen Her,

During the past three months there has
been several hundred cases OF la grippe in
the Naugatuck Valley, but none of them
seems to have the effect OF that of which
Miss Cora Mattoon, of Plymouth, Conn,
was the unfortunate victim.
Miss NATION is the daughter of D. E.
NATION, of Plymouth centre, who is
prominent Episcopalian. She is the belle
of the town and one of the teachers IN the
Episcopal Sunday school.
On Wednesday, May 16, she was taken
ill, and Dr. Pease diagnosed the case to be
la grippe, with indications of pleurisy and
pneumonia. Shortly after the young
lady became i'll she apparently fell asleep
and so remained for fifteen days.
During this time two of her warmest
friends, Jennie Hawkins and Tilda Matt
news, died. Upon awakening she told
her parents of having met her two friends
and also an uncle and an aunt and broth
er, all of whom had been dead a long time,
and of having seen strange and weird sights
in the far beyond during her absence form
home, (which she supposed occupied two
years.
The young woman is Frustrated by her
experiences, and it is doubtful if she she
will ever again recover from the severe
shock which her nervous system received.
She mad fallen from mountain into a
bottomless pit, mad been drowned, had
been burned to death and had been torn
limb from limb by wild beasts and had
visited heaven.
Miss Matoon's experience, DIS told by her
self, is strange one. Shortly after re-
gaining Consciousness she said to those
around her.
$50 poor Jennie is dead
She and Jennie Hawkins were great
friends, and great care had been taken
that Miss NATION should not be told of
Jennie's death
How did you know she was dead?"
Miss NATION was asked.
"Oh, met her while I was away, and
she told me" was the reply.
The sick girl also said she thought she
had been away about two years, Judging
from the scenes she had gone through, and
she cannot yet be persuaded that it was
any less.
The rest of the story is told by herself,
with her father consent. She did not
wish to speak about the matter at first, as
the recollection made her shudder, but
finally consented. She is a brunette Of
very attractive appearance. She said to
me-
my trance or whatever you call it be-
gan in imagining | saw my own death. |
saw father and mother and brothers and
sisters crying around me, and when [ was
put in tie coffin did not seem to care. |
though after | died | came to long, cold
vault where ! met Jennie Hawkins and
lots of relatives who have died. They
seemed to think | was dead Ike them,
and they talke! to me, but can't re-
member what they told me.
They took me with them to high
mountain and left me on the top, which
was great rock. The rock kept growing
smaller, and at last had room for only
| one foot. | fell off, and landed in an in
closed space filed with wild beasts of all
kinds. They did not hurt me, but when I
tried to get out they told me could not,
and they spoke to me just like human
| beings. | C. uched in one corner of the
den, and the beasts began to fight and |
tainted away.
when | recovered | was on rock in
the ocean. The water kept rising to the
top and | cried for nel p. but none came.
Soon the water Aoated me off the rock and
[ sank the bottom. Oh, to the horrible ex-
perience | had there-snakes and queer
things Of all sorts crawled over me and |
could not open my mouth to call for help.
| 1t was not like dream.
81 seemed to feel the days and weeks
and months go by just the same as now,
and | was sure two years had passed since
| saw my father and mother While at
! the bottom of the ocean something with
long hairy arms grasped me, and tainted
again. Wien | awoke | was in the most
splendid place you could imagine. All
my dead friends were with me and we did
nothing but wander through fields full of
flowers and over brooks and rivers all day
long. We were as happy as we could be.
| forget every thing else. 1t seemed so
real to talk to the people | knew had died
before me that | never imagined that |
was truly dead.
''The last part of my unconsciousnnss
was the pleasantest, and ] awoke one
morning to fine my sister looking at me.
| thought she, too, had died and come to
me, but after while, when my eyes became
accustomed to the old familiar sights, |
knew had not died and that it was all a
horrible dream,
How glad | was | cannot tell you.
That is all | can remember, but there were
lots of things that happened in that long
time that have gone altogether out of my
mind. "
Miss Nation is fast recovering and
the flush of health is beginning to come
into her cheeks. She is one Of the mostre-
spected young ladies of the town and is
popular young member of the church.
THE ''FATAL PATIENT.o