Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-07-08
Fifteen Days in the Hereafter.
CONNECTICUT GIRL WHILE UNCONsCIoe
DREAMS SHE WAS DEAD.

A CONNECTICUT GIRL WILLIE UNCOENoNAOSN
DREAMS SHE WAS DEAD.
On Wednesday, May 16. Miss Cora Mat
toon, of Plymouth, Conn, the daughter o.
D. E. Nation, prominent resident OF the
place, was taken i'll with la grippe. MICS
Mattooa is the belle of the town AID one OF
the teachers III the Episcopal Sunday school.
Shortly after the young lady became Ill sne
apparently fell asleep and SO remained iof
fifteen days. During this time two Oh her
warmest friends, Jennie Hawkins and IHda
Matthews, died. Upon awakening she told
her p,rents OF having met her two friends
snd also an uncle and amt and brother,
all of whom had been dead for long time,
and of having seen strange and weird sights
in the far beyond during her absence from
home, which she supposed occupied two
years.
The young woman is Frustrated by her
experiences, and it is doubtful if she will
ever again recover from the severe shock
which her nervous system has received.
Miss Nation gives this account of her long
dream, which she does not like to speak
about. for it makes her shudder to recall
the awful experience.
"My trance or whatever you call it began
in imagining / saw my own death. saw
father and mother and brothers and sisters
crying around me, and when I was put in
the coffin did not seem to care. thought
after I died that came to long, cold vault
where I met jennie Hawkins and lots OF
relatives who have died. They seemed to
think l was dead like them, and they talk
ed to me, but I can't remember what they
told me.
"They took me with them to high
mountain and left me on the top, which was
a great rock. The rock kept growing small
er and smaller, and at last | had room for
only one foot. I fell of, and for hours
was falling, falling. I landed in an enclos.
ed space filled with wild beasts Of all kinds.
They did not hurt me, but when l tried to
get out they told me could not, and they
spoke to me Just like human beings. l
crouched in one corner of the den, and the
| beasts soon began to fight, and l tainted
away.
ssWhen l recovered l was on rock in
the ocean. The water kept rising to the
| top and I cried for help, but none came.
Soon the water fosted me off the reck and
I sank to the bottom. Oh, the horrible ex-
| pe-ience l had there-snakes and queer
| things of all sorts crawled over me and
could not open my month to call for
help. 1t was not like dream.
81 seem ed to feel the days and weeks and
months 60 by just as now, and l was sure
that two years had passed since I saw my
| father and mother. While at the bottom
of the ocean something with long hairy
arms grasped me, and I tainted again.
When 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 of flowers and
over brooks and rivers all day long. We
we're happy as we could be. forgot every.
| thing else. 1t seemed so real to talk to the
| people whom I knew had died before me
that 1 never imagined that I was truly
| dead.
"That last part of my Inconsistencies
| was the pleasantest, and awoke one morn.
ing to find 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 I had not died, and that it was all a
| horrible dream. How glad I was I cannot
tell you. That is all l remember, but there
were lots of things that happened in that
| long time that have gone altogether out OF
nv mind''