Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-05-02
THREE INSTANCES.
Actions Which Demonstrate a Peculiar
Power of Mind Over Body.

Power of Mind Over Body.
l had intended to head this article en-
stinct" but it struck me that two of
the stories at least which have to tell can
hardly be called instinct, and as l don't
know what else TO name them call them
simply Three Instances"
They are on the same principle as that
old story of the singer who had lived on a
canal boat before she became famous, and
one night as she stood before the audience
somebody shouted out Low bridger' and
the woman ducked her head.
Pie first instance is about two young
fellows, who, barefooted in the wilds of
America, were turning hay in a meadow
The two were talking together as they
turned the hay. Suddenly one of the boys
heard a sound like the rafting of very dry
peas IN pod. He never looked down to
where the noise came from, but with a
suddenness that was puzzling to his COM
panioR he gave one yell and jumped at
least half a rod.
His comrade, looking in amazement from
the boy to the place he jumped from, saw
coiled near spot where a bare foot had
been large rattlesnake. Two OF three
blows from the pole with which he was
turning the hay killed the RATHER. Now,
the young man who jumped had never seen
a rattlesnake before, never had heard rat
tlesnake rattle, was not thinking of snakes
at all, did not even see the snake before he
jumped, yet if he lived to be one hundred
years old he will never again take such a
leap as that one was.
The second instance is about snake that
wasn't there. 1 was up the other day see
ing a man who had spent most of his life
in India. l noticed that one of the panes
of his window was broken.
How did that happen?" l asked
you see, ;" was the answer, lit was this
way: Yesterday / went out for long
tramp, and wore a hole in the toe of nv
stocking, which didn't notice at the time
and didn't notice this morning when put
it on. was absent mindedly putting on
my shoe when suddenly my toe touched
something cold, and before l could remem-
Der that was in England and not in India
l kicked that shoe through the window.
never put my shoes on in India without
shaking them out to see that nothing was
in them in the shape of snakes This morn
ing forgot that was in England and re-
membered that hadn't shaken my shoe.
The third instance was something of the
same sort. l was coming from the Temple
station to the Strand when saw ahead of
me well known war correspondent. 1t
was nasty, slushy day and / hurried to
catch up with him. On one of the streets
leading from the Strand to the embank-
ment a good deal of building is going on.
At the moment l speak of cart filled
with gravel backed up TO where the build
ing operations were proceeding and the
man opened the back of the cart The
gravel with a rush and roar fell out on the
road. Instantly my friend, the war CORE
spondent, flung himself face down in
the mud. He got up rather sheepishly,
looked around him and brushed the mud
off his trousers as well as he could. When
came up to him said:
What in the name of wonder made You
do a thing like that" You didn't trip.
did yousn
No" he said, II didn't trip. threw
myself down" and he laughed rather I'M
comfortably. 1T was like this, you see.
You heard that gravel shoot out of the
cart? Well, that is exactly the sound of
shell overhead. Coming up from the sta
ton was thinking of the Russo Turkish
war, and was really at Plevna and not in
London at that moment, and when heard
that rush of the shell l was down on nv
knees before thought of it, That's what
we always did when we heard a shell COM
ing during the war. If you are down on
your face in the sand you are not so apt to
be hit by the fragments. st. James Bud
get