Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-11-18
DREAMS THAT COME.
STRANGE FREAKS AND FANTASIES OF
THE SLEEPING MIND.
In What Respects Waking and Sleeping
Dreams Are DiGerent-Rnpidity of the
Brains Action During the Progress of
q Dream-Some Examples.

D1oduAo <1Ic lulJ OF Cu0
Brains Action During the Progress of
a Dream-Some Examples.
The difference between dreams and wax
ing impressions would seem to be, since the
dreamer Of course believes in the present
actual reality of what he sees, that the
ideas or images follow one another as the
result of certain mental operations or asso-
Citations over which we have absolutely no
control, whereas in our waking moments
we may begin, airy or discontinue the
series at will. We cannot divert any of
our impressions while dreaming by refer
ence to external objects, for the simple
reason that the power of comparison is
lost. and there exists a peculiar condition
of mental impotency which gives rise to
every incongruity and absurdity of the
dreamer's experience. .
To give an example Of these: A man
dreams of attending a friends funeral, and
walks and chats in the procession with that
same friend without thinking it at all odd
or peculiar; and frequently, az every
dreamer knows, we will shift our scenes to
almost incredible distances in a mere mo-
ment without a~rousing a single reflection
of establishment at thus overcoming such
physical impossibilities. 1t is marvellous
with what rapidity the mental panorama
sometimes passes in review-so rapidly
that the sound or disturbance which wakes
the sleeper appears actually to set in mo-
ton the train of images which produces
the dream. 1t is told of Il man who served
in our late war that he dreamed he had
enlisted, gone to the front, fought two bat
ties at widely separated times, deserted,
was captured, carried back, court mar
tailed, sentenced to be shot and was
awakened by the report Of the firing party
to find that he had been asleep just four
minutes.
medical writer records a case of a gen
tleman suffering with mitral s~tenosis (valv-
ular disease of the hearty who was COM
PEELED to sleep in a sitting posture, as he
suffered the most horrible sense of suffoca-
ton whenever he lay down. In these
Nightmares he thought he was attacked
by a monstrous skeleton which clasped its
bony fingers about his throat and tried to
strangle him. Once he fell over upon the
bed in his sleep. His attendant ran and
raised him up instantly, yet in that brief
moment of time he seemed to have strug-
gled with the demon for upward of an
hour.
A friend dreamed that he went from
New York to Boston by steamer, spent
several days with an acquaintance, and on
the return voyage, n gale arising, the seas
broke over the vessel and drenched him
with spray. He woke to find his wife
playfully sprinkling water in his face.
He had dozed in his chair for less than five
minutes. A comical story is told of a
naval surgeon in whom dreams of any
character could be produced by simply
whispering in his ear during sleep. He
could be made to go through the whole
ordeal of a quarrel, a challenge and a duel,
the pistol being discharged by him at the
given signal with as much accuracy as to
time as if he were wide awake. Finding
him asleep one day in y hammock on deck
one of the officers whispered in his eur
that he had fallen overheard and to swim
for his life, as a shark was after him. The
fact that it was principally for thtnarines
did not detract a whit from the enjoyment
with which they witnessed his froglike
cOntortions.
On another occasion they told him a YES
sci had been engaged; that the decks were
being swept by musketry fire, and the men
falling like leaves around him. He became
white as a sheet and manifested the live
lest symptoms of fear. After awhile they
all began to groan in imitation of the
wounded, and, upon one of them suddenly
shouting. Down goes Billy McCue" (the
surgeons assistant), the poor fellow jump
ed up with cold perspiration standing like
beads on his forehead and broke for the
cabin on a run. Strange to say, however,
he had afterward not the slightest remem-
brance of IT, dream.
That dreams are ocula subjecta fidelibus,
laid before the faithful eye as mental
shadows of what has passed previously be-
fore us, is evinced by the fact that they
never reveal any change which may nave
taken place in the scene since we last saw
it. If we dream of a place we have visited
in summer it must always recur to. us in
its summer dress, but if we visit the place
both in summer and the scene is apt
to appear in the garb we first saw it in, as
the impression first conveyed is likely to
have been the stronger.
The undiverted ideas of a dream NAV
sometimes correct the errors of the day.
A paying teller in a bank noticed among
the line of patrons one particularly noisy
and impatient individual who insisted upon
the immediate payment of a check for fifty
dollars, as he could not wait his turn. The
teller, to get rid of his opportunities, paid
him and thought no more of the circum-
stance. AT the end of the fiscal year the
books of the bank showed a deficiency of
fifty dollars, and after a weeks hard work
in trying to make them balance he gave
the matter up and drew his personal
check for the amount. The same night he
dreamed, and the whole circumstance of
the noisy individual returned to him 30
clearly that he went to the party's account
and foundw where the money had been paid
and never entered in the books of interest.
Scott relates a story of a gentleman who
was sued for the recovery of certain tithes
which, he was strongly impressed, had
been paid by his father, then deceased.
The night before the trial he dreamed that
his father appeared and told him the debt
had been paid and the papers relating to
the transaction were in the hands of a GER
tain attorney, whom he had employed on
this one occasion for special reasons. He
further said that should the matter have
escaped the attorneys memory it might be
recalled by mentioning a Portuguese gold
piece, which had been given in payment
and the change spent at the tavern. The
gentleman hunted up the attorney, who
had entirely forgotten the matter, but re-
meWbered IL Immediately when the gold