The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-03
SWEETNESS OF DREAMS.
How Long it Takes a Sleeper to Get
Through Ten Hours Work.
From the San Francisco Call.

How Long it Takes a Sleeper to Get
Through Ten Hours Work.
From the San Francisco Call
A few evenings since number of news
paper men were in an office awaiting the
arrival of a gentleman who was to call
| together a meeting that they had been
| directed to report for their respective pa
pers.
A number of topics were discussed, and
one of these was dreams and the extreme
rapidity with which mental operations
| are performed. A number of experiences
were given, but the one that attracted
the most attention was that of Call rep
| resentative, who narrated what he had
| done in dream
lit was" said he, Sin 1868, that after
hard days work reached home and lost
no time in retiring CHANGING at the
clock as I turned off the gas, noticed
that it was just sixteen minutes after
midnight.
shall tell at this point how long
was dreaming, or first tell what aid in
my dream} That you all may better APP
preciate what was done | will defer the
matter until the end. Bear in mind that
| what is to be told was in a dream. Seated
in the old Office on Commercial street,
above Mongtmery, was endeayoring to
| put into presentable shape the facts of
/
| court, when in came e. A. Rockwell,
who was the chief editorial writer, and
| calling me by name, said: You had bet
ter get ready and go to San Leaudro;
| there's been a terrible railroad accident:
there ) fifty or sixty people killed, and |
| don't know how many injured George q.
Barnes, at that time one of the proprie-
| tors, and managing editor, had over
heard Rockwell. and in that quiet way of
| his suggested that no time be lost in
! reaching Oakland and there procuring a
| buggy and pair of horses. to go to San
| Leandro, or wherever the accident was.
| Rushing down to the ferry landing at
| the corner of Pacific and Davis streets,
| reached there in time to find that the
steamer for the other side of the bay had
| just pulled out, and that I would have to
wait half an hour for the next boat The
| delay was veXatious, and then when the
| ferryboat did move eastward it seemed as
if she would never make her landing, she
seemed to be going so slowly. When the
slip on the other side was reached there
was some accident to the local train and
there was not any prospect of starting
for an hour or more; there was not a
team Of any kind at the landing; so l
| had to walk to Oakland. A desire to
make up for lost time urged me on, and
think the time made from the landing to
Broadway and Washington streets has
never been beaten by man. Near the
corner | went into a livery stable and
There was delay there, for
the proprietor had his doubts
about the ability of the team
making the trip out and back. Finally
started, and the way those horses flew
over the road was caution. When the
scene of the disaster, some distance be-
| yond San LeandrO, about fourteen miles
| Cali cd A.
once TO gather the facts Down on the
note book were penciled the names of
thirty-odd men, women and children who
| had either been killed outright or burned
to death in some of the cars which had
caught fire. Then followed the names of
about forty who had been injured, a de-
| scription of their injuries aud the opin-
! ions Of the physicians who were in at
! tendance as to the possible outcome in
| each case. Now, any of you who
| have had experience in gathering
| information of that kind can fully
| appreciate that it was not childs play,
! for the injured were in different
| places, and it required time to get
around to them all. Then there was the
obtaining of data about the dead. A num-
Der of them were well-known residents of
this city, others were from San Jose, so
il became necessary to obtain enough to
| give each a decent obituary notice. In
addition to this it became a part of my
| duty to get the statement of passengers,
so as to describe their feelings when the
| train derailed and went over on its side
| down a little gully, and be able to write
| up the narrow and fortunate escape of
each. Then there were railroad officials
| to interview, and, as you all know, they
are the hardest kind of people to obtain
| facts from.
"Well, it took nearly three hours to get
! all the matter that was needed for a SEN
| sational article that was to appear under
q half-column scare-head. Then there
was the ride back to Oakland settlement
with the livery stableman, who swore
| that he would never rent team to q
| newspaper man again, a rush in hack to
the ferry landing and the trip TO this
| city. Without waiting to get anything to
eat, made my way to the Office and at
| once began to write up, telling every one
who came to ask for details to let me
| alone. l did not write in copper-plate
style, and for that matter I never did
but wrote and kept on writing, until |
had enough to fill what would make about
four columns of the Call of the present day
and wrote that big scare head. AS
handed the last line to the foreman to set
upI heaved a sigh of relief and exclaimed;
Thank goodness, that's donel'-that is
my dream.
"At that moment l felt a hand on my
shoulder, jumped from the bed and heard
my wife ask, What are you dreaming
aboutn l lit the gas, looked at the clock
and discovered that it was seventeen and
one-half minutes after midnight, or, in
other words, that in my dream of not
less that one minute had performed all
that have related2
Il have figured on the time it would
take me to do what did in that dream
and find that it could not be done in less
than ten hours under the most favorable
circumstances
As the narrator finished the long
waited-for invidual arrived, calling the
meeting to order all attended strictly to
business, and the subject of dreams was
reserved for discussion at some future
time
The attention OF the Russian government
has been called 10 q serious danger to nayiga-
ton on the lower Volga, which has its origin
in the careless way in which the nBphtha
transported on the river is handled. The
vessels used for the purpose are mostly small
and ~leahy wooden affairs, which let out a
quarter or a third Of their contents in their
voyage from port to port. On this account
the lower NOlga is about this time OF the year
covered with a thick film of the oil. and now
and again patch Of this stun will catch fire
ana burn away for an hour or more. Some
times. indeed, the fire communicates from