The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-10-12
TALES OF THE TIMES.
Il. ". smaIIey Tells of Some Very Queer
Experiences.

/
Il. ". smaIIey Tells of Some Very Queer
Experiences.
Tho stories am about TO relate got at
first hands, which Is perhaps their chief
merit We read a good many things In
books and newspapers that are out OF the
ordinary range offour experience and
| which we hesitate 20. believe, but when
friend tells us face 30 face and with all
| seriousness Of some extraordinary occur
| renee we are very apt TO treasure it up In
| memory and classify IL with the unex-
planned phenomena VI this mysterious hu-
man life OF ours.
A lady Of my acquaintance, who Is en-
| gagged in newspaper work In New York,
received visit "a few years ago from
western friend who was about 10 take n
sound steamer for Boston the same even
| ing. While they were talking the lady had
"a startling vision. She seemed 20 see the
man walking on the deck of steamer on
a dark night when the falling rain froze
into sleet as it struck the deck. He slip
ped and fell, slid under the guard rail and
was enPulfcd In the sea- The vision came
and passed in second. The lady begged
her friend not TO go on the steamer that
night She told him what she had seen.
He was materialist and laughed the
whole matter off as q bit of idle fancy.
He took the boat that evening, slipped on
the icy deck, fell overheard just as he did
in tho vision and was drowned.
Three years ago I was living In a car
and travelling from town TO town in the
state of Washington. In Cheney / had a
call from real estate man. Some way or
other the talk drifted to queer experiences.
My friend told me he had had one such ex-
perience In life and one only. Ten years
before he was running train out of Chi
cago as n conductor on one Of the Burling-
ton lines One morning after heavy rains,
when there were freshets in the streams,
he stood upon the platform of way sta
ton about three miles front the crossing Of
] "a small river He was about to signal his
| engineer TO go ahead, when voice spoke
| plainly In his ear, "Look out for the
bridget No one was standing near at the
time. He walked forward and said to the
engineer, Jim, / think you had better
slow down at the curve just this side OF
the bridge" "There is nothing the mat
ter with the bridge" said tho engineer,
cor we would have had wire from 1t. "
perhaps there isn't" replied the conduc-
tor, "but you slow down all the same"
| There was sharp curve "a short distance
from the approach to the bridge, so near
| in fact, that IL would have been impossi-
BILE to stop the trail after coming in sight
of the bridge had It been running at the
usual rate of speed. The engineer slowed
down. The bridge was gone. 1t had been
carried away between the time the train
| left the last station and its arrival at the
curve. Had it not been for the mysterious
warning the whole train would have gone
into tho river
A prominent Chicago physician once
kept drug store in n small town in Illi-
nois. Across the street from the store was
q considerable stretch Of unfenced town
lots. Sitting in the shade In front of the
store one summer afternoon, the doctor
saw young man of his acquaintance ap-
preaching across the open lots. When he
was five OF six rods away, the doctor, with
out any symptoms of being in an abnor-
NAL condition, seemed to sec the whole
anatomical structure Of the man-all his
bones and internal organs-and at the
same time he saw the contents Of the
young mans pockets. The vision passed
I'm an instant When tho youth came up
10 the doctor, the latter said: Henry,
can tell you just what you have In your
pockets. In one Of the pockets of your
trousers you have bunch of string for
tying up bags In the other there is black
handled jackknife, two tenpenny nails and
half dollar. The date on tho half dollar
Is 1856" Tho young man turned his
pockets inside out and showed that he was
carrying the articles described. He took
tho coin, looked at il and found that the
IA 49, q 10 II.
was so astonished at this case of olairvoy-
ance that he nearly tainted.
will add queer experience Of my own.
In company with three friends undertook
to ford slough of the Yakima river, In
the state of Washington, four years ago.
We lad a big wagon and a four horse
team. The river was very high, and the
broad slough was running like n mill
race. We knew that the fording place was
narrow and the water deep, but we expect
cd nothing moro serious than to get our
feet wet by the water coming into the
wagon box. When about half way across,
the lead horses got their hind feet over the
doubletrees and became unmanageable.
The wagon was swept off the ford into
deep water. One Of my friends, W. ;.
Mellen who was then general manager or
the Northern Pacific railsoad, swan
ashore. Two others climbed out of the
tail end of tho wagon and managed to keep
their footing in the current until rescued.
/ attempted the same feat, but was the
last man Co get out, and before l could
find any footing the wagon was swept into
deep water, overturned, and wagon, horses
and myself were soon floundering In the
current. l could not swim, and l gave up
all hope Of saving my life. While under
the water l had very clear experience OF
what psychologists call the double con-
sciousness. 1t seemed as II were two
persons, ono n physical man, still intelli-
gent enough to struggle among the horses;
the other consciousness was entirely serene
and happy and looked with admiration at
the beautiful color of the 1hter overhead,
wondered II the body would come ashore
somewhere down stream and be recovered,
and felt quite delighted at being released