The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-04-24

Of q Chicago hotel, eight or ten Of them,
mostly drummerB. Perhaps it was the
vvasathing smoke that inclined their souls
TO Rhostly converse. For the last hour
they had been telling tales Of the super
Internationally one who had not some
we'll authenticated story Of a ghostly Wis
liant or a dream warning, hardly one Of
them who pretended Co be telling a per
sonal experience, but all we're ready to ad-
nit that there are more things in heaven
and earth than can be explained by any
Guess we all admit that, don't we,
boys?''
''Au but Jim Parker, here, % replied one
of the boys. n He hasn't a grain Of SUI
perstition in his makeup. He doesn't adj
init the existence of anything in heaven
above or earth beneath or the waters that
be under the earth unless it's tangible and
reasonable as well as audible and visible.
Do you Jim?"
Jim turned around. He looked the sort
of man who has not a grain Of supersti-
ton in his makeup.
Don't know about that Harris. Guess
you and I haven't Travelled together for
two or three years, have we?'
mot since the World s fair summer"
We'll, It was that Septem Der that was
converted. Tell you bout 1t, if you like"
They all liked, and he told them
You boys have often Chafed me- " be
began, because I always take the same
rooms here if can get them-the bridal
suit on the sixth floor. Don't you sup
pose I know as well as any of you that
only a married man accompanied by his
wife and eight small children can afford
to take bridal suitf But I have an af-
lection for those rooms and you aren't
likely to guy me out of 1t. When I came
here near the end of August 1898, the
hotel was so full that I had to take those
m nothing and naturally r7aoido5 RI tax
those.
On the night of Sept. 6, which should
have been the last night Of my stay here,
had most unpleasa nj dream. dreamed
I was in a little country churchyard I
didn't remember that had ever been
theirs before. Two men were digging a
grave. I stood idly watching them, won
dsring for whom they dug it. One of
them looked at his watch. Time we were
off, he said; then to me: Come, sir, get
in. We're waiting for you. I drew back
in horror NO; won get in. I don't
want to get in. You re all we re waitin
for, sir Hurry up. Can't stop all day
And he reached out his hand to draw me
in. But I broke away, shouting: NO;
Pm not comingl Let me be'
The effort to escape woke me up, but
the impression did not pass with the
dream. / could still see the churchyard
and the houses near by and hear in the
distance the shrek of a passing train.
Then the boy knocked at my door to warn
me that I had train to catch and must
get up. scrambled through my break
fast and got over to the station. There I
found that had a few minutes to wait.
ran across a friend, johnson Bowen, at
that time manager at the Cosmopolitan
theater You remember him, of coursef
We walked up and down alongside of the
train, chatting and smoking A boy came
0uE and smoke tO my aOfOpaninu and he
with a word Of apology to me, followed
him on the train, shouting back: See you
later, Jim. Be on the smoker
Left alone, I sauntered forward to the
engine The engineer was pottering about
his little cab Something about the man
struck me as familiar and unpleasant.
He turned No, didn't know him, but I
was sure I had seen him. I faced back,
puzzled. passed the baggage car and had
reached the rear end of the smoker when
the conductor pulled out his watch and
exclaimed, Time we were of Then to
me; Come, sir, get in We're waiting for
you.
Where had heard those words before9
I glanced at the conductor To my horror
I saw the face Of one Of the men who in
my dream had been digging my grave.
started back, muttering: No, I won't get
in. I tell you I don t want to get in
You're all we're waiting for, sir. Hurry
his hand to help me, for the train was
starting. But I broke away from him,
shouting, No, I'm not coming; let me be-
I tell you
1.-THE train pulled out Of the station.
realized with disgust that I had missed an
appointment that evening with big Gus
toner at Louisville all on account of a
dream. came back to the hotel. The
clerk sympathised with me for having
missed my train, but did not see how
bad managed to do it.
within three hours the boys were
shouting on the street: 'EXtry paper AW-
full railroad disasterl Full account of the
collision Many lives lostP 1t was at
O'Clock that the train pulled out of Chi
cage, leaving me on the platform. 1t was
aG 8:45 that that train, the Filler, as it
was called, collided head on with milk
trata Nearly all the occupants Of the
smoker, in which I certainly should have
been had been on the train at all, were
more or less injured. Nearly a dozen were
killed. Among these we're the man to
whom had been talking and the boy who
called him away. I went out to one Hun
dred and Eighth street, the scene Of the
wreck, and found that the little village
there, Colehour believe they call IT, was
the village of my dream. I was not sur
prised. My conversion was complete.
From that day to this I've had several
grains Of superstition in MY makeup. And
I always try to get that same bridal
chamber, though I'm not a married man,
and I'm getting too old for any nonsense
Of that sort now. 'i-Charles ". Slater in
Chicago Herald.
Where Afllfonairea Congrswaee.