The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-15
STRANGE opTIcALILLUsIoN.
Eject Produced on "A Boys Eyes by Gar
ing Too Long Train

Eject Produced on a BOYS Eyes py ca]-
Ing Too Long ON Train
From the Atlanta Constitution.
A man who is endowed with one OF the
strangest faculties that ever mortal pos
sessed has been discovered in Syivania.
He is different from other men only in
his ewes He says they were injured when
he was a boy gazing too long one day at
a receding train. Whether this was the
cause or not, from that day until the
present time the first impression swift
Iy moving object makes upon his eye Is
continued on IL for an indefinite time.
even after the body itself has long
stopped moving. This may not be per-
fectly clear explanation to those VINO 40
not understand the exact nature OF the
case, so to make II plain will give rev
instances, numbers of which, of course
occur every day. Not long ago he was
one day watching a cat out in the YARD as
It was attempting to creep upon bird.
When close to its prey the cat suddenly
made a spring, and then, according TO MS
way of viewing IL, the feline kept right
on sailing through the air as far as his
eye could reach. being at last lost In the
blue distance. And yet IL was only an IL
fusion, he knew, for looking down on the
ground at the end of perhaps a minute he
saw the cat just where 1t had really
landed.
Except in a few cases he is rarely ever
deceived by this strange idiosyncrasy. Nor
is there ever an illusion with stationary
objects or objects moving ordinarily slow
There must be a sudden movement to put
in motion this curious freak of his OPP
tics. One morning he saw one of his
neighbors walk up to a fence and spring
up into the air to jump over IL. lie was
not surprised when he saw him go shoot
ing on up through the pure ether above.
He watched him apparently about min
- lnoV o.
clouds that f1oated overhead. And yet. at
the end of his illusory period he saw his
neighbor right side up with care on the
other side of the fence. AS he explains IL.
IL seems to be a kind of reverie that the
eye falls into on these occasions, and
which, when 1t fades away. generally in
about a minute or less, leaves the real OBJ
ject and its real position as clearly de-
fined as they are to other folks.
One afternoon he was watching some
boys at play in the road. One of them. a
very active little fellow. took a running
start and turned a somersault-and then
. he saw, what no other man. perhaps, had
ever seen. Down the road the little fellow
went over and over on hands and feet.
turning somersaults after somersaults in
endless succession. For about half a mile
he watched the youthful acrobat as he
went spinning over the hills and far
away. II was a peculiar and amusing
thing to see this boy go WnlrllnB down
the road with such ease and rapidity. He
did not alarm himself about him. howev-
err, for when the spell was ended he saw
the little fellow playing in the sand with
his compaions. What becomes of the true
image when his eye falls into this strange
reverie he does not know-the fiction OF
fantasy seems to monopolize the whole
scope of his vision for the short time that
1t lasts.
He says he has lots of sport sometimes
when he goes out rabbit hunting. Very
often he delights in all the excitement
and pleasure of a chase a long time after
common-eyed hunters have ceased TO en-
JOY 1t. For instance, he went out the 9TH
err day with friend and a couple of good
dogs. In a large. open field they jumped
a rabbit and IL started across the field
with the dogs close behind. In reality Il
was only a few moments before they had
caught and killed IL, but to him they
kept right on in hot pursuit clear across
the field and into the woods beyond. Il
was intensely exciting and he was clap
ping his hands and shouting to the dog:
while his amazed compaion, with the rab
bit in his hand and the dogs by his side
was wondering If he had gone crazy
Thus, whenever he goes out, he Away!
has the pleasure of a long and exciting
chase. There is only Ole inconvenen
thing about 1t, however. and that is h,
never enjoys seeing the dogs capture th'