Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-06
STRANGE EXPERIENCES,
Cufious and Exciting Episodes Tha'
Come Into Few Peoples Lives.

Come Into Few Peoples Lives.
From the Chicago Times-Herald.
The stories / am about to relate l. got az
first hands which is, perhaps. their cnlel
merit. We read good many Things III
books and newspapers that are OUT oI ing
ordinary range of our experience anu
which We hesitate to believe, but when a
friend tells US face TO face and with all
seriousness of some extraordinary occur
renee we are very apt TO treasure ~ up
plained phenomena of this mysterious hu-
man life of ours.
a lady of my acquaintance. who Is en-
gagged in newspaper work in New YORK.
received a visit a few years ago from
Western friend who was about TO take d
Sound steamer for Boston the same even
ing. While they were talking the laoy
had startling vision. She seemed 10 see
the man walking on the deck OF steamer
on dark night, when the falling ram
3roze into sleet as IL struck the Geek; ne
slipped and fell. slid under the guard ran
and was ingulfed 10 the sea- The VISION
came and passed in second Inc iauy
begged her friend not to go on the steamer
that night. She! told him what she han
the whole matter off as bit of idle fancy.
He took the boat that evening, shpped on
the icy deck, fell overheard just as he did
fn the vision and was drowned
and travelling from town TO town IN the
state of Washington. In Cheney mad a
call from a real estate man. Some way
or other the talk drifted to queer expert
ences Nv friend told me he had had one
such experience in life. and one only. len
years before he was running tram OUT
of Chicago as conductor on one OF tne
Burlington lines. One morning after neavy
rains, when there were freshets IN the
streams. he stood upon the platform OF a
way station about three miles from the
TO signal his engineer TO go ahead, when a
voice spoke plainly in his ear. LOOK ont
for the bridgcr' No one was standing near
at the time. He walked forward and said
better slow down at the curve just this
side of the bridge" There Is nothing
the matter with the bridge, said the en-
gineer. or we would have ,l.s had aanyae Wire
the conductor. but you slow down all the
same" There was a sharp curve a short
distance from the approach to the bridge,
so near, in fact. that it would have been
in sight of the bridge had it been running
at the usual rate of speed. The engineer
slowed down. The bridge was gone II
had been carried away between the time
the train left the last station and its ar
rival at the curve. Had II not been for
the mysterious warning the whole train
would have gone into the river.
A prominent Chicago physician once
kept drug store in a small town In IL
Enois. Across the street from the store
was a considerable stretch of unfenced
the store one summer afternoon the doctor
saw a young man of his acquaintance ap-
preaching across the open lots. When he
was five OF six rods away the doctor
without any symptoms of being in an alb
normal condition. seemed to see 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
in an instant. When the youth came ul
to 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 a
6lack-handled jack-knife. two tenpenny
half-dollar is 1856" The young man turned
his pockets inside out and showed that he
was carrying the articles described. He
took the coin, looked at il and found that
He was so astonshed at this case Of clair.
voyance that he nearly tainted.
/ will add a queer experience OF my own
In company with three friends I undertook
TO ford slough of the Yakima river. ir
the state of Washington, four years ago
We had a big wagon and four-horse
broad slough was running like mill-race
We knew that the fording place was mar
row and the water deep. but We expected
nothing more serious than to get our fee'
wet by the water coming into the wagor
box. When about halfway across the lead
horses got their hind feet over the double
trees and became unmanageable. TIL,
wagon was swept Off the ford into deer
water. One of my friends, W. S. Mellen
who was then general manager of the
Northern Pacific railroad. swan ashore
Two others climbed out Of the tail end OF
the wagon and managed to keep their
footing in the current until rescued. at
tempted the same feat. but i was the last
man to get out and before / could find
any footing the wagon was swept into
deep water. overturned and wagon, horses
and myself were soon houndering in the
current. / could not swim. and I gave
up all hope of saving my life. While un
ence of what psychologists call the double
consciousness. 1t seemed as if / were two
persons, one a physical man. still intelli
gent enough to struggle among the horses
the other consciousness was entirely Sc
rene and happy. and / looked with admira
ton at the beautiful color of the watel
overhead, wondered If the body would
come ashore somewhere down stream ant
be recovered, and felt quite delighted a
other fellow. How long this lasted dt
not know. i did not have any Of tina
vivid recollection of all the events of lif'
which men restored from drowning usual,
tell about. This higher consciousness onl.
felt that II was an independent spiritua
existence, now for the first time released
from the bondage of dwelling in physica
sles clutched the ear of one of the horses
the horse got its head above water, an
the mans head came up with IL. The maj
was rescued by a boat. and with eXtrem
regret the higher consciousness was force,
to re-enter its old dwelling place.
L. V. SMALLEY.