The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1896-12-01
QUEER EXPERIENCES.
WERE THEY MERELY CONDOLENCES
OR SOMETHING MoREi
A Lady's Vision Of y Drowning Man-The
Conductors warning--An Astonishing
Case OF Ciairvoyance--A Drowning Mans
Dual Consciousness.

Dual Consciousness.
The stories am about to relate got at
first hands, which Is perhaps the chief
merit. We read good many things In
books and newspapers that are out Of tho
ordinary range Of our experience and
which we hesitate to believe, but when
friend tells lis face to face and with all
seriousness of soma extraordinary occur
renco we arc very apt to treasure 1t up in
memory and classify 1t with the unex-
planned phenomena Of this mysterious hui
man life.
A lady OF my acquaintance, who is en-
gagged in newspaper work in New York,
received n visit few years ago from q
western friend who was about to take
sound steamer for Boston tho same even
ing. While they were talking the lady
had startling vision. She seemed to SEQ
the man walking on tho deck of a steamer
on "a dark night, when the falling rain
frozo into sleet as it struck the deck. He
slipped and fell, slid under the guard rail
and was engulfed In tho stA. The vision
came and passed i'm second. The lady
begged her friend not to go on tho steamer
that night. She told him what she had
seen he was materialist and laughed
the whole matter off as a bit of idle fancy.
He took the boat that evening, slipped OH
the Icy deck, fell overboard just as he did
In the vision and was drowned.
Three years ago was living In car
and travelling from town to town In the
state Of Washington. In Cheney had u
call from real estate man. Some way or
other the talk driftsd to queer experiences.
My friend told me he had had one such ex-
perience In life, and one only. Ten years
before no was running train out Of Chi
cago as a 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 from the crossing
of small river. He was about to signal
his engineer to go ehead when a voice
spoke plainly in his ear, Look out for tho
bridget No one was standing near at the
time. He walked forward and said to the
engineer, "Jim, l think you had h"+tn~
slow down at the curve just this side ol
the bridge" "Thero Is nothing the mat
ter with the bridge" said the engineer,
"or we would have had wire from it."
Perhaps there isn't 1" replied the conduct
ar, "but you slow down all the same"
There was sharp curve short distance
in fact, that it would have been impossible
to stop the train 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 the river.
A prominent Chicago physician once
kept drug store In small town In Illi-
| nois Across the street from the store was
| 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 or six rods away the doctor, with
out any symptoms of being in an abnormal
condition, seemed to see the whole anatom-
ical structure of the mar--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 up 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 a
bunch of string for tying up bags; in the
other there Is black handled jackknife
two tenpenny nails and "a half dollar. The
date on the half dollar is 1885, The
young man turned his pockets inside out
and showed that he was carrying the arti-
cles described. He took the coin, looked
at it and found that the date named by the
doctor was correct. He was SO astonished
at this case of clairvoyance that he nearly
tainted.
nil oil m ,ar;a Af nxr-,
In company with three friends / undertook
to ford slough of the Yakima river in
the state of Washington four years ago.
We had big wagon and a four horse
team The river was very high, and the
broad slough was running like mill
race. We knew that the fording place was
narrow and the water deep, but we OK
pected nothing more serious than to get
our feet wet by tho water coming into tho
wagon box. When about half way across,
the lead horses got their hind feet over the
doubotrees and became unmanageable.
The wagon was swept of the ford into
deep water. One of my friends, w. 5.
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 foot
Ing In the current until rescued. l at
tempted tho same feat, but was the last
man TO get out. and before l could find
any footing the wugon was swept in.o
deep water. overturned, and wagon, horses
and myself were soon noundering I'm the
current. / could not swim, and 1 gave up
all hope of saving my life While under
the water had very clear experience OF
what psychologists call the double con-
sciousnoss. 1t seemed as IL were two
persons-ono q physical man, still intelli-
gent enough to struggle among the horses;
the other consciousness was entirely serene
and happy, and looked with admiration
at tho beautiful color Of the water over
head, wondered IL the body would come
ashore somewhere down stream and be re-
covered, and felt quite delighted at being
released from partnership with tho other
fellow How long this lasted do not
know did not have any Of that vivid
recollection Of all tho events Of life which
men restored from drowning usually tell
about. This higher consciousness only
felt that 1t was an independent spiritual
aviefapca NOW for the first timq released