The Opelousas courier., 1897-01-09
LIES MYSTERIES
QUEER EXPERIENCES RELATrD
BY A NEWSPAPER MAN.
"a Ladys Startling Vision OH q
steamer-The Warning Voice
Ihat Saved q Train-What
d Doctor Saw.
lTTHE stories I am about to &c.
late, writes E. V. Smallav Of

nue. writes l.. V. Snailay oil
the Chicago Times Herald, ]
9 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 ordi.
nary range OF our experience and
which we hesitate to believe, but when
friend tells lis face to face and with
all seriousness Of some extraordinary
occurrence, We are very apt to treas
ure 1t up in memory and classify Ii
with the unexplained phenomena of
THIS mysterious human life of ours.
"A lady OF my acquaintance, who is
engaged in newspaper work in New
York, received a visit a few years ago
from a Western friend who was about
to take a Sound steamer for Boston
the same evening. While they were
talking the lady had a startling Wis.
ION. She seemed to see the man
walking on the deck Of a steamer on q
dark night, when the falling ram
froze into sleet as it struck the deck.
He slipped aud fell, slid under the
guard rail and wa engulfed in the
sea. The vision came and passed in q
a second. The lady begged her friend
not to go On the steamer that night.
She told him what she had seen. He
was a materialist and laughed the
whole matter off as a bit of idle fancy.
He took the boat that evening, slipped
on the icy deck, fell overheard lust
as he did in the vision and was
drowned.
Three years ago I was living in a car
and travelling from town to town ii
the State of Washington. In Cheney
| had q call from q real estate man.
Some way or other the talk drifted to
queer Experiences. My friend told
me had one such experience in life,
and Il only. Ten years before he
was running a train ont Of Chicago as
q conductor on one of the Burlington
lines. One morning after heavy rains,
when there,'were freshets in the streams,
he stood upon the platform of q way
station about three miles from the
crossing of q small river. He WAS
about to signal the engineer to go
ahead, when q voice spoke plainly in
his ear, "Look out for the bridget"
No or 7as standing near at the time.
He walked forward and said to the en-
glneer, "Jim, I think you had better
slow down ct the curve just this side
Of the bridge" 'There is nothing the
matter with. the BRIDGE" said the en-
gineer, "or we would have had a wire
from it." "Perhaps there isn't" re-
piled the conductor, "but you slow
down all the same" There was a sharp
curve O short distance from the ap.
proach to the bridge, so near, 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.
It 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 Chicagophys;cian onc
kept O. drug store in q small town in
Illinois. Across the street from the
store was a considerable stretch Of
unfenced town lots. Sitting in the
shade in front OF the store one summer
afternoon the doctor saw O young nan
Of his acquaintance approaching across
the open lots. When he was five OF
six rods away the doctor, without any
Of being in an abnormal
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 up to tho doctor the latter said:
"Henry, I can tell you just what you
have in your pockets. In one Of the
pockets of your trousers you have q
bunch Of string for tying up bags, in
the other there is a b~lack-handled
jack knife, two tenpenny nails and a
half dollar. The date on the half dol
lar is 1856" The young man turned
his pockets inside out and showed that
be was carrying the articles described.
He took the coin, looked at it and
found that the date named by the
vas correct. He was so as
tonished at this case Of clairvoYance
that he nearly tainted.