Rock Island Argus., 1900-01-04
SOME QUEER DREAMS.
VISIONS THAT RESULTED IN THE CAP
TURE OF CRIMINALS.

Is Stranger Than Fiction.
A very remarkable instance of the
| tracing of a criminal by means of
dream occurred in st. Louis. A woman
1 named Mary Thornton was detained
| in custody for 4 month. charged with
| the murder of her husband. \ week
or so after her arrest she requested to
see one of the prison officials and told
| him she had dreamed that an indiyid-
| nal named George Ray had murdered
her spouse, giving the official ut the
| same time full details of the tragedy
as witnessed in her vision The man
| Ray was not suspected ut the time,
| but the prison authorities were SO
much impressed by the wOman's OBJ
| viOus earneStneSs that 4 search was at
once made for him.
| After some delay he was traced and
| charged with the crime, the details of
the same as seen in the dream being
| rehearsed to him. Overcome with as
| constituent he then and. there con-
| fessed that he had committed the
| crime. Curiously enough, the woman
had only met the murderer once and
believed him to be on the very best of
| terms with her husband.
|
| of woman named Drew, who dream
ed one night that her husband, re-
| tired sailor, had been murdered by n
| peddler at a Gravesend tavern, where
| the said husband was in the habit of
putting up when visiting the town in
question. The first news that awaited
| her on rising in the morning was that
her spouse had been assassinated at
s,l,s
traordinary vision. whereupon she
burst into hysterical tears and cried
out that her dream had come true.
She calmed down somewhat after
few hours and then handed the police
officials an exact description of the
peddler of the vision, giving a minute
account of his dress, which included L
blue coat of a very peculiar pattern.
Marvellous as the fact may appear, 4
man wearing such a coat and follow
ing the occupation of n peddler was
discovered two days later at an inn
some six miles from Gravesend, and,
on being taxed with the crime, he at
once admitted that he was guilty and
that robbery had been the motive of
the outrage. He was hanged soon aft
erward, his doom having been brought
about by the fiimsy evidence of wom-
ans dream.
Women as dreamerS seem more sue
cessful than men, but Il rather peculiar
instance of Il crime being traced by n
vision and in which the dreamer was q
member of the male sex comes from
Rennes, in France. 4 worthy mer-
chant, having quilted his office one
Saturday evening, proceeded home to
dinner and after enjoying substan-
tial meal lay down on the couch and
fell into a light doze. A very vivid
dream then came to him wherein he
saw two men of the burglar type en-
gagged in rifling the safe in his office,
and so much impressed was he by the
vision that he resolved, upon awaken
ing, to at once go to the office and see
that everything was undertook and key.
His amazemcnt may be imagined
when, on arriving there, he discovered
the door forced and a burglary in prog
ress. To summon a couple of gen.
darmeS was the work of an instant,
and five minutes later the thieves, who
proved 10 be notorious housebreakers,
were on their way to the police depot,
where the prosecutor told his extraor-
dinary story. In view of the fact that
the safe contained valuables to the ex-
tent of some thousands of pounds, the
dream in question proved a very for
tunate one for the dreamer.
How to explain these marvellous man
ifestatiOns, which prove once more
that truth is stranger than fiction, is
task beyond the ingenuity of man to
compass. Perchance the theory of te-
lepathy may have something to do with
the mysterious business, but even that
theory would appear rather inadequate
in such cases as the aforementioned.
\ skillful forGer who moved in the
highest circles of society was once de-
tected by the agency of a dream. The
affair occurred in Boston and caused
the greatest excitement of the time.
The forger, Il young man of eight or
nine and twenty, had become acquaint-
ed with a rich publisher, at whose
house he became a constant guest. One
day the publishers bankers discovered
that some one was forging their clients
signature TO various large checks, and
two detectives were at once instructed
to look out for the culprit.
Their efforts proved useless, but one
evening the publishers youngest daugh-
ter, little girl of IL, dreamed that
she saw man whom she described as
like Mr.. Blank" the visitor to whom
reference has been made, sitting in a
room in Maine street copying her IA
ther's signature. The child's dream
was communicated to the police, who, |
though inclined to ridicule the same at |
the outset, eventually promised to have |
the gentleman in question watched, |
with the result that his lodgings were |
raided and a complete plant for the .
making of bank notes found there. 1t I
then transpired that he was 4 man who .
was wanted for manifold forgeries
the Union. and he was sent
to prison for n very long term.