Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1903-03-20
The Fear of Fear

some time, even though you are un-
able to anticipate reasonable excuse
therefor. Let me give it to you in
more concrete form. A year or two
| ago / had dream of peculiarly vivid
and impressive character. 1t was OF
my sudden awakening here in bed, in
this room, to behold a man leaning
over me. He was in strange, uncouth
dress-not Of the modern day, l should
judge-and he was surrounded by, and
seemed to give out, fierce red light.
He shouted some words to mel don't
know what they were; only, at the
sound Of them, such q mighty and
overwhelming terror came upon me
that 1 lay paralyzed as to motion and
thought. Then 1 awoke, really awoke
this time, and 1 found my body wet
with perspiration, and my heart beat
ing so fiercely and with such great
pain that 1 feared some blood vessel
must give way"
At this point I interrupted him, for
his voice was trembling with excite
ment.
You say you are not superstitions,"
l said. "Then you surely are not 60
ing to allow yourself to be affected
by a dream? An overloaded stomach
! is always likely to disturb the heart.
! Its rapid movement causes q sensation
exactly similar to fright, and the wan
dering brain conjures up a scare stu
alton to fit it. Did you never dream
out an laborate series Of events, cul-
minating in a pistol shot, and then
awaken to find that a window sash
had dropped, and you had pieced out
the dream backwards, as it were?"
"How do you account for my having
this same dream, without an iota Of
| change, half a dozen times since that
first experienced" asked Dawley.
sit results" 1 answered, with the
easy confidence one shows in dispos-
ing of the problems Of others, 'from
the profound impression the first
dream made on your mind and mem
ory."
He smiled, and looked at me with
half closed eyes. Then he relighted
his pipe, which had gone out, and I
remember that the hand holding the
match trembled a good deal.
BY this time the subject had become
distasteful to me, revealing a mental
weakness or eccentricity in Dawley
that was not pleasant to contemplate
So 1 turned the conversation into 9TH
er channels.
Only on one other occasion did we
speak again Of this fear and the dream,
and then, as before, it was brought up
! by a careless question.
| Entering his room one night, I no.
ticed a powerful bolt that had been
newly fastened on the inside of his
door, and 1 asked if the lock had been
broken.
1t was natural inquiry, and there
seemed to be no cause for the tremble
in his voice and the peculiar light in
his eyes as he replied to me:
"a lock can be picked. I wished
to satisfy myself that it was impossi-
BILE for a human being to enter this
room while 1 Sleep"
glanced up at the transom. 1t was
held shut by heavy iron bar. Then
l looked out Of the window. 1t faced
lAS Guilt USlWSSA Lie "luSS VI luS
building, with sheer drop Of nearly
forty feet.
| "Utterly impossible" said 1.
Then I noticed for the first time a
| certain waXiness in the texture of the
| skin over his forehead, and a sunken
; depth to his eyes.
Has the dream reappeared?" 1
asked.
Frequently"
"The trouble with you, Dawley," 1
unused aloud, sis that you are too
much alone"
81 have no friends" he said, in a
calm, dispassionate tone, such as one
might use in speaking of some trivial
| matter Of business.
| "You should make them," 1 said
with emphasis.
81 am over the Divide" he answered
"My course Of life will not change
very readily, fear"
| Then he deliberately and pointedly
| changed the topic, and / did not recur
to it again at any time. AS 1 say, he
was twenty years my senior, and we
had little in common. l had many
| friends and many interests, and Daw-
| ley and his oddities formed an unim-
| portant episode.
But it was only a week after this
conversation that the terrible event
took place. which every newspaper
reader in the city will remember.
It was at two In the morning that
awoke suddenly from profound slum-
ber, with the consciousness that some
one had run past my door, scream
! ing.
I sprang out Of bed, and as did SO
heard the crash of breaking glass in
the court below, and saw a brilliant
red CLEAN through the blinds at the
window. I looked out; the kitchen
and dining-room in the rear of the ho-
tel had already burst into fame, and
great volume Of smoke poured out of
the lower windows Of the east wing.
| My own room was on the second
floor, in the center of the building, and
I saw that there was plenty of time
4 n