Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-12-08

like one that on q lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turn'd round, walks on
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows frightful hend
Doth close behind him tread
! think that not enough attention is
given, or charity shown for the bad dreams
Of children. Children suffer, more than
grown people realize, from apprehension.
They do not know what is possible, and so
their imaginations have full sway can
never forget the suiferings of my own child
hood. / was sensitive, and read beyond
my years, and was dreadfully alive to ner-
vous terrors. An elderly aunt of my faith
er's-a childless widow, made her home
with us. Among her treasured possessions
was an old-fashioned square bible bound in
leather and illustrated, and 'Foxs' Book Of
Martyrs" bound in the same way, and IL
Illustrated also. To have one of the books
open on an ordinary chair while sat be-
fore it on smaller one was my delight by
day, aud added TO my terrors by night. |
never laid my head on my pillow, suppose
from the fourth to the seventh or eighth
year of my life-so far as memory serves
in things 50 long ago-without an assur-
ance, which realized its own prophecy, of
seeing some frightful spectre. was a firm
believer in witchcraft Was there not a
picture in the bible Of the witch raising up
Samuel which / wish that | had meyer
seen. She was sure to come and sit by my
pillow in my dreams, and then there was
the dragon breathing fire and smoke, which
vainly tried to outrun, until | finally
awoke exhausted and dripping with
perspiration. | never told my troubles to
older people, looked upon them-my ell
ders, as superior creation, altogether, and
feared, above all things being laughed at.
But / am wondering now, whether they
were so much wiser, after all. Still when
once the invisible world was supposed to be
opened, and the lawless agency of bad spir-
its assumed, what measures of probability,
of decency, Of fitness or proportional that
which distinguishes the likely from the abb
surd-could they have to guide them in
the rejection or admission of any particular
testimony? Nor, when the wicked are
expressly symbolized by goat, was it to
be wondered at so much that he should
come sometimes in that body and assert his
metaphor That the intercoure was opened
at all between both worlds, was perhaps
the mistake, but that once assumed, l see
no reason for disbelieving one attested
story Of this nature more than another on
the score of absurdity. "There is no law
to Judge by the lawless, or canon by which
dream may be criticised What /
started to do, however, was to make plea
for the nervous, fanciful children who dread
to go to bed at night. That detestable pic
ture, as I have said, gave the fashion to my
dreams, but had ] never seen it, the fears
would have come self-pictured in some
oh =
or the stories of foolish servants which
create these terrors in children. They can
at most give them direction, and the
most carefully guarded child will start at
shapes unborrowed Of tradition, in sweats
to which the reveries of the condemned
murderer are tranquility. That the kind
of fear here treated Of is purely spiritual,
that it predominates in the period of sinless
infancy, are difficulties the solution of
which might afford some probable insight
into our antemundane condition, and a
peep at least into the shadowland Of pre-
existence.
At the Grange, on last Monday night,
Mr.. Wilson D. Gill, Postmaster Of Pauls-
boro, Mi. Leopold Eager, who lives near
Paulsboro, Mr.. Howard Locke, of Wood
bury, and Messrs Isaac Bowers and Fl. NJ.
Owens of Thorofare were the new class
taken in.
The Autumn sale Of Fl. A. DefIart will
at - 80 promptly 1t Will be held at the
works and there will be the usual display
Of cut-under shelvings, fine carriages, run
abouts, etc Sixty vehicles in all will be
sold.
A very delighted surprise was rendered
Miss Hettie Budd, of Clayton, in the home
OF her sister, Mrs. J. Walter DeHart
Those present were the Misses Kizzie Wiki
ms, Laura DeHart, May and Alice Gibbs
Alice Dem, Ella Banks, Title Platt, Edna
Bowers and Mr.. and Mrs VIM. Bowers,
from Thorofare. Miss Celia Shute, and
Mr.. Sam. Shute, from Clarksboro; Mr. and
Mrs. John Hammill from Philadelphia;
the Messrs Herbert Clark, Daniel and
Frank Fote and Fred Banscher, from Pauls-
boro, and the Messrs Leslie Gibbs, Harry
A. DeHart Jr., and Richard NJ. Wilkins,
from Thorofare.
Mr. and Mrs J. Wood Hanncld, from
Almonesson, visited Mr.. Chas. B. Leonard,
last week
Mrs. Geo. S. johnson was visiting her
parents, bLT. anu MIS-. j. II. bozdTbu, laSb
week.
The Misses May aud Abbey Rambo, have
been spending some days with their grand
mother, Mrs. Anna Heppard, in Paulsboro.
Rev. Paisley Carmen, of Philadelphia
has been recent guest Of the Rev. Geo. s.
johnson.
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BRIDGEPORT.