Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-11-07

When it is desired to ridicule a thing
as unimpcrtant and untrue it is GUS
tomary to call it dream" but as
matter of fact many dreams are serious
matters and many are true, though they
refer to distant occurrences or future
events. Not long ago an account was
published OF a woman who dreamed
that a negro stood over her threaten
ing to plunge a knife into her, and
thought she awoke and related the
dream the shock was so great that she
lived only a few moments afterWard.
More recently a story was published of
q man who was subject to Nightmares
from which his wife had to awake him
and who had one Of unusual severity
and died from it. Anyone who has had
q nightmare can form some idea OF his
SufferingS. The instances in which
dreams come true are still more num-
erous. Hardly day passes in which
an account is not published Of some
one who dreamed of something that
actually happened a little later or that
was happening at that same instant
and, it may be, hundreds Of miles away.
1t is singular, however, that these
dreams are always about calamitieS
and never about Streaks of luck of for
tunate occurrences. The belief in the
significance of dreams is so strongly
fixed in the human mind that 1t has
been found profitable to write and pub
lish dream books" interpreting them,
and there is scarcely a religion in the
world that Is not based on remarkable
dreams, which are sometimes called
visions. Inasmuch as many dreams are
not verified, human nature, rather than
surrender its belief in dreams, has in
vented the theory that dreams go by
contraries" In spite of all the wonder
full stories that are told about dreams
the probability is that they are moth
ing more than condolences. This theory
seems incredible In some cases, but
the reason is that no one has any real
dreams that are dreamed. There are
100000 of people in this country, all
of whom are dreaming every night
some of them dreaming all night and
dreaming a dozen dreams. 1t is safe
to say that there are 200,000,0O0 Of
dreams dreamed in the United States
every night, and yet whole week at
least will pass before one of these CO.
medicines occurs. Is 1t anything
strange that one occurs now and thenP
If the human mind could review all Of
this dreaming for one single night the
belief in dreams would be shattered.
Indeed, if 1t could review all of the
more remarkable dreams that never
come true the faith in dreams would
be exploded. The trouble is that peo-I
pie hardly ever talk about dreams I'M
less they come true. One of these has.
been published and is instructive. In
a Connecticut city lived a woman whose
husband was a travelling man and came
home only once in several weeks. One
night when he was away she dreamed
that he was dead and laid out in the
parlor on the lower floor. The dream
was so vivid that she jumped out of
bed and ran down TO the parlor to see
if it was true Finding that it was not
true, she went back to bed, but was no
sooner asleep than she had the same
dream and could not content herself
until she had visited the parlor again.
She went back to bed again, fell asleep
and had the same dream, and being
more frightened than ever visited the
parlor a third time. By that time it
was daylight and before she left the
parlor her husband walked in at the
front door, saying that he was In per-
feet health and had enjoyed an unus-
ually pleasant and profitable trip. Os-.
casionally stories are published about
people who while eating oysters find
pearls Of great price. 1t would not pay
anyone to eat oysters for the sake OF
finding pearls, but there Is NO doubt
that pearls are found in oysters much
oftener, the numbers being the same,
than dreams turn out to be prophetic
or telepathic. What misleads people
is that, just as no one reports that he
ate an oyster without finding pearl,
no one reports that he had a nonsen-
steal dream.