Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1908-07-03
MYSTERY OF DREAMS
Whence Come the Warning Wis.,
itors We See In Sleep?
TWO VERY PUZZLING CASES.
One Where Mother and Son Both Got
Tidings of Disaster at the Same
Time and One Where a Child Saw
Her Father Saved In Shipwreck.

Out of 149 dreams of a very striking
kind investigated by one of the lead
ing psychic research societies no fewer
than Seyenty-nine related to a death,
and perhaps the rareSt of all these
dreams is the case where two persons
dreamed the same thing on the same
night, and the episode came true. This
striking instance is reported by the
Rev. r. 3. Ellington:
"a woman pariShioner of mine," he
says, whose husband was a fisher
man, at that time on the sea, dreamed
one night in terribly vivid fashion that
his little craft had been cut in two by
the towering steel bows of great
liner. Her eldest son was with the
husband, and as she woke she screamed
out, 'Oh, save my boy, my boyr This
was remarkable enough, considering
the sequel, but almost at the very mo-
ment the pOSr woman was in her dis
tress, yet still asleep, another son was
pounding at her door, half asleep and
half awake, and crying, oh, mother,
where is father?' The terrified woman
now rose and let the boy in. He was
crying. He told her he had distinctly
heard his fathers heavy tread coming
up the stairs and his ponderous kick
with sea boots against the door, as had
been his manner when returning alb
ruptly from a long cruise. Next morn
ing the alarmed mother and wife told
all the neighbors, and before the day
was out the dreadful news came that
every detail of her dream was true
The little trawling lugger had been run
into by coasting liner, nearly cut in
two and sunk with all hands, includ-
ing her husband and SON"
Premonitory dreams occupy a large
part of the psychological records, and
the following case is a very puzzling
one: A Mrs. Spruit lived at Balmain
one of the suburbs of Sydney, Austria
liza. Her husband was a sea captain
in command of the Atacama, a wooden
ship Of 1900 tons, which had arrived in
Sydney III a leaking state and was
picked up cheap by firm Known as
Cowlishaw Bros. for $500 Twice as
much was spent in repairs, and then
the Atacama was sent up the coast
with a cargo of coal. She deliv cred
this and next set out for San Diego.
But when 500 miles out from Sgd
ney she sprang a leak, and Captain
Spruit decided to put back. In spite
Of the pumps the water gained, and
soon there was depth of eleven feet
In the hold. Spruit now resolved to
abandon the ship and launch the three
boats. The captain himself, with one
seaman, the steward, boatswain and
an apprentice, was in the twenty-four
foot lifeboat. while the rest of the
crew, twelve in all, were in the other
two boats. Heavy seas were running,
and the boats were nearly swamped.
AS Spruit could not swim, he was
nearly drowned. Some of his men
were lost. Their situation was indeed
fearful in boats half filled with water
and exposed to a fierce gale 400 miles
from land. Again and again was
Spruit washed out, but at last his boat
was picked up when its occupants were
in the last stages of exhaustion from
fatigue, exposure and lack of food. A
reporter of the Sydney Morning Her
aid called to interview the captain and
found him barefooted, with terribly
swollen legs, covered with severe cuts
and bruises.
Now consider Mrs. Spruit's report to
the Psychical Research society, which
is most remarkable.
Last Thursday week." she writes,
"at 3 o'clock in the morning my thir-
teen-year-old daughter Lily came into
my bedroom and woke me by tap on
my forehead oh, mamma she cried
in a breathless whisper, I'm so fright
enedr | tried to soothe her, but she
only covered her face with her hands
and whispered tremblingly: oh, look!
My papa's ship is all wrecked! Papa's
come home all in rags, with his feet
and legs cut, and l see two or three of
his men drowned out of the boat
Il told Lily sterIlly 1t was all non
sense
"It isntr she said passiOnately.
I've seen it in my dream, and | know
it's all truer
But l coaxed her off to bed. The
girl kept worrying about it until the
next Sunday. A week after her dream
my husband returned, and Lily found
me crying when she came in from
school.
"'Oh, mamma, she cried sharply. is
the Atacama wrecked?
81 told her evasively her papa had
come home.
"She was not to be denied. however,
and asked, with strange persistence,
Are papa's legs cutF
Il said they were.
"And the very first thing she said to
her father was: why. you didn't have
those clothes on when I saw you. The
ones you had on were all torn in the
shipwreck.'
Lily Spruit herself furnished re-
port to the Psychical Research society.
She said she woke in terrible fright,
having seen every microscopic detail of
the shipwreck and its sequel. She saw
her father get into the big boat and
keep close to his ship for some time
She watched his boat capsiZe and the
boy Allen drown. What woke her, she
said, was the bowling of the wind
about the wreck, and the last she saw
was the other men pulling her father
back into the waterlOgged boat.-Wil-
liam T. FitZ-Gerald in New York Trib-
une.