Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-07-10
MYSTERY OF DREAMS.
Whence Come the Warning Visitors
We see in Sleep.

MYSTERY OF DREAMS.
Whence Come the Warning Visitors
We see in Sleep.
Out of 149 dreams of very striking
kind investigated by one Of the lead
ing psychic research societies no few
er than seventy-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 report
ed by the Rev. R. B. Elrington:
"A woman parishioner Of mine," he
saws. whose husband was q 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 a
great liner. Her eldest son was with
the husband, and as she awoke she
screamed out, oh, save my boy, my
boy!' This was remarkable enough,
considering the sequel, but almost at
the very moment the poor woman was
In her Distress yet still asleep, an
other son was pounding at her door,
half asleep and half awake, and cry
ing, oh, mother, where Is father
The terrified woman now arose 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 man
ner when returning abruptly from q
long cruise. Next morning the alarm
ed mother and wife told all the neigh
bors, 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
a coasting liner, nearly cut in two and
sunk with all hands, including her hus-
band and son."
Premonitory dreams occupy large
part of the psychological records, and
the following case is very puzzling
one: A Mrs. Spruit lived at Balmain,
one Of the suburbs Of Sydney, Austria
liza. Her husband was sea captain
in command of the Atacama, wood
en- ship of 1900 tons, which had arriV-
ed in Sydney in a leaking state and
was picked up cheap by firm known
as Cowlishaw Bros, for $3,5OO. Twice
as much was spent in repairs, and
then the Atacama was sent up the
coast with cargo Of coal. She de-
livered this and next set out for San
Diego.
But when 500 miles out from Sydney
she sprang a leak, and Captain Spruit
decided to put back. In spite Of the
pumps the water gained, and soon
there was a depth Of eleven feet in the
hold. Spruit now resolved to aban-
don the ship and launch the three
boats The captain himself, with one
seaman, the steward, boatswain and
an apprentice, were 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 Of 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 Morn
ing Herald called to interview the cap
tain 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 8 o'clock in the morning my thir-
teen-year old daughter Lily came into
my bedroom and woke me by a tap on
my forehead. oh, mamma she cried
in a breathess whisper, I'm so fright
ened!' tried to soothe her. but she
only covered her face with her hands
and whispered tremblingly: oh, look!
NV papas ship is all wrecked! Papa's
come home all in rags, with his feet
and legs cut, and see two or three of
his men drowned out Of the boat
81 told Lily sternly it was all nom
sense.
"It isn't! she said passionately.
7 HnnW
it's all true!'
But coaxed her off to bed. The
girl kept worrying about it until the
next Sunday A week after her dream
nv husband returned, and Lily found
me crying when she came in from
school.
"'Oh, mamma she cried sharply, is
the Atacama wrecked"
IT told her evasively her papa had
come home.
"She was not to be denied, however
and asked, with strange persistence,
Are papa's legs cut"
II said they were.
And the very first thing she said to
her father was: why. you didn't
have those clothes on when 1 saw you!
The ones you had on were all torn In
tho shipwreck.'"
Lily Spruit herself, furnished re-
port to the Psychical Research soci-
ETY.. She said she woke in terrible
fright, having sen every microscopic
detail Of the shipwreck and it's sequel
She saw her father get into the big
boat and keep close to his ship for
some time. She watched his boat
capsze 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.-William T. Fitz-