The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-23

time a member of my family to whom we sent full accounts of the sad af- fair. She was in Virginia when the trag- edy occurred, but in her letter to us. written at once, she could tell us par ticulars of the terrible deed that we had not known. She had seen 1t all in a dream at least a week before it took place. It was most startling to com pare the facts with the particulars of the dream.
 Multiplied thousands of such dreams, that is, dreams and their sequels, oc- cur about us; but no one knows wheth- CT or not they mean anything or are merely coincidental.
 SOMNAMBULISM.
 Somnambulism is a dream in process of acting It's the moving picture show of the world of sleep. The judg- ment is suspended absolute y. All kinds of daring things are undertaken and all kinds of dangers are confronted with the utmost composure. The dream seems to have complete control of the body and leads it or drives 1t anywhither. If the sleeper Is dreaming of danger he will seek to escape it at the risk of still greater peril.
 A young lady friend of mine was dis covered, by policeman. about midnight, hanging to the window sill of the sec ond story of her home. She was evil dently trying to escape fire or some other danger.
 Almost any strongly excited emotion will move some people of high-strunS nervous temperaments to walk in their sleep. Often a guilty conscience has this same effect. With what dramatic power Shakespeare has employed this psycho- logical fact! The reader will recall the case of Lady Macbeth, who, in her sleep, re-enacted the murder of King Duncan, wringing her hands and moaning Here's the smell of blood still;
 All the perfumes of Arabia will not Sweeten this little hand"
 Intense sorrow has often excited the dreamer to somna bulism. A devoted mother who had but recently buried her little boy, was discovered one night by policeman, hastily gliding through the silent streets of the city toward the cemetery. She was intercepted and awakened. Under her arm there was q bun He of child's clothes and in her hand a few flowers. The friendly officer con- ducted her to her home. In her dream she thought the child was cold; hence the clothing that she carried under her arm. Yet, with strange contradiction. such as we often find In dreams. she knew that her child was dead and in his coffin, hence the flowers, which, with loves broken heart, she would place upon the little grave.
 But, as I said, almost any emotion if highly excited, might produce somnam- bulism
 AS this is 8 pathological as well as a dangerous condition one asks, Is there no way to cure person of 1t? Yes. 1t can be cured and in many cases it has been All sorts of expedients have been employed to break the sleep-walker Of his perilous habit.
 lady was given to somnambuisn. much to the alarm Of her friends. To break her of the habit. her companion. occupying the room with her. locked the door leading to the hall, and then hid the key. But the comnambulist, getting out of bed. hunted until she found the key. and was soon gone The next night the door was locked and the key was placed in bowl of water. The somnambuist began late In the night to hunt for the key. At last she found 1t; but as she thrust her hand into the bow1