Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-03-05
cURIosITIEs OF DREAMING.

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| cURIosITIEs OF DREAMING.
The caprieiousness Of the Mind Of a
Sleeper is a Perplexins Problem.
That a thing to be remarkable need
not be Of rare occurrence finds ample
confirmation in dreams, than which
nothing incident to human existence
is more common or more wonderful.
Some years ago a New Yorker dream
ed that he had written a poem, and,
waking. he wrote 1t down. 1t was
pronounced excellent by competent
Judges Afterward he was unable to
make two lines rhyme. "Kubia Khan"
one Of the finest specimens Of imag-
NATIVE poetry in the English language,
was composed by Coleridge during
sleep. All the horrible phantoms
playing a part in ''The Mysteries of
Udolpho," once the most popular Of
sensational novels, were first seen by
its author in dreams. That they might
be generated, 1t is said. she was ac-
customed to eat a hearty meal Of the
most indigestible food just previous
to retiring for the night.
| In 1913 the eminent violinist Tar
TIM dreamed that he had an interview
with Satan, when his majesty per-
formed a magnificent solo on the vio-
lin. Tartini walked with the most ex-
qulsite sensations, and, selling his in
strument, attempted to express what
he had dreamed. His efforts were
in vain. but he composed on the re-
membered theme a bit he called "The
DEVILS Sonata"
A strange characteristic OF dreams
is the rapidity with which thoughts
flash through the mind Of the dream
er. Lord Holland, while listening to
the reading of friend. dropped
asleep and had a dream whose details
1t took him twenty minutes to write
out. Yet he distinctly remembered
the first part Of one and the conclu-
sion of the following sentence that
his friend had read, so he could not
have been asleep but a few seconds.
The poet Willis, having returned from
Europe, dreamed Of repeating the trip
almost exactly as he made It; only, on
his imaginary voyage homeward he
fell into the ocean. This casualty
walked him, to find that he had slept
not more than three minutes.
The most perplexing feature Of
dreams is the capriciousness Of the
mind as shown therein. It may have
been busy during the day with
thoughts of Importance, but when 1t
dreams 1t will seize on some trivial
incident and allow 1t to shape its fan
cies An English student Of psychol-
ogy once made an interesting exper-
iment to ascertain whether an idea
that absorbed his mind during the day
would influence his dreams at night.
He fixed his thoughts intently dur
ing the day upon the subject Of polar
bears. He shut himself in his room
and read all the books Of natural his
tory he had which described the ap-
pearance and habits of these animals
He carefully excluded from his mind
every other idea, and the last thing
he remembered before he fell asleep
at night was an immense bear crawl
ing out Of the water upon a cake OF
ice. But, instead Of dreaming OF
bears, he dreamed that he was on
board a sailing vessel on whaling
voyage. A whale was seen to blow.
He entered the whale boat with the
crew and the duty Of harpooning the
monster fell to his lot. He grasped
the harpoon and, just as the boat was
gliding over the back Of the whale,
he threw the implement with all his
might. But at the same time he lost
his balance and fell into the whales
mouth, and with a cry Of terror he
awoke.
| For some time he was exceedingly
puzzled to account for this dream.
which seemed to have had no material
part in his past consciousness from
which II could have been fashioned
But after much thought he recollected
that in one Of the books he had read
the day before there was large pic
ture of a group of polar bears dis
porting themselves on the ice, while
at the four corners Of the engraving
were smaller sketches representing
scenes in northern seas. One Of these
scenes was the picture Of whaling
vessel with a whaleboat just being
lowered from the davits. His eye
must have been attracted to this pic
ture, IL only for a second, and In
some mysterious way the dream was
fashioned from these meager mate
rails.
Not satisfied with this result, he
made the same experiment for several
successive days. Each day he made
some one subject an absorbing study,
taking particular pains to repeat to
himself just before he fell asleep the
topic upon which his mind had been
engaged. And even then a number of
incidental circumstances that had not
been in his mind for weeks entered
into his dreams in such manner as
greatly to confuse them.
In one instance he was unable to
trace any connection whatever be-
tween his dream and his previous
waking thoughts. Finally. he gave
over the attempt. thinking it proba-
BILE that the very intentness of his
mind on one subject thwarted its own
purpose. The mind may have tired
of that order of thought during the
day and relaxed at night by taking
different order Of thought.-New York
Press.
The State Warehouse Commission
Frankly. we don't think very much
of the three commissioners elected by
| tba laoioIotura IN have charge of the