El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-03-14

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flushed. his forehead wet with cold
perspiratiOn, his breathing sIerIOIouS.
When awakened, he is overcome Dy
feelings of relief and gladness. ms
emotions are those of one VINO mas
escaped from perilOus and dreadIuI
situation.
Such a situation, it is likely, never
confronted him in this life. 1t is a
vivid memory of something horrible
that happened in a previous state OF
existenCe-perhapS many centuries
ago. We, in these peaceful and com
Portable days safe as we are in the
possession of life and liberty, do not
at all realize conditions as they were
a few hundred years back-thaG IS TO
was no liberty then, except for those
who could procure it for themselves
by superior might. Necessarily they
were the few; the many were defence
less and at the mercy Of the strong.
Those were days when every feudal
baron, possessing a castle perched on
a rock and a few score OF armed re-
tainerS, had the right to torture or
punish by death anybody who was so
unfortunate as to displease him. To-
day in Germany the traveller will find
many an ancient stronghold, wherein
helpless prisoners were tortured for
the amusement, or to satisfy the de-
sire for revenge, of the noble lord.
Suppose the case to. be that of a pris-
oner suffering on the rack. Would be
not display emotions much the same as
those exhibited by person in thrall
Of bad nightmare? He would be IN
able to control the movements Of his
limbs (the latter being bound), just as
is the case with the victim Of night
mare. And whereas the latter wishes
TO cry out but cannot so likewise it
would be with a man gagged by the
official torturer.
When Living Was Difficult.
It is hard for US to realize what a
dreadful place the world was to live
IN a few centuries ago. Death by ViO-
lence was so common that nothing was
thought Of it. Life in those days was
filled with what we would now regard
as horrors. To walk out in the morn
ing and come across two or three men
or women, for that matter-lying
dead in the street was a commonplace
incident Even religion taught that the
thing to do with anybody who did not
happen to agree with you in faith was
TO catch him If possible, torture him by
every devilish device that ingenuity
could suggest, and finally to burn him
No wonder that we have bad dreams,
If, as professor Pfister believes. our
sleeping recollectiOns carry US back
into the far past,
Tortured BY Dreams.
Most curious are those recurrent
dreams which, involving no incidents
that have to do with this life, come
back to US again and again at inter
walls. They reeite the same story over
and over, always with the same series
of happenings. Thus, for example the
case is cited Of a man who was made
almost nervous wreck by an oft
repeated dream Of a ruffian who pur-
sued him with a drawn knife with in
tent to kill him. This dream (if the
theory set forth be accepted) may be
supposed to have been a vivid recoI-
lection Of an actual happening, which
possibly terminated in the death Of the
individual concerned. If so, he carried
the memory OF it with him into a sub
seQuent life-tO be tortured by it in his
sleep.
Another case, not so easy Of ex-
PLANTATION, is that of a young woman
who, at the beginning Of her dream is
engaged at her toilet. Having put on
her finest gown, she leaves the house,
steps into her carriage, and after q
short drive, ascends steep hill where
she dlsmounts and enters a cottage.
Going into the parlOr, she sits down at
a piano and begins to play. When she
strikes certain chord, a trapdOOr in
the top of the piano rises. and out of
1t comes the severed head of a man
A curious point is that she knows in
advance Just what chord is the open
sesame OF the horrible trap, and tried
to avoid it; but the harmony always
leads up to this chord, and she must
behold the vision.
Such a thing, Of course, has never
happened in the present lifetime of
this young woman. Whence comes the
dream, then; and why does it recur
again and again, always with exactly
the same series Of incidents? It is i'm
possible 10 say. But there is something
back Of 1t-some memory Of tragedy in
the past-an assumption which gains a
sort OF likelihood from the fact that
the piano in the dream is not modern
instrument at all, but more like the