Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1915-04-08
The Stories of
Famous No. els
BY Albert Pdyson Terhune
Peter Ibbetson
Peter Ibbetson
BY George Du Maurler

son Of q rich Englishman. He spent
his childhood In French village,
where his adored daily companion was
little Mary Seraskier, daughter of q
Polish emigrant.
Peters youth and early manhood
was lonely, unhappy, cramped by pov.
erty. He and Mary lost sight of one
another, though each carried an ideal.
istic memory of their companionship.
Mary grew into a stately woman and
married the dissolute Duke of Towers.
Her welded life was miserable and
she devoted herself to charity. She
was known as "the Beautiful
Duchess"
Peter quarrelled with his father, who
had brutally insulted the memory of
his mother. The son struck his
father. The blow was heavier than
Peter realized. And the father fell
dead.
Peter 1bbetson was tried for murder.
He was adjudged crazy and was locked
up for life in an asylum for the Grim
inal insane. He was still in the first
prisonment was n living death. The
days were an endless horror. His only
moments of peace were found in
sleep.
His mind dwelt constantly on the
past, chiefly on his happy childhood in
France and on the long hours spent
there with his playmate. Mary Seras-
In inlt Ia 4 4
way Of reviving those memories more
vividly. Before he went to sleep he
would lie at full length on his back,
clasp his hands behind his head and
cross one ankle over the other. Then
he would throw all his will power into
an effort to carry his mind back to
early scenes
Soon he became proficient in this
form of self.hypnotism. (He called 1t
dreaming true."D At will he could
transport himself mentally to France
and to his own childhood. There, as
an invisible bystander, he could see
and hear everything that had been a
part of his former life. While during
the day he was a supposedly crazy
convict, yet at night his soul and his
mind were free to wander where they
would.
One night, while he was strolling
through the French village, he met
Mary Seraskier. Not as she had been
in childhood, but as "the Beautiful
Duchess" For Mary also had learned
the secret of dreaming true" And
H., IA L., IL,
united.
Each night they met. Their earthly
bodies were far apart-hers in London
mansion, his in his cell. But their
visionary selves were together, as
really and as vitally as though they
were still In the flesh. Together they
lived over their childish days. Then
they found they could go even further
back. They could will themselves to
go, nightly, to any period of the past
they might choose. And then, invisible
to all except each other, they looked
on sights that to other modern mortals
were only matters of history.
For instance, they willed themselves
once to go back to the days when the
earth was new. And, hand in hand,
they stood watching the mastodon and
other prehistoric monsters. Again,
they attended a court function of
Louis XIV. and, unseen, they mingled
with the Grand Monarchs courtiers.
Their love-life together was perfect.
Each was ideally happy. All the woes
Of the day were forgotten when they
met In dreamland at night. And thus
the years rolled on. In dreams Peter
and Mary remained wholly unchanged
from the glory of their first youth,
since souls are not marred by age.
Yet, Of course, day by day each was
steadily growing old. Peter was now
a grizzled, haggardeyed convict and
Mary a white haired, withered woman.
Neither saw the other in actual life.
So to each the other was still young,
strong and handsome.
At last one night, when Peter came
to their customary dreamand meeting
place, Mary was not there. Nor did
she meet him the next night, nor the
next. Then he learned one day that
the elderly Duchess of Towers had
been killed in railroad wreck. And
he went mad from grief.
Once afterward-only once was he
able to meet Mary in dreamland. BY
the force of her great love she was
able to come back to him then in a
vision from the Other World to COM
fort him and to tell him they should
soon meet again, never to be partGl,
Her prophecy proved true. For a
few days later, Peter Ibbetson was
found dead in his cell.
GEORGE DU MAURIER was born
In Paris in March, 1884, but was the
grandson of EMIGRE'S, who had fed