The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1920-02-20

nightmare. Some Of us walk or have walked in
our sleep; most of us know people who do And
few of have Lad experiences so similar to
that of James Sapenza that shiver at the
remembrance Of them.
Those of us who have had such experiences can
readily understand why J. s. Plumb, manufac-
turing chemist of Jersey City, was impelled to
write the following letter to the prosecutor of
Newark
II am strikngly reminded Of painful expe-
rience of mine many years ago, and l relate it
to you for what it may be worth as bearing some
what corroboratively upon the Sapienza case
EARLY in my married life was In the habit of
sleeping with revolver under the mattress at
the head of my bed l kept it there because it
was equally as accessible but much less in danger
of accidental discharge as when under my pillow
cone night I had wild dream of graphing
with a burglar, and was awakened by my wife'S
scream, or by my own action, or BOTH to find, to
my horror, that had my wife's head under my
left arm while was digging for my revolver with
my right
ut was all over in minute, with no serious
damage being committed, but it was a dreadful
thing, as had naturally grabbed my wife rough
W. 1t made me realize that l might have killed
my beloved wife had / secured the weapon before
fully awaking, as would have been quite probable
had it been little hand VI under the pillow.
"Never again, said, and the revolver has been
banished to an even less accessible place"
The literature Of dreams is voluminous, as is
to be expected from mans interest in these mys
teries Of that mystery call sleep. Science
attempting to classify Dreams has set aside
class which 1t calls nightmares or incubuses.
To those which go beyond the limits Of the ordi-
nary nightmare it has applied the name "som-
nambulstic automatsm" In this class are in
Guided the nocturnal adventures in which persons
commit violent arts Of which they retain wax
ing knowledge. Apparently the person is Sleep
ing. He appears to have entered state which
is short Of total Oblivion yet beyond the dividing
line of consciousness. Evidently to them the
real and the unreal confused; the unreal
Is to them as real real itself Dream
suits in physical action.
Certain it is that we have little exact knowl-
edge of the essential nature of consciousness,
even in our waking hours. We do know, how
ever that merely a portion of the mental life is
represented In clear consciousness Many com
pick brain processes are carried on in the pres
ence Of a consciousness so slight as to be prac-
tically absent, and the organic functions of the
human machine are performed without any con-
seriousness whatever,
There is a theory that dreams are frequently
merely the working out of suppressed desires"
Several of the crimnOIogists somewhat in cor
rnboration of this theory hold that the commits
sion Of crimes during sleep is entirely possible
under certain conditions. They express the be-
lief that the power of suggestion is so strong that
In some cases of somnambuIistic automatism the
sleeper is the victim of self-hypnoss and carries
out the idea which in his waking moments had
obsessed him.
Says DIR. Smith Ely Jelliffe of New York au-
thor of a work which devotes considerable space
to dsordered dreams: without in any way
judging the facts In the Sapienza case it must
be admitted that crime like his under such cir
cumstances alleged by the defendant is entirely
possible"
Assuming that JayIes Sapienza has told the
whole truth is the unfortunate answerable
to the law for killing his wife1