The Ordway new era., 1920-04-09

nightmare. Some Of us walk or have walked In
our sleep; most of us know people who do And
few of us have Lad experiences similar 10
that of james SnpcnZi that shiver ut the
remembrance of them.
Those-of us who have had such experiences can
readily understand why J. s. Plumb a nanufac-
turing chemist of Jersey City, impclled 10
write the following letter to the prosecutor Of
Newark:
Il strikngl: reminded Of painful expe-
rience of mine many years ago, and relate It
to You for what It may he worth bearing
what corroboratively upon the Supcnza
Early In my married life was In the habit Of
sleeping with revolver under the mattress at
the head of my bed. kept 1t there because 1t
equally accessible but much less In danger
of accidental discharge when under my pillow
''One night l had wild dream of grappling
with 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 while digging for my revolver with
my right.
at was all in minute. with no serious
damage being committed but 1t dreadful
thing had naturally grabbed my wife rough
ly Ii made me realize that might have killed
my beloved wife had l secured the weapon before
fully awaking, AS would have been quite probable
had It been little handler under the pillow.
Never again, said. and the revolver has been
banished to an even less accessible place"
The literature of dreams Is voumino,s, iS
to be expected from mans Interest in these nys-
teries of that mystery call sleep Science.
attempting to classify dreams. has set aside IL
class which II calls nightmares incubuses.
To those which go beyond the limits of the ordi-
nary nightmare II has applied the "sonI-
nambulistic automatism." In this class in
cluded the nocturnal adventures in which persons
commit violent acts of which they retain wax
ing knowledge. Apparently the person is sleep
ing lie appears TO have entered n state which
is short of total oblivion yet beyond the dividing
line of consciousness. Evidently them the
real and the unreal confused; the unreal
is TO them real real itself. Dream
suits in physical action
Certain it is that we have little exact knowl-
edge of the essential nature of consciousness.
In waking hours. We do know. how
ever. that merely portion of the mental life IS
represented In clear consciousness. Many com
plex brain processes are carried In the pres
cnce of consciousness slight to be prac-
tically absent, and the organic functions Of the
human machine performed without any
sciousness whatever,
There Is Il theory that dreams frequently
merely the working out OF suppressed DESIRES
Several of the crimlnOogists, somewhat in cor
roboration of this theory, hold that the commits
sion of crimes during sleep is entirely possible
under certain conditions They express the he
lief that the power of suggestion is strong that
In some cases of somnnmbulistc automatls the
sleeper is the victim OF sef-hypnosis and carries
out the idea which In his waking moments had
obsessed him.
Says DIR. Smith Ely Jellne OF New York. ar-
thor of n work which devotes considerable space
to disordered dreams "WithOn In any way
Judging the facts In the Supienzn rnse, II must
be admitted that crime like his under such cir
cumstnnces as alleged by the defendant is entirely
possible"
Assuming that james Sapienza has told the
whole truth. Is the unfortunate man answerabIe
10 the law for killing his wife?