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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (April 27, 1913)
8 THE SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE SECTION THE BORDERLAND OF SLEEP BY H ADDINGTON BRUCE iltUSTRATIONS GtS G' H'MITCHE LL mm y i IIF. Sl'IKNTIFIC S'lTDY OF sleep, nariieinariv as s inwiiur me ul rinse relationship between dreams PvMI iiihI disease, lias resulted within the I ui-t few yen in ill discoveries of (Trent practical iinportance. .No less iiiiinii lant are the discoveries that hae been made through the investigation as yet only in its beginnings of the peculiar semi wnking, semi-sleeping condition Hint immediately precedes nnd imiiiedintely follows nettinl sleep. Most people hnve next to no knowledge of this "liorderlnnd state," for the reason that it is usually so fleeting as to he inappreciable. Hut careful exper iment and observation hnve demonstrated its exist ence; and. moreover, it is now known that instead of being a merely passive condition, it often is char acterized by a decree of mental activity that makes an understanding id' it peculiarly interesting. Through its investigation much new light has been thrown on the nature of those weird hal lucinations frequently experienced by normal, healthy persons, and taking (lie form of phan tasms of the living or the ilcnd; such as, for ex ample, the "ghost" seen by Lewis ('. Hruce, while spending u night in n lonely Scotch fnrinhouse. He had been sailing all day, had been caught in n calm, and did not arrive at the farmhouse until after midnight. Hefore turning in he ate a heart, supper, nnd then, having been shown to his room, undressed as quickly as he could, and soon was sound asleep. The bed he occupied was one of those old-fashioned, heavily-curtained affairs so common in the Highlands. About two o'clock in the morning he awoke with a start and with an uneasy feeling that he wns not nlone. Looking up, he beheld to his horror a face gazing at him from the opening in the curtains. This apparition lasted from ten to lifteen seconds. "It wns n fnce," .Mr. Hruce nflerwnrds said. "Hint 1 hnd never seen before. My hair stood up on my head, and 1 felt cold. Hut reason pre ailed as I thought of my Into and heavy supper, and soon again 1 was fast asleep." lodge of bis amazement when, dressing in the morning, he noticed on the wall a small portrait which be instantly recognized as that of the face be had seen gazing through the curtain. It n the portrait, he learned at breakfast, of a nmn wlio had formerly lived in the farmhouse, and bad died in the room in which Mr. Hruce had slept. COMPAKK with this tho extraordinary experi ence of an Knglishinnii, .lolm K. Husbands, as a truest at a hotel in .Madeira, lie had gone to bed. one bright moonlight night, and had been sleep ing for some time when, precisely like Mr. Hruce, he awoke with a feeling that somebody was in the room with biin. Opening his eyes he saw, standing at the side of his bed ami pointing at the spot where lie was lying, a young fellow of about twenty-tlve, dressed in flannels. Mr. lluslmnds's first thought was that the intruder had entered by the window, which he knew he had left open, anil be called out angrily, asking him wbnt he wnnted. Then, as the other made no reply, he sat up in bed and struck at him with his list. As he did so, his unexpected isitor, still pointing toward the bed. slowly faded into nothingness. The next day, Mr. Husbands told what he had seen to several other guests at the hotel, including a Miss Fnlkner and her brother. Hoth fnncied that thev recognized in his description of the llnn-nel-clnd apparition a young friend of their--who bad died in that room some mouths be O H MITCHELL. ore. 1 in t they said nolliing of this to Mr. Hus bands until nearly a week later, when Miss Fnlkner abruptly showed him a photograph of the dead num. Instantly he oxclnimed: "Why, thut is the very ehnp I saw in my room. Only he was dressed differently. lie had on a cricket or tennis suit, fastened at the neck with a sailor knot." "And," ndded Miss Fnlkner, in relating the inci dent, "it so happens that this was the kind of dress our friend often wore. Hut I can not understand how ho enme to nppenr to Mr. Husbands, who is most practical, and the last man one would expect a 'spirit' to visit." Still more striking was an uiicnnny visitation ouchsafed to a commercial traveler from Hoston - --zliz - : 1 mm i &f 'P.V'- 4r,f iff M 1 V. f.UM....." . in my orders, which were unusually large ones, so that 1 was in a very happy frame of mind indeed. The hour wns high noon, nnd the sun was shining cheerfully into my room. While busily smoking a eigar am', writing out my orders, 1 suddenly became conscious that some one wns sitting on my left, with one arm resting on the tnble. Quick iu a flash I turned and distinctly saw the form of my dead sis ter, and for a brief second or so looked tier squarely in the fnce; nnd so sure wns 1 that it wns she thnt I sprang forward in delight, culling Iur by nnme; nnd, ns I did so, the apparition instantly vanished. Naturally 1 wns startled and duinfounded, almost doubting my senses; but from the cigar in my mouth, and the pen in my hand, wi 'i the ink still moist on my letter, 1 satisfied myself 1 bad not been dreaming nnd wns wide nwnke. "Now comes the most remarkable confirmation of my statement. Ibis visitation, or whatever you may call it, so impressed me that I took the next train home; and in the presence of my parents and others 1 related what had occurred. My father was inclined to ridicule me. as he saw how earnestly 1 believed what I stated; but he. loo, was amazed when I told them of a bright red line or scratch on the right-hand side of my sister's face, which I had distinctly seen. uTATIIHN 1 mentioned this, my mother trembling niul nearly fainted awav; jgJ),,08 , flGs rnrwaru ' in (lclipM during a trip in the Middle West. In fact, his nar rative of his experience, us reported by him to the American Society for Psychical Research, witlT cor roborative documents, constitutes one of the most remarkable "true.ghost stories" I have ever heard, and can properly bo told only in his own words. "In 1807," he says, "my only sister, a young lady of eighteen years, died suddenly of cholera in St. Louis. My attachment for her wns very strong, and the blow a severe one to me. A year or so after her death I became a commercial traveler, ni 1 it was in 1870, while on ono of my Western trips, that the event occurred. "I had 'drummed' the city of St. Joseph, Mo., and bad gone to my room at the Pacific Hoit-e to send rose nnd us soon us sue suiiiciently recovered ner sen -possession, with tears streaming down her face, she exclaimed that 1 had indeed seen my sister, as no living mortal but herself wns aware of that scratch, which she hail accidentally made while doing some little act of kindness after my sister's death. She said she well remembered how pained she was to think she should have, unintentionally, marred the features of her dead daughter, and that, unknown to all, bow she bad carefully obliterated all traces of the slight scratch with the aid of powder, etc., and that she had never mentioned it to a human being from thut day to this. In proof, neither my father nor any of our family had detected it, and positively were unaware of the incident ; yet I saw the scratch as bright as if just made." There was, further, a curious sequel to this singular adventure, for within a few days after her son's return, the mother herself passed away, "happy in the belief that she would rejoin her lavorite daugh ter in another world." To the entire fam ily it seemed certain that the dead daugh ter bud been nware of her mother's approaching end, and hnd contrived to appear to her brother as a means of sending him home in time to take a last farewell. "Ghosts," of course, are often seen at the mo ment when, or not long after, the person whose phantasmal form uppenrs is dying, or passing through some serious crisis, nt n distnnco from tho plnee of apparition. I am able to cite an astonish ing instance of this sort, on the authority of a clergy man, 'he Hev. Arthur Bellamy. His wife, it seems, as a joung girl had made n compact with a friend Hint whichever of them died first should endeavor to manifest herself in spirit form to tho survivor. Many jears later Mrs. Bellamy, who in tho mean time had lost nil track of her friend, cnsiinlly heard of the hitter's death. The news reminded her of their compnet, and, be coming nervous, she told her husband of it. Mr. Bellamy declares be had never known the t'l'li'Mil in life, i,nr bad
