OCR Text |
Show MYSTERY OF SLEEP. If the man who. while asleep, shot his wife, lived in America, English readers would be chary about believing the story. Hut as a fact, a precisely similar thing H1 hapnen eighteen mouths ago in Iialti-11:1 Iialti-11:1 le. w her-' a well-known man fired a revolver re-volver at his wife while himself asleep; then, on being aroused from his trance by Ms brother, nearlv killed the latter with a second shot. The mystery of sleep has yet to be solveJ. Coleridge composed "Ku-liht "Ku-liht Kalin" in a dream and committed it to paper on awakening; and Goethe's works owed much to the sub-conscious im-I'ginlngs im-I'ginlngs ui' his sleeping hours. As there is the constructive insinct in sleep, so there is destructive. It is not so long ago ihat a boy somnambulist set lire to Eton cullfgn; while another youth flung himself him-self from his bedroom under the impression impres-sion that he was living into the sea. 'i e man j'e. j.s soundly enough to cycle . ilhout awakeiing. another to lead his hounds hutitirg at night, a third to im jin v.irils fr:n I'i.-i ship to shore, others "hibernate" for months one in New York Is i:ow in .1 sle p which it is said has con-tii.i.ed con-tii.i.ed unbruk'-n for two years. No won-(jer won-(jer flint peoole sometimes arc buried alive! Kvrv now anil then v.e hear troni Ir.tlla of marv-ls in Ibis direction, of men voluntarily ent imbed for a month or more t a time. Tli- particulars ner vary. They arc the same today as when IJeut. A. II. Holleau. out there surveying for the Government, y jars ago. told the story of a test whl'.ii he witnessed. The man apparently ap-parently :i'rew himself Into a trance; was (run ut) in a bag, plat ed in e vault lined '. ith c ment. and covered over w ith two lirge stones. Above these latter, soil was scattered am! seed plai.ted. When thirty i'mvs had clips-d. the crave was opened. The- man was apparently i:;il. his body as si:i unk' 11 ami e maciated, his teeth so :rnily locked that a. sUel implement had to be employed to fore- them apart. But after a few minutes' attention the sleeper revived and was able to converse with those aroun.l him. St James Gazette. |