The Argosy — page 87: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“The Stuff that Dreams are Made of.” 77 and tightness about her brow. Further, to add to her torture, the rim of the crown was studded on the inside with sharp points which wounded her forehead so that blood ran down her face. She awoke agitated and excited, but.otherwise quite well, and found she had been asleep little more than half an hour. On falling asleep again the dream was repeated, with the additional circumstance that the apparition of her father now reproached her for unwillingness to wear the crown. When she awoke again she found she had been asleep for three hours. Again she returned to bed, and the dream was repeated in broad daylight. She now arose and made her toilet. Going over the circumstances of her dream, she recollected having heard her father say that during his youth, spent in a distant land, he had been subject to epileptic convulsions consequent on an accident, and that he had been cured by the operation of trephining. On a sister entering her room, she proceeded to narrate the picturesque vision which had, naturally, made such an impression on her memory. While thus engaged, she suddenly gave a shriek, became unconscious, and fell upon the floor in true epileptic con- vulsions, though the attack was but a slight one. A week afterwards the dream was repeated, and was followed by another attack. Under suitable treatment both dream and attack ceased to recur. It is a most singular fact that under certain combined conditions of fatigue, discomfort, and malaria, whole bodies of men—such as companies of soldiers—have been seized by the same terrific dream, and have awakened simultaneously, shrieking with terror. Such an instance is related by Laurent, when, after a forced march, 800 French soldiers were packed in a ruined Calabrian monastery which could ilk accommodate half that number. At midnight, frightful cries issued from every corner of the building as frightened men rushed from it, each declaring that it was the abode of the Evil One—that they had seen him, in the form of a big black dog, who threw himself upon their breasts for an instant and then disappeared. The men were persuaded to return to the same shelter on the next night, their officers promising to keep watch beside them. Shortly after mid- night the same scene was re-enacted—the same cries, the same flight, as the soldiers rushed forth in a body to escape the suffocating embrace of the black dog. The wakeful officers had seen nothing. On some future occasion we shall hope to relate some other ex- iences in dreamland, and more particularly some of those instances in which “the stuff that dreams are made of” has got woven into making human destinies in a weird fashion, towards whose explana- tiom even Science can as yet offer no satisfactory suggestion. For the present we can only wish our readers ‘Pleasing dreams and slumbers light.” d COMICcao@ SS CO