The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 8, 1897, Page 18

18 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY AUGUST 8, 1897. It was a warm evening in the high Sier- ras and the lumber camp boys were lying around in the most picturesque but com- fortable attitudes, waiting for the cool | breeze that usually dropped down at night- fall from the summit of Mount Whitney. But on this particular evening the breeze was slow in coming. Instead there came the hot breath of the San Joaquin Valley, borneon the wings of the nignt wind. It was actually eso hot that the boys would pot smoke, 5o put in their time gasping for breath and listening to the rustling of the pines. “Bill,"" called out one of the boys. But Bill, the most popular man in camp, who was looked up to as a great traveler, he having been in all parts ot the world, did not answer. He was asleep. “Bill!” This time the name was fairly yelled and the yelling was accompanied by a piece of soft redwood bark thrown in the direction of the sleeping figure. The aim was good and Bill was brought to his feet, “T wanted to ask you,” said the thrower his senses, “if you were ever in a place as hot as this?” “You bet I was,” answered Bill. “In Death Valley, for instance, And,” he went on, in a reminiscent tone, I have been in colder places—!ots colder. In Alaska, for instance. Why, boys, I have been where the snow was knee deep and icicles hung to all the trees. I tell you, tbe last time I went over Chilcoot Pass— well, if it hadn’t been fora wolf I would have passed in my checks.”” Something in old Bill’s tone caused all the boys to seat themselves near him, | material had been leit at the foot of the | of the bark as soon as Bill bad collected | scenting a story. ‘“When was that, Bill?" asked the man who had thrown the bark, as he settled his back to comfortably fit the contour of alog “‘Lemme see,” mused Bill; “that was— yes, it wasin April, '95—last trip I made up there, and the last I ever will make, T can tell you. California is good enough for xae. ‘‘You see,” Bill went on, after getting his pipe started in good style, *‘there was a party of five of us made up our minds to dig for gold somewheres around Circle City, and after making careful calcula- tions, concluded that the best way to get there was over Chilcoot Pass and down | through the lakes to the Yukon. We all landed at Dyea Inlet, and learned that others had been over the pass before us. The weather was lovely, and we made good time to the top. ‘‘After we had dismissed the Indians who helped us carry our stuff up, it was | found that a small package of assaying | last ascent. “It would take one of us about an hour and a balf to go Back and get it, soit was decided to go into camp for the night at the summit and push on in the morning. Our route was now all down hill. ‘“‘After pulling straws, it fell to my lot to go back for the bundle, and I left the others putting up the tent near & clump of pines. I looked around to make sure there would be no trouble to find them again and started down. I don’t think it took me more than ten minutes to get to the bundle, but getting up was a different matter. “When I was about half-way to the top there was a sudden breath of cold air and the sky quickly clouded over. Before I knew it snow was falling and the wind blew harder and harder. “0f course I eventually reached the top. Night was just coming on, and the snow- storm had become a blizzard. I looked for the tent of my party, butit was no- where to be seen. Iran here and there, and soon a sort of frenzy seized me. 1 said to myself that they had gone and left me. I must go after them. “Istarted down in the only direction they could have gone. I hollered and yelled, but of course nothing could be heard in the blizzard. 1think for a while I must have been crazy. My hat blew away. I dropped my bunale, and as I got warm from the exertion I threw away my coat. On I went for what I suppose must have been about an hour. The snow had become several inches deep, and the cold was becoming intense. About this time Irealized that I waslost. I couldn’tsee where I was going and stumbled along blindly. “For a few moments I considered the possibility of making a fire and at least keeping warm until morning. I had plenty of matches but found it impossible to even strike a light, so hard did the wind blow. Then I started to walk again, determined to keep warm that way, al- though I really felt that I would never see another day dawn. “Idon’t know just how long I walked and walked through the world of white- neas, hearing no sound except my own boots crunching the snow and the roaring of the wind through the pines. I tell you, it was simply an awiful experience, and the horror of it grew when I began to feel myself getting tired. I knew thatI could not go on for very long. Soon I would grow weak, then I would stagger, then crawl, and then—well, I had heard of how people had been lost in the snow and gone to sleep, never to wake again. Then I began to comfort myself with the fact that it was supposed to be a pleasant death. Then I said to myself that I was not dead yet. I was not even weak, nor cold. But Isoon would be, and somehow my feet were heavier than they wers an hour ago—or was it a century ago? What was the use of strugeling? Better go to sleep now aund. end it so much sooner. The snow wasnice and soft. Yes, I would lie down—as soon as I came to a good | place. “Suddenly I heard a new sound. was it? ‘Footsteps? Yes. man footsteps. ‘What But not hu- Then an awfu! bark rent the air and a moment later a big wolt jumped at me. I don’t know how it all happened, but some way I made a slap at the animal and I could hear my heavy mittens bang aganst its face. I must have filled its eyes with snow and so sur- prised it that it became afraid of me, “At any rate it made no effort to attack me, but kept away a few feet in front, jumping about much after the manner of adog. Somehow after the wolf came I felt better, even though it wasa new dan- ger. Itgave me a feeling ot companion- ship, and without knowing why I made an effort not to let it get too faraway from me. Where the wolf led I followed. “Suddenly the wind seemed to stop and my surroundings got darker. The wolf was only a short d.stance in front of me. Then it stood still. Then it disappeared altogether. “An investigation showed me that it had gone into a cave, the cpening ol! which was just in front of me and of & good size. Icould easily have gone in, but a growl from within warned me not to. Out of the cave there came a breath of warm air, and just in front of the en- trance there was no snow. The ground here was covered with small bits of wood and in an instant bope came to me. I could now keep warm. “It @id not take me long to build a fire of the small bits of wood ana then to bring larger pieces from a short distance. Soon I was as comfortable as could be, ex- cept that Ifelta little hungry. I could ! live there a week anyhow. I soon found that the entrance to the cave was at the end of a sort of grotto, in which I bad built the fire. Idetermined to explore the cave in spite of the wolf. Taking a big, blazing torch from the fire I went inside and found myself in an enor- mous cavern. The floor was as smooth as a marble-topped table, and far across on | the other ‘side of it I could see my wolf | friend—and also several others. But thev made no attempt to come near me. Of course 1 knew they would not attack me as long as I had the blazing torch; but somehow they showed an indifference to- ward me that was remarkable. “Within the large cave I discovered a smaller one, leading back about fifty feet. It felt warm and comfortable, but I de-| termined to build a big fire at the mouth | of the small cave, and crawl back and go to sleep. This I did, but wher I got back there was surprised to put my handon something soft and furry. I jumped back just as a couple of baar cubs woke up and at once wanted to romp with me. They were pre:ty little fellows, and I confess that for a moment I felt like killing ona of them and making a supper off him, But I didn't, and after assuring myself that the fire at the mouth of the cava would bura many hours I lay down. The little bears cuddled up to me in tha most affectionate manner, and before I knew it we were all asieen. “The next thing I knew somebody way calling me. It took me several moments to collect my thoughts, and then I looked around and saw standing at the moath of the cave two of my partners. You bpet you, we had a reunion! Outside the sun was shining brightly, and it was almosg noon. I hated to leave the little bears, and they whined dolefully as I went out of the cave. “It seems that the night before when [ started on my wild ran down the moun. tain I went right past where my friends had gone into camp, and although they tried to catch me I was too swift for them, and they had to give up the chase. In the morning they nad managed to find my trail, as it had stopped snowing about the time I met the wolf, and so came to the cave. That's how I came to be saved by a wolf.” Old Bill knocked the ashes from hig pipe and got up to start for his bunk. “Did you get any gold on that trip?’ yelled one of the boys at the retreating figure. “That’s another story, continuing on his way. some other time. There's breeze from Mount Whitney, going to get the benefit of it.” WiLL Sparks ” responded Bili, “I'lL tell you that cool and I'm Statistics of a Liong Policeman. John Dufficy is the longest policeman in Chicago. It would take only 782 of him, placed end to end, to reach a mile. A stack of twenty-six of him would reach to the eaves of the Monadnock buildiog. A perpendicular line of two of him would make a festoon up one side of the patro! box, over the top and half way down the otherside. Oué of him hangs a foot over the average bea. A ladder of two of him would reach to the ceiling of any drawing- room in the city, and, standing on tip-toe, one of him could blow down the gzas burner in most any chandelier. He stoops to enter the average door, and when he holds his arm out straizht and says his wife is about so high, an average maa can walk unaer the arm and not get a deat in his hat.—Chicaeo Times-Herald. —————— It takes twelve tea plants to produce one pound of tea. THEY REMEMBER TO HAVE LIVED IN ANOTHER AGE THAN THIS Strange as the theory of reincarnation | may seem to many people, there are many believers in that doctrine living right here in our midst, who have not been con- vinced solely by logic, but have had such unusual psychic experiences as 10| fasten the conviction in their minds that the same personality is repeatedly born again into this fleshly life. Believe as| tion, that which I now understana as the | evolution of the soul | belief to me. | give expression to my thoughts, I found seemed a natural When, however, 1 would | that it was invariatly considered that I made strange, odd remarks, and being of | a timid nature as regards other people’s | opinions I reframed from giving expres- | sion to my thoughts or asking questions | T The inference drawn from this experi- ence that the woman who relates it was the reincarnated soul which had previ- | ous!y existed as her sister is not the only | oue that could be drawn, but as a working theory of something inexplicable it would accoant for that particular case of knowl- edge acquired in a mysterious way. There are, however, cases on record of knowl- "m - o P Lo ""}m«f T A Local Being Who Traveled in Another Guise Before She Was Born. firmly as we may that one life is the end of all carthly trial and pleasure, we will yet lose some of our surprise that others believe just as firmly in repeated incar- nations if, in addition to paying attention | to the arguments 2s to the reasonableness of that methcd of soul development, we | listen to the experiences that some have | bad as if in special demonstration of the | doctrine to them individually. Itis2n odd thought that here in San Francisco we are likely at any time to be seated on the streetcar beside some one | who distinctly remembers having existed | on this old earth ages aco, clothed in the | flesh of some very different personality | from that which he or she now wonm! But that is not all; we may meet with | such people, converse with them on all | sorts of topics, be in familiar intercourse | with them for years in business and social | relations and never know that they have within them the cousciousness of pre- existence. Many who have the most v.vid memory of another life will not talk | about it to their nearest friends, for the very sensible reason that the great major. | ity of people wou!d be very apt to con-| sider them mentally unbaianced if they | confessed to having any abnormal powers of memory. In the matter of setting the standard of complete sanity majorities, as in so many other cases, are regnant, and any very wide departure from the mental average of the multitude will surely be classed as crankiness. One of the instances of what is sup- posed to be a memory of a previous life is related by a lady substantially in her own words as follows: “When I was a child, though never having heard of reincarna- upon such a subject. “1 would, however, often speak of things which bappened before my birth 1 such a way that my mother used to remark that I could remember events vhich occurred before I was born. I was very sensiuve upen this point (for I could not bear to be even suspected of falsify- ing) so,as much as possible, I avoided talking uoon the subject except with my mother and those who knew me well. “One example of thissort of memory I will relate: My eldest sister, some four- teen years my senior, was one day visit- ing us when I happened to speak of a cir- | cumstanee which had occurred near Cleve- land, Ohio. It was the birth of a child whose head grew to abnormal provortions while its body remained extremely smali. When I spoke of it as though I was there personally my sister replied that I knew nothing of it, as it happened before I was born. Mother said that nevertheless I seemed to know of it perfectly. I then went on to describe not only the child, the cradie and its position, but also the trap- door leading to the cellar, and even the knot in the door of the bouse and the nail marks of the plain habitation. My sister still remaining skeptical about my baving personal knowledge of the event, I then related to them that when on my way to visit the place, being but a little one, I had hold of father's hand. I became inter- ested in the crowing of a rooster, and star- ing at it cansed me to stumble and fall. Father brushed the dairt off my apron quickly before mother could see. Upon comparison we found that these circum- stances agreed with an incident in the life of a sister of mine who bad diea before I was born.” edge abnormally acquired similar to this and equally wonderful, for whjch the theory of reincarnation would not give an explanation, as, for instance, such an in- cident in the life of one sister might have been communicated mysteriously to the other though both were living on the earth at the same time. There are nu- merous instances of marvelous thought transference from one living person to another which would invalidate this inci- dent as good evidence of reincarnation. As both the mother and the living sister knew of these details the younger sister might have unconsciously acquired the facts from their minds. There can be no doubt that a spiritual- ist would find in such a mental phenome- non just as strong a corroboration of his belief ascan the reincarnationist find of his. The spir.t of the dead sisier might have had many communications with the subjective self of the living one and the objective mind of the latter be all uncon- scious of whence that piece of information came. When placed in the catalogue ot many instances of thought transference thia incident is seen to be no evidence of either reincarnation or spiritnalism. Itis | a curious instance of methods of reason- ing by which beliefs are acquired, and shéws the need of multiplied evidence in order to arrive at the truth, . It cannot be denied, however, that the theory of rein- carnation would account for this isolated case, and that it would be strong corrobo- rative evidence if a person had many other reasons for accepting that beliel. The memory of previous incarnations is said to be much more common among children than among grown people. The power to recall it fades as the chuld gets absorbed in the events of its new life. Often the littie one is laughed, or scolded, out of talking or thinking on such sub- jects, and itis supposed that if such re- pression were not put upon the youthful minds they wou!d in many cases develop the power of vivialy recalling events of previous existence. There is a man in for a book giving many scientific facts to corroborate the teachings of Biavatsky. He says that when a youth he could re- member that he had been on earth incar- nate as a general in ancient times, and about beingz killed in battle, but that all such talk was severely disciplined out of him by his parents. There is a little girl here who, when about 3 years old, was one | day ‘talking to her mother and said: San Francisco who has collected material | ' Weli, mamma, when 1 come back to the | world next time F will then have some other mother; you won't be my mother then.” This child’s parents were not the- osophists, and she had heard no talk of reincarnation. The story is told in illus- tration of what seems an intuitive knowl- edge of reincarnations among very young children. There is another little girl in the City who krows, with such minute accuracy as to details, about an incident in the life of her father and her father's little sister, who died long before the birth of this little San Francisco girl, that her father firmly believes his daaghter is a reincarnation of the soul which was once hissister’s. When the little girl first surprised her father by talking about things which occurred be- fore her birth, he tested her knowledge by asking for particulars that it would seem could only be known by one who had been personally present. She described in ce- tail a ignce of unusual construction that she had never seen, but which had been built on her father’s farm in a distant State, and other things which had passed out of her father’s mind uatil her talk re- called them. This incident could be accounted for by the theory of inherited memory, which altbough considered rather a wild guess as to the cause of certain strange mental manifestations, is yet believed by one of our most learned physicians to be & much more reasonable hypothesis to account for such cases than is the supposition that the soul is repeatedly incarnated. This physician says there is no question as to the facts of these abnormal feats of the mental faculties, but that the explanation of them is simply beyond medical science, and that the ordinary man knows just as much about the origin of the unusual vowers as does one who approaches the subject with all the advantages of scien- tific training. So far at least th y belong to theregion of the unknowable. He had, by personal investigation, ver.fied the fact that there are marvels of thought trans- ference from one human being to another and across continents and oceans without any known means of communication, but no study of the brain gives a hint as to how it is done. ———————— England uses 600,000 pounds of tea daily. ) lp 1156 froze AIO?G N Z7 e with the biave, for.he mep shell my boaply free / shore, o< ' T Is rose wrlfo Heavens Aflrorfil Ia'?ps 5. s =N I‘érplqe apd deaflj i my pfiy e, Belylpd are wbflél’}rfi. b%es. The sky\u easue a’)d fi)’!’e /) \\, k]j/'/// goldep eggs, fér Trovel rp}’ sloves 11}"0‘{@!) flje. sy apd sleel’s _Tor | give fljen;p gold abd pleaare apd”fén?e ; ald despair aqd' \(‘9,,?3' I will ke fi”o'? Tfie glaclerls r)esf |flj flfelp are hlest” Jdhet b"ave and the el (wiiher saquor knave) forthe B"fi"?ffi“fi aféol a'h Ifje fol fljaf fs brave Will fiax\'el my bnga)/ wfl’b bleedl ng’ eer Bf plglfl' atd by day fljl‘o‘@!) ifiespow and flje forl 3:"3 thew Soldandpl 5 By lr;e and deal, ahd despolr aqd sbiihje {3;};’ - _\\ ,/ofiy /47”/ Cogjra:é P