The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 7, 1898, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY AUGUST 7, 1898 . ; a certain sorcery about the narration premonitions, or what e attention of the in- rk you—for since e has ground this menon into the grod round the world no longer scoffs. s rather to solve than to —the inexplicable things of nt to engage the listener. ences have ¢ erest peculiar related apace. d in the south- wife (a bride), shared with me the ificant drean 1inisc and to the by d wes GENERAL MERRIA hardships attending the GEHERA. Wt RIAM, overland journey. We had A lived there nearly three rears before we had suffi- the lonely wagon road of t :arest railroad station, I wrote home to my parents in it. and started with my wife ticipated trip. Now the cient courage to a one thou: which ws Maine of our i and child upc strangest part of t ceived my letter ap 2 there was great rejoicing in the old homes every one, with the exception of father, was counting upon the exact day of our arrival. He suddenly seem- ed to feel the conviction that something was going to happen, and that they were rejoicing too soon; and ‘whenever he would hear any one of the family telling a neighbor of our coming he would immediately say, “They have only started, they’r not here yet.” The effect upon the others was most depressing for as the days wore on, he became more gloomy, and this fear- ful foreboding seemed to take possession of him. We had not proceeded five hundred miles on our way when we encountered a terrific cloudburst, and I lost my wife and child. Every member of our party, with the exception of one man and myself, was drowned. That home gathering was sad indeed to me—and after that my father’s premonitions always carried conviction in our household. As to my own presentiments, I have had many and some have been fulfilled, but the strangest one that I recollect was on the evening of the great battle of Antietem. I had witnessed the awful slaughter of that ‘-day’s battle, and the effect of the carnage gave me the conviction that I was going to die the next day. It was certainly one of the gloomiest nights of my life, and several times I was on the verge of telling a friend what to do with my effects if I should be killed. I lay awake most of the night thinking about it, and the next day there was not even a battle fought. sty e ‘Throughout my life I have had the most weird ex- periences, but none, I fear, of sufficient interest to re- ———— late, as these premonitions | LIEUTENANT COLONEL | STACPOLE, New York Volunteers. | were revealed to me in dreams, and of a charac- ter that my friends whom . my dreams concern would not like to have made public. I think I must have in- herited this peculiar temperament from my mother, who had the faculty of divining future events through visions. Her earliest and most vivid experience of this nature occurred when she was about seventeen years of age. She was living with her parents at this time on a farm in the famous Mohawk Valley, New York On this particular evening, my grandmother was en- tertaining some neighbors and sent my mother down cellar to bring up some apples. While bending over the bin, to put the last apple into the well-filled bas- ket, she suddenly saw a vision of her mother’s bed- room. Her mother lay dying upon the bed, and the friends whom she had just left upstairs were stand- ing at the bedside. She dropped the apples in terror and climbed the stairs to find her mother merrily en- tertaining her company. In less than five minutes, however, the very vision which she had seen in the cellar was enacted; far her mother was suddenly stricken and carried dying to her bed and the party crowded about her bedside just as mother had wit- nessed in the darkened recesses of the apple-bin. . A4S0 I suppose every family has a prophet, a seer or a dreamer, and in ours, I think Miss Antoinette, daugh- —_— —————ter of Colonel Andrew LIEUTENANT POLK, | Polk, now Countess Char- R | ette, was the most noted i hpredeit Poli | in this peculiar line. A At one time during the Civil War in 1862, while living at her home at Mount Pleasant, she had a vision which resulted in an affair of historical importance. She was always noted for her magnificent horsewomanship, and on no occasion was this daring of greater service to her than the one of which I now relate. One night in 1862 she was awakened from a very vivid dream—so vivid, in fact, that after rubbing her eyes, she still saw a vision of a Federal line of soldiers marching over familiar ground. She was filled with terror and knew that not a moment was to be lost. She aroused the family, and ordered her swiftest horse, and by daybreak was on her way to warn the Con- federate soldiers under General Forrest, nearly elght miles away. She had scarcely traveled four miles down the pike, before the Federal. bullets whizzed by her through the air, and she was doubly assured that a brief time, simply to feel Prosident Stanford University. | thought. For Instance, I have dreamed of mistrusting friends and have ing, and strange to say, been next pheromena, but as yet they self- b law; All All The most peculiar case that ever came under my notic LIEUTENANT PILCHER, September 15th. aspI passed the woman's wing the guard who watched the entrance called me, me that he had an item for me. nor less than a ghost story. Here it is: In 1885, two of the prisoners—negro women—quar- reled one evening, participants, literal with a cistern covered with th~ murder was committes it was raining—a rare occurrence in September in Middle Tennessee. The murderess was given a life sentence. since lhen,h rainy one, the and the apparition of the dead woman visits the mur- deress, ar mits (in whom I have the greatest confidence) swore they witnessed the ghostly reproduction which serihed as looking like g scrap between The guard, after telling me what he saw, took me to the cell-rooms and all of the women were more or I . {8y GEN MERRIAM.U S'A. her revelation was not a dream. She often used to say when complimented for her bravery, “I knew the pow- er that revealed this danger to me would give me pro- tection.” She reached the Confederate line in safety, and the result was that the Southern soldiers, through her timely warning, offered so strong a resistance that the Federals were repulsed with a heavy loss. S e I have often had presentiments of things of so lit- tle importance that they would be of no interest, ex- cept possibly to the people concerned; but I do re- member an incident dur- ing the Modoc War that I can never forget. It was simply a presentiment of death by Lieutenant Wright of the Twelfth Infantry of Camp Gaston, California. On the day of which I speak we had captured an In- dian chief, with a squaw and papoose, and had them placed in a tent surrounded by four guards and a sen- try fire. Along toward evening Lieutenant Wright came to me and sald, “I wish you would let me take that In- dian out to the tree over there and shoot him. I have a strong conviction that he will either kill me or be the cause of my death.” Of course, I refused and laughed at his foolish fears; but this in ne way re- stored Wright to his usual happy frame of mind. And he went to sleep that night with very grave fears. About twelve o’clock, we were awakened by the report of guns, and upon investigation I found that the Indian had escaped and made his way down into the lava beds. The next day I sent out a reconnoiter- ing expedition and Lieutenant Wright was with the party. It was a most disastrous failure, for many of my brave men were killed, and among them was Lieu- tenant Wright. Whether the Indian chief killed him or not, I do not know; but that he aided in the attack there i8 no doubt, as he was identified by some of the men who escaped. GENERAL MILLER, U.S A R T 1 have no ghost stories of my own to relate, but I recall a very queer experience of Colonel Allison, a —— particular friend of mine. MAJOR LANGFITT, | Immediately after Third Battslion graduatifg from West Enginesr Cowps. | Point, Colonel — Allison L 87" ™ ' (then lieutenant) entered the army and was transferred to an isolated post in Western Nebraska. One evening just at dark, upon returning home from a scouting expedition, he was surprised to see a lady on horseback about two hundred yards ahead of him, for he had been told that there was no woman Within 500 miles of the camp. She wore one of those long, old-fashioned riding-skirts that fluttered in the wind as her horse galloped along. Never dreaming of apparitions, he followed in vain this fleeing figure, un- i1 horse and rider disappeared over the brow of the hill. When he returned to headquarters, he told his comrades of his adventure and inquired where she lived, at which they all laughed and bantered him with jokes about seeing ghosts, for weeks afterward. Twenty years later Colonel Allison again passed through that section of the country, but this time, he was on the train, and In a most extraordinary manner heard a confirmation of his singular vision of years ago. Two men were occupying a seat just ln‘ front of him, when suddenly one spoke up excitedly, “By Jove, if we are not in the vicinity haunted by the lady on horseback.” Of course, Ailjson became interested and listened attentively to the following story: Many years ago, a trapper with two lovely daugh- ters lived in this region, and one day while out riding, one of them disappeared and never since then had been seen, except in a supernatural way. The father was distracted, and having given up all hope of ever find- ing her, he took the other daughter and left the com- munity, No one knew where he went, but the missing daughter's ghost bobs up serenely at intervals, and is seen by different people. Just what her mission is, no ong wgo has seen her is able to tell, for her spirited steed seems jealous of‘iu Purd.en and does not tarry. nk I have had all the manifestations that the mosIt tg‘;voted disciple of the occult philosophy could desire, Presentiments of REAR deatn dreams, vl:lonsk.l Xln fact, I have run the whole ADMIRAL WILEER, gamut of experiences usu- oSk &lly known to the adept of the hidden lore; but I can relate none of these be- cause my friends would vigorously p_rotest. 1 think the tranquillity of a nautical life tends to conjure up “spells” of the supernatural. At any rate, some of my experience‘e ha.ve b_een prophetic. 1 have often wished that T might be a woman for OF THC less hysterical with fright, though several hours had elapsed since the alleged visitation. The murderess was prostrated with fear, and hopes every year that the 15th of September will not be a rainy one, for then she will not be bothered by her unwelcome visitor. Since then a change of Governors has changed the g!uards, and the new guards tell identically the sam= story. + Kl When I was a little boy I remember distinctly how I used to thrill with an uncanny pleasure at the sug- gestion of a ghost story. ‘We lived on a farm in i JUDGE McFARLAND, Pennsylvania, near the Supreme Court. Maryland line, and the negroes, being supersti- tious, used to delight in telling stories of the “hants” as they called them. We had one old negro woman among them, whom we called “Aunt Phyllis.” She had been in the family for years and years. No one knew her age, though all knew her to be over one hundred vears old. Even the negroes used to say, “Poor old Aunt Phyllis, the good Lord done forgot to recollect to take her home.” Finally she died, and thereby hangs my mysterious story. My father had cultivated a habit of getting up ear- ly in the morning to build the fires, and would sit in tthe kitchen until the negroes came in to prepare break- ast. One morning having gone through the usual rou- tine, he lay down upon a bench in the kitchen and was just settled comfortably when the door opened and old Aunt Phyllis walked in, looked at him, walked over to some little cupboards in the wall, opened the doors and dfter carefully scrutinizing the dishes, she went over to the stove, rattled the coals down with the poker, took the pipe out of her pocket, lit it with a taper and coolly began to smoke. After a little while, she emptied her pipe and quietly passed out at the same door she had entered. My father never could ac- count for this strange phenomenon and declared posi- tively that he was not asleep, although the family al- ways tried to make him believe that this visitation was but a dream. siteieite I remember but two dreams that have startled me by subsequent reality. One of them was on this wise: ———————————— When I was a sturdy lad, . | E. L. HUTCHINSON, | 1iving on a farm in South- Bakill” Momikes western Ohio, I dreamed for Lioutanant Govemor. | that I had wandered away — —_to Kansas in search of climate or something of that nature. In my dream I was wandering by the banks of a beautiful river, near one of the pleasantest villages of the prairies. On the top of a knoll, nea- the river bank was a cozy home, where the grassy slope that served for a front yard was covered with many cherry trees full of ripe and luscious fruit. On the topmost rail of an old fence stood a little brown-eyed girl whom I had known in early childhood. She cried out in high glee when she saw me, and welcomed me as well as her mouth filled with cherries would permit. I ran to meet her, but as soon as I touched her hand my dream and my sleep were ended. A few years later T found myself rambling about in the self-same village of my dream. I went down by the river and along the country road, where lay the knoll with the cozy cottage. The cherries were rlpe, and the brown-eved lass was sitting on the topmost rail of the fence devouring the red ripe cherries. She greeted me cordially, then turned to the young man on the other side of the fence and said trippingly, oh, so trippingly, ‘‘Charlie, T believe you have never met Mr. Hutchinson. Mr. Hutchinson, this is my hus- band.” And this was no dream. . G I have never paid much attention to dreams, pro- phecies and things of that sort, but I cannot deny that —————————————there is something in them, for my father had a very peculiar dream at one time, which for eccur- rence and fact were de- monstrated with remarkable accuracy. We were liv- ing in Oregon at this time and my grandmother was living at the old home in Kentucky. One night my father dreamed that he saw his mother riding on a wagon behind some dapple gray horses along a road familiar to him, when suddenly the horses became frightened, ran away and threw her out on the roadside against some rocks, where she lay unconscious and to all appearances dead. The next morning he told us of his dream and marked the date down upon the wall, feeling certain that his dream was a reality. This happened thirty years ago, and when the mall service was slow; but in four weeks’ time he received a letter from his home, apprising him of the death of his mother in th> - .me manner which his WILLIAM F. HERRIN, Attorney-at-Law. LDIRNATURAL PRES DAVID v STARR JORDAN - A ; GEN MILLER.USA. CPHUNTINGTON. Q| 1ryT POLK r?fiégmb%% -SEN GEO.C.PERKING JUDGE MEFARLAND -\ ) HUTCHINSON. - : : B ATTY. WRLEHERRINI 7 T Even the date on the wall corre- day of the accident, and the horses identical dream depicted. sponded with the were dapple gray—in fact, the dream was with the real occurrence. - . All of my life I have had queer impressions, or rather, for want of a better term, I might call it a mental mirage. I seem to SENATOR be peculiarly git‘(e(}]m lh‘ls 3 way only when hope is __,G_E.CEG_EC_'P_E_SKI_NS_" about gone, then suddenly my old cares and anxieties vanish and life seems bright agaln. When a young boy, I was a sailor and have had all the hardships with which a jolly tar has to contend. I have rounded the Horn in seething seas that s_eemed to indicate sure death, and have stcod at the 'ra.x.l bel?t upon self-destruction, when instantly my mind’s eye would picture sunny skies and fear would be dispelled. I have been becalmed in a vessel off the equator for two weeks with the knowledge that the fresh water had nearly all been used, and aware of the sufferings that such a death would insure, when suddeniy these mental visions would conjure up a spanking breeze and a well-filled sail, and strange to say, it was a fore- runner of what occurred a few hours later. 2 T have been lost on the desert, nearly dying of thirst, and sure that my time had come “to shuffle off this mortal coil,” when a mirage of trees and rock- lined streams quickly stretched across my mental hori- zon, and led me to an oasis of relief. In the severest trials of my life, I have been visited by that “‘high and welkin” like infinity that the sailors call the cherub, that sits up aloft to buoy up the spirits of poor Jack. o I had a singularly marvelous dream one night that disturbed me even while I was dreaming it. I thought S e T I was lying on the edge of NATHAN COLE, | the bed, and that the face Silver of a friend, Mr. Chadrick, 3 I who then lived in Chicago, | Repulican Organizer. | gyagenly appeared before me. The strangest part of it all to me was, that he did not have a kindly look, and at first appeared small and far away; but gradually grew nearer and larger, un- til I awoke with a start, finding myself lying on the railing of the bed and the face of my dream, even in my waking hours, close to nr —~ own. I don’t believe I ever felt such terror in my life before. The perspira- tion poured from me and I was quaking in every _Iln\b. Some time after this, I went to my office in Chicago and was surprised not to see Chadrick, as he was usu ally one of the first to look me up when I arrived in the windy city; but thinking perhaps he was out of town, I gave it no further thought, until the occasion of my second trip back to Chicago. One day, meeting a mutual friend of both, I asked, “What is the matter with Chadrick?” “Chadrick,” m friend exclaimed: “Why didn’t you know that he was dead?” Whether I actually had seen the man's spirit or not at that time, I do not know, as I did not ascertain the exact date he died, and I did not calendar my dream; but what I do know was, that his death occur- red in the same month lha.t I had my peculiar dream. . * “His eyes are so intent upon the stars that he stumbles upon the earth,” cannot truthfully be said of me. CoLLIS | * ¥5u may put me down P. HUNTINGTON, | as one of the men who ShS _—— ~ 1 does not dream. I haven't time for that sort of thins, nor the dispositic 1 live in to-day; to-morrow belongs to the dreamer. When I was a little boy, I used to go to church every Sunday with my mother, who was a strict Presbyterian, and prophesied to m)_elf'lha! when I grew a little ol 1 would not go, and another thing, that nothing was too great to accomplish, if I could concentrate my en- ergy in one direction. I made will-power my particu- lar study, and perseverance my motto. In building the railroad through Mexico, I advo- cated the employment of l_exicans, and had the con- viction that they would be the best workers, if given a fair trial. One of the strangest oppositions was that their numerous church holidays would make progre with their work an impossibility. Four years later, inquired “How are the Mexicans as workers?” and was informed that they were not a success. “Try the again,” said I, “try them twenty years, if necessar; for they will turn out all right.” My prophecy has }l:een fulfilled. They are now the best workmen we ave. ‘While I have been misunderstood by some and re- viled by many, within myself I feel the satisfaction of a life well spent. Some day the people of California will know me as a benefactor and friend, and I will live to see this prophecy fulfilled. ANNABEL LEE. the intuitive sense that so often actuates them. The unconscious reasoning power sometimes is more productive to full reason- ing than the waking DR.. DAVID STARR JORDAN, | dreamed that my dream was a warn- these people from whom I have warned have in some way dissatisfied me the day. I am always trying to solve psychological I have not satisfied myself that are the result of anything except invention and )yoncels. 1 am not a believer in the supernatural but rather that nature is but art unknown to thee. chance—direction, which thou cans't not see.” o e e was at the old penitentiary at Nashville, Ten- —— ————————————nessee. I was policé re- porter at this time and took in the prison on my rounds. The date, if I remember correctly, was I went out late in the afternoon, and Tennesses Volunteers. and in a shamefaced way told It was nothing more ” « \d and Lucinda Garner, one of the 1ly cut the other woman to pieces In the center of the prison-yard is a wooden platform, upon which d. This took place at dusk a case knife. Ever when the night of the anniversary is a murder is gone through with by ghosts, and every woman confined in the prison ad- the spiritual manifestation. Three of the guards they de- “shadders.” FROM A BRILLIANT SOCIAL LIFE TO THE MADHOUSE. Eccentric career of a daughter of General Kirkham. EASTON, Pa, Aug. 2—Lady Yarde-Buller is at the Franklin character. House in this city. HIS The story she tells of her coming to Easton is that she went to the Pennsylvania Railroad station in Jersey City last Friday night, where she was to meet her guardian and other friends, and take a Lehigh Valley train for the West. Their destination was California, which was her former home. Through some misunderstanding, probably on account of illness on her part, she did not see them; they had her money and tickets, and, thinking they were on the train, she got aboard. The conductor brought her as far as Easton, where she is now stranded. She is penniless, but the proprietor of the hotel agreed to give her accommodations until she might communicate with her friends. On the hotel register she signed her name as “The Hon. Leilah Kirkham Yarde-Buller” in a large, bold hand. She has spent nearly all her time in her room, where her meals are served. With the few peo- ple who met her she created the im- B AT i madhouse. frolics and compelled. pression that she is an ecentric is Yarde-Buller. the daughter of the late Gen- eral R. W. Kirkham, at one time commandant of the Presidio. A career that begins as the pet- ted daughter of wealth and and ends with escape from a foreign In a strange Bastern city, separated from her friends, she is now awaiting funds to enable her to jour- ney westward. In her younger days the teas, merry-makings young girls of her “set” palled on Lei- lah Kirkham. True, with a rod of iron, molded not only by the prestige her father’s position in the army gave her, but by her own self-as- sertive desire to lead, by her brilliancy and her beauty. because they loved her, but because of some strange influence by which she “She is not like other girls,” sald, and if Leilah heard it she never betrayed by the quiver of an eyeiash that she reveled in the fact that she was not made on the worn-out plan by which Nature repeats us. the story of “Lady” A strange tale of Paris to “finish off.” she went. fashion her pranks are mentioned. her father to take home. the of the she ruled them They followed her, not her to Japan. There young Englishman, the; " lishmen. thoughts of love.” When the mattered little to her. fashionable boarding school which had tried to mold her according to its p's and g’s, and had signally failed, grew unendurable, Leilah asked to be sent to Her father had accumulated great wealth, and there was always money with which to ac- complish her fads and foibles. To this day the pious nuus in the convent cross themselves when A merry dance she led them, and it was with a sigh of relief that they returned her to For a while she was content to dazzle San Fran- clsco society with her charms. beautiful, with all the subtlety of a na- ture that knew no confines and a tani- perament that must need run the whole gamut of emotions; of a legal height, five feet ten, hair like burnished gold and eyes now blue, now green, reflect- ing the light of the ever-shifting ocean upon which they first opened. ‘When she began to beat her wings against the few fetters of convention- ality that still bound her, they took she met the Majoribanks, who afterward became Lord Tweedmouth. She always had a partlality for Eng- It was in the spring and the ‘‘young man’s fancy lightly turned to She did not object but the family did. Their objections Both were in To Paris She was the heyday of youth and parental nays seemed slight obsacles. They eloped and were stopped by General Kirkham just in time. Leilah was taken to Eng- land and young Majoribanks left to nurse his blighted affections as best he could with the sweet balm of weak tea served by the nicest little Geishas in Japan. . Leilah Kirkham kept a link that bound her future tc this last scene in her girlhood’s past. Through all the strange vicissitudes of her strange career she carried with her a bracelet of curious Oriental design, the first and last gift of Lord Tweedmouth. ‘When she met and married David Boyle Blair it seemed that at last her life lines were to be cast in peaceful waters. With her husband she came to Oakland and lived in the Kirkham mansion on the banks of Lake Merritt. Two children were born, both boys. Then her husband was sent to South Africa. Gossip said he was glad to go. Rumors of a stormy married life, an ungovernable temper, and deflance of conventionalities floated about. g Then came the news that David Boyle Blair was no more. He had been killed in a fight with the natives. Next she married a Scotchman, Yarde-Buller, twice her age, and with her two children had come back to live Continued on Page Twenty-six. During the last few years Lady Yarde-B: Toe - the Onkland marshes and rakon - ing in the es and taken bef ) e o her vas e n ore the Police Co Since then she ) LADY MARY LEILAH KIRKHAM YARDE-BULLER. From a Photograph. uller’s career and eccentricities have furnished columns of sen- The eccentricities have increased ever since she was found wander- has been detained in a French