The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 15, 1899, Page 30

THE SUNDAY OALL Y experfences on the firing Une?” Mre. Boysen sat down on the couch and smiled as she thought over my question. “Well, really, I have lived those exciting socenes over agaln many a tim I can never sweep them quite out of my memory.” “Tell me, then,” I asked, “why &id you ®o to Man{la > “I went to Manila expecting to be a nurse In the hospital. My son hed gone and I felt it a duty, as well as the ful- filling of a 1 ambition—to be a nurse among the soldiers.” As she talked and lived over again her Ife in Manfla I sat and watched her pretty expressive face and wondered. I wondered how this dear little woman, whose great, big motherly heart would make her eyes overflow as she told about those poor, suftering fellows, stood all the pain and misery she saw. Dalnty, refined and delicate, yet constantly on the firing lne. It seemed impossible—incongruous. Bul- Jets and blood to bs thou of in con- mection with her! ‘“You ses, it was like up to the fact I had atory. ‘I wore the with the full 2 nice chair and some malts fed with me. I co this,” and T woke part missed of a nurse’s garb 1 cloth, ile up into was 50 in- One as long nd gone. I sat ad on my lap 1 WAS very ardly speak; d and In the I full of tears, eves were t felt tight and st experience on ' 1 sald. member my & " Re That frarkable Drearns Were Realized line. Then a shot rang out, quick as a flash. Our boys ran down XN to the beach, but nothing more was done. We could see the Filipinos running about, but never knew if the shot was flired at me or just into the air to glve warning. I did not care to investigate by going down n the beach again, so I never = hut. After the taking 1s T went into the town under the of some newspaper men. Thers were a good m wou There to M tle d * (stepping over to the me a house) fitted toget met und log bridge. long the wounc overheated bulance into Manila. It was o and on reaching the hotel I s com- tely ex- hausted as well as chilled to t It d home."” ways went back to N Did you never un- ambul many where It was at Calumpit unded, and 1 § leave ring never ceasec wtul wounds the poor fellows had. It seemed to me I never saw more terrib. wounds thar attle . and I stayed y for me to get on the hard floor heir floors are ltke ble and bringing “gort of slats ittle spaces left between You & humpy, roll- many times as little cur- v time I was at Caloocan among too much Was Complimented b General Whgaton MA>Y STEVENS BOYSEN pows What It Is\ / to See Heroie [Tiep Dig \ f “And > come you were bea he not frightened?” was wounded in “Not in the least. the back and could not 2 all so busy T never thot it as a matter of c move. He had had nothing to eat since 1, then, one can eve, u sce that cartridge belt? Tt was the day before. When he got well he flying around, and ta at 1 that I fed # poor fellow sent me his belt. I have it full of bullets trenches were coming so fa other such memen- toes.” She emp- tied the con- tents into her lap, and pick- ing them out told me about the dif- ferent ones. Some of them had been shot out of the gun, and were flattened and bent into odd shapes. “Our Springfields make such terrible wounds! See how they flatten when they strike; and then they whirl around and tear the flesh to shrels. Those poor Fil- ipinos! I felt so sorry for some of them, though sometimes they made us step around lively. Once, at Malolos, we had to keep the wounded in the and under cover, the bullets As she sat there looking at the Mauser bullets and turning them over and around, she told me about an Irishman who was wounded and had been taken to the dress ing station. many into the station I followed. a great big brawny “I had been out of the woun in the field, and as were being taken On entering attracted my fellow attention. He was propped up against the wall and had a pipe his mouth, smok- ing like a J ¥ * “Well, my man,’ I \ , ‘Where did they get \ % n the leg, mum.’ “‘Does it hurt much. I asked as 1 gave hira some malted milk. “‘Indade it does, mum; but it's worth all the pain in the world to see such a nice lady as your- self out here. He had never mur- no matt w der all itions they were alwa thou others “who might n the ma mil or broth more than they did. Time -and time again, when I would give them something to drink, they would drink half and say to give the rest a fellow-sufferer. Not one drop more touch until assured there was to would they cans, this city of standing fortunately for t heory his story is co witnesses whose testimony i d uncontradicted g (he administration of W. R. Branch, a k Pranch, was acting usive President brother s A sul at Apia, Samoa One Clerk anch received a letter from | stating that_he expected to remain 4! for three y s post r had been several weeks on the way reccived, and on the same night ¥ h dreamed that he saw his er pia taking passa on a ner Honolulu. The dream was s0 much more d ever before expi it je e deep impi on his and he jotted dow 1n and ate on paper. A a sufficient ngth of time had elapsed for th hooner to have arrive tionolulu, Mr. h had another realistic vision. He brother going on board a large at lulu, and he saw also that his bro s g home to € n Francisco. This dre 1its date were jotted down in black and white and re- lated by Mr. Branch to his friends. On consulting the steamer schedule it was found t a steamer from China to this was due at Honolulu at the date of 5 this discovery was t was necessary to convince anch that the vision w He made all his ar ements s ier on the arrival of t g is Holmes, Inspe of Customs, > gang k to se and p bon his brother's 28 S0 that there might be no unnecessary de- lay in landing the expected visitor Clerk Branch had a fine dinner pre- pared at his home and a hack at the wharf as the steamer arrived. What was the astonishment and delight of all the persons to whom the dream had been t The Realizatiop of the Dreams | | other communication between £ | fu) exaggeration,” he | of any when among the first persons to step 1 the lank was the brother of 1 who drean He was more ed t 1 the people who rece uld hardly believe t en heralded in so remarks r, but the hack and the dir he throng of expectant frienc < convinced him that dream somstimes made of tangible stuff. amoa is about four thousand mile m this city, and there is no cable ming I ble a 2 the rest of the world save ste sailing vessels, so that it was i r any one in San Francisco to learr of fortu wrote it he w Consul Branch’s change or of intention. At the time he last letter to his brother in thi: had not the remot idea that atout to leave Apia, and he W uled to remain there at his post for vears longer. This change of pl came bout only a short time before a schooner to start for Honolulu, and he there- did not he 15 s sched- W fore g himself all throughout the vo. fact that he would give his genu he w lot. The only rational explanations that have been suggested for this stran adventure ge on the irprise, and the result was that the most surprised person in tne atives a is that the mind of the slecper, being passive, received the suggestion from the mind of his brother over 4000 miles of water by what has been called telepatny, or that the soul of the sleeper became clairvoyant and went forth over the waste of waters to the tropic_1sle and the brother of whom he h his waking hours. 1 been thir ther of these sing in theo- ries would fit the condit Another incident, equally as remarka and eq well _authenticated, vouched for by Benjamin F. Small, ant cashier the Custom-hous 5 Small I 11 the gold rec d in the Cu: for duties paid in on hte arrival of every steamer from the Or and on every ship from the great marts of the world. The system of booklkec ing is so systematic that a failure of the cash to balance the end of a day's business is something almost unheard of But_the impossible happened to Mr. Small at the close of a very busy day. He found a shortage of $40 in his cash. He worked on the books until 1 o’clock In the morn- Dickens Died From Overwork Charles Dickens, son of the great nov- elist, tells how re his - father killed himself by givi public r “Th of almost will- , “of a defiance either of re was something po: mind or body ergy with which tl dings were en- tered upon and carried out.” It would almost seem that he might have been living and writing novels to this day if he had not per: ings in giving public readings, which ex- hausted his strength and dltimately killed him. “Among other serfous symptoms he no- ticed that he could read only the halves of the letters over the shop doors on his right. The old elasticity was impaired, the old unflagging vigor often faltered. One night at the St. James' Hall I re- member he found it impossible to say Pickwick, and called it Pickswick and Picnic and Peckwicks and all sorts of names except the right, with a comical lance of surprise at the occupants of fhe front seats, which always were re- served for his family and friends. In fact, when my father described nimself, in a letter written to Mr. Dolby on the eve of the breakdown, as being ‘a little out of sortsy he was, in fact, on the brink of an attack of paralysls of the left side, and .probably of apaplexy.” What finished him was a farewell se- ries of twelve readings at St. James' Hall. “I have had some steps put up agalnst the side of the platform, Charley,” sald Mr. Beard, who was constantly in at- tendance. “You must be there every Puht. and if you ses your father falter b the least, you must run up and catch m and bring him off with you, or, by heayens, be'll dle before them all” {J ust When the sted In spite of all warn- | but to ing in the endeavor to locate the leak without obtaining the slightest clew the missing money, and he paid it into the treasury out of his own pocket. For two days afterward he spent all his spare time in “secking the lost $40, but all his effort Was in vain. He went to sleep that night with the conviction that the money W lost to him forever, and he made ur mind that he would not worry about affair any longer. That night he dr: tha ¢ W. P. Grace & Co. had the missing moncy. ' He dreamed also that he went to the office of that firm and that a man came up to the desk at which he stiod and handed him the $40. The most realistic feature of the dream was the strong impression made upon him 1 the appearance of the office of the firm, the arrangement of the desks and other fixtures, and he determined when awoke that he would visit the office of the firm, and_that if his dream had pic- tured truly the arrangement of the fix- tures he would ask for the mon He had never been in the office; he was not quainted with any member of the firm and he did not know where the office was. So that his dream could not have been a revived memory of a place that he had once seen. The next day, after he had looked into the city direciory to ascertain the street, i and number of the office of W. P. Grace & Co., he paid a visit to the office, and he had no sooner stepped within the door than he saw his dream verified in its every detail, even to the appearance of the clerk who stepped up to the counter 10 wait upon him. Mr. Small told the story of the sh (he date. and asked the clerk to look in the cash book nd see whe sash on th her the [ 1s not $40 over datc said that it 10 look. for he remem- was $0 too much money the cash on that date and that they been unable to place it > money was paid over to Mr. Small without further question, and he dropped the coin into his pocket he real- ized that his dream had materialized into reality. On returning to the Custom-house he found that $0 that had been paid in by another firm had been inadvertently cred- ited to W. P. Grace & Co., and that when settling up the latter firm's account that sum had been paid to their messenger. Wi r. Small's dream an instance of telepat v or of clairvoyance? | Century Ends | The nineteenth century closes with the | vear 1900. Immediately after midnight, 4‘ therefore, of December 31, 1900, is when | the twentieth century begins. In other | woras, | the fi | ary, 1901. The twentieth century will open on a | Tuesday and close on a Sunday. It will | have the greatest number of leap vears possible for a century—twenty-four. The year 1904 will be the first one, then every | fourth year after that to and including the year y will three times 20, 1948 and 1976. The twentieth century will contain 36,525 days, which lacks but one day of being exactly 5218 weeks. The middle day of the century will be January 1, 1951, Several announcements are made of changes to be inaugurated with the open- ing of the new century. The first of im- portance fs that Russia will adopt the Gregorian calendar. This wili be done by omitting thirteen days, the amount of er- ror that will have accumulated after the it begins with the first second of hour of the first day of Janu- close of February, 190. The Russians will then write January 1, 191, instead of December 19, 1900; or, rather, instead of both, according to the dual system now in vogue in that country and in Greece. The other important announcement is that it is not at all unlikely that the as- tronomical day, which now begins at noon of the civil day, wiu begin with the civil day at midnight. The present method of having _the astronomical day begin twelve hours after the beginning of the civil day is apt to be confusing. On the other hand, to have the former begin at midnight, just when astronomers ars often busiest, will be to th Inconvi Utle em somew™3t | Josie de Wikt in A2 A 2 - couldn’t stand it come. It was there suffer- ful of others plenty. Som. any longer; the so pitiful to see them ing, and yet never who m be forse. ere SO many ht instances where e of the word— who had had a grit hand me &T showr to han in t used and cheek and the open to the bor been ked out know man s at « nd neve the doc t seven stitches in his cheek. He smoked c inuall taking the cigar out of his mouth with his drawn- up hand. It was only when they beg to work on his fi ers, where the nerve centers were, that he said anyth he jerked his hands away, saying, God, les them alone “‘But hadn't you better quit smoking? I asked him. “‘No, lady; I couldn’t stand the pain it I did.’ “Another time a little Dutchman came shattered in holding up a bleedi hand. « ‘Hello, fellows: how Dey got you, too?’ he called o and he never moved nor murmured the whole on Ma time the I gave him str was too mild for such g clares to this day that I 1 We chatted on different a while and then gr ally dr to Manila again and to the soldier boys who have found their resting pla there. “The saddest sig mak our heart come to vour ey r sometimes six, hearses going to the ¢ etery and not one mourner. I could n bear to see th taken o there withov gly, on soul mourn them. Often would I follow hearses and think that sor at home might be a woman—a woman who her own—nad followed Do you wond mothered and pet ful, and oft to the e poor mother 1 if she knew had a boy of rs to his grave. the d call me ‘Mo nd their heads or ast and their hair.’ Sobs w i as she t € ibout one poor fellow c m ons were working, a who caug it of her when one Hc hed the g ¥ away; I w wo- it did him t Guns, <“‘Eotel Topsy Turvy”™” At the Columbia. Eggs at $10,000 a Dozen, “T..at is a ridiculous price for such an egg as this,” said a London auctioneer the other day, when a man bid 15 guineas for an egg. Omne of the company bid another 10 guineas, and as nobody could be per- suaded to go higher the egg was knocked down for 150 guineas. The egg which fetched such an extraor- dinary price was an egg of the Great Auk, of which there are only seventy in exist- ence. The last Great Auk died half a cen- tury ago, and there are therefore no birds left to lay any more of these precious eggs. The one sold the other day was Pieked up in Tceland Stxty-seven- years axo, and was slightly cracked, which de- tracted somewhat value. . which was ven three y ago A A other went for 3840 o Earlier in this yea paid for cne. of t bl in_existence ; el collectors in Eng who have paid for them many times their 'weight T e €S are abou e =iz an’, The egxe t the size of a man's The total value of the sevent i about $70,000, or considerably nm’;reeg‘lz;\‘: f;o'emfi S ien, orhus thelr market valus of nearly $,500,000 i €ggs at 2 cents apiece, ¥ powld