Saved From Smallpox By A Precognition

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In a dream one night it seemed that I awoke and found myself lying on a mattress placed on the floor of a room entirely devoid of furniture. In my dream I felt considerable surprise at finding myself in such situation, and I looked about in dismay and alarm. Upon trying to move I found to my horror that I was weak and sick, and I fell back on the pillow exhausted and depressed.

Just then the door of the room opened and a man entered. He was extraordinarily tall and was very dark and thin. Instinctively I felt that he was my doctor. I asked him where I was and what was wrong. Slowly and solemnly he answered, “You have smallpox.”

At this juncture I awoke horrified and agitated. All day my dream stood out with frightful vividness in my mind. At length in the hope of relieving myself of its unpleasantness I related it to several of my friends. Without exception they earnestly advised me to be vaccinated at once, and I did so.

A few days later I was in New York city. As I walked along I saw many fruit vendors with quantities of fine looking white grapes. The fruit was so tempting that I stopped before one of the carts and asked the young fellow in charge of it to weigh two pounds for me. As he was waiting on me I saw him cast a furtive glance behind him, then despite my request that he give me the grapes at once, he seized the handle of his cart and with most of his fellow merchants trundled rapidly away.

I looked in the opposite direction and saw a man, evidently a city official who was ordering the remaining fruit vendors to move on. He was coming in my direction and as I was somewhat incensed at the summary departure of the vendor before he could sell me the grapes I wanted, I decided to wait and give the cause of the trouble a piece of my mind.

On looking up to address him I was startled to find myself face to face with the living counterpart of the physician who in my dream had informed me that I had smallpox. Recovering my self possession as best I could, I said, “Will you kindly tell me why these fruit men are so persecuted? Instead of idling their time away in saloons or on park benches they try to to earn a living by selling fruit. I think it is entirely commendable. Why are they not allowed to conduct their business in peace?”

“All this sounds very well,” replied the man, “but there is another side to this question. These people are poor and as a matter of economy live very closely, several families sometimes occupying a single room. Not long ago in one of the habitations I saw on a bed of one of their women suffering with a contagious disease. Under the bed was a stock of fruit which one of the men took out on to the street the following day to sell. At present we are obliged to watch these people carefully in order to prevent a general spread of this disease, but,” – and he squarely looked at me – “if you do not mind having smallpox I see no reason why you should be prevented from patronising the fruit vendors all you please.”

For several minutes we stood there, and neither of us said a word. Then the dark man walked off in one direction and I in another. When I had gone a short distance something prompted me to look around. I did so and was startled to see the man of my dreams looking thoughtfully at me. “He has had a dream of me and recognises me as I did him.”

Whether or not such was the case I have never learned but I do know that so far I have escaped smallpox. Was my dream a warning, I wonder, or was it merely a dream, and was my meeting the tall, dark, thin man nothing more than a coincidence.” Source: The Carroll Herald – Apr 27, 1916