The Albany Register

A GHASTLY COMPACT.

How It Was Fulfilled—A Remarkable Story of Special Visitation—One of the Weird Forms which Insanity will Assume.

[From the Davenport (Iowa) Gazette.]

One of the strangest cases of insanity ever heard of in this portion of the country is engaging the attention of a well-known physician in Davenport just now. We say insanity because the doctor says that the man is insane—a monomaniac—while the patient himself declares that he is in his right mind; and he talks sensibly enough upon every topic brought to his notice, not excepting the one which has alarmed his friends and caused a physician's attention.

The person in question was a soldier in the 2d Iowa cavalry during the war, and when the regiment was in camp near Davenport he and a fellow-soldier of his company became warm friends, although strangers before enlistment. One day in May, 1863, we believe, the two were on picket near Farmington, Miss., and they fell into conversation about the state of the soul after death—a topic which engaged the minds of soldiers of the late war frequently, as many of our readers know. On this occasion the two troopers talked earnestly on the subject. One believed in the immortality of the soul, and the other did not; but then and there each pledged the other that, should death come to him during the war, he would visit the survivor, if possible.

The next day a battle was fought near Farmington and the party who believed in the hereafter was killed, and his body now lies in a national cemetery in Mississippi.

That was nearly twelve years ago. The surviving trooper was deeply grieved over the loss of his friend, but he continued in the service till the end of the war, and was honorably discharged when his regiment was mustered out. He returned to Iowa, engaged in business presently, was married and has a family.

Some five weeks ago his wife became alarmed at his actions in the night. He would wake her and ask her if she saw anybody or heard any noise in the room; and of course she had not. In a few days, finding his wife was becoming nervous over his nocturnal wakefulness, he insisted on occupying a room alone, but on the third night thereafter he came to his wife's bed-room at midnight, threw himself into an easy chair and said he would sit for he could not sleep. Just before Christmas, while with his wife on Second street, the intention being to purchase holiday goods, he asked his companion if she could see a form before them, that had walked just a few feet in their advance ever since they left their gate. No, she had not.

On Christmas the wife went to the family physician and acquainted him with her fears concerning her husband, and the doctor returned to her home with her, and both demanded the reason for his strange conduct. Heretofore he had refused to converse with his wife on the subject.

Then the afflicted man told his companion and physician the story of the promise of his comrade to return to him after death, made under the circumstances told above. And he stated that thoughts of the pledge of reappearance came to him often during the few months after his comrade was killed, but he had long since dismissed it from his mind.

But in November last he was wakened in the night and saw the form of his friend distinctly, in his room—not in uniform, but with a robe for apparel, a face not very pale, and eyes and hair of natural look and hue. The lips moved as if the form would speak, but he could hear no words; the face smiled also, as if the vision was glad to see his friend. Nearly a month elapsed before he spoke to his wife about it, and then it was because he had become so nervous that he could not help it. Several times the form seemed to accompany him on the street, and it appeared to him in his bed-room plainly every few nights. This was his plain story, and we give it as it was given to us. The patient knew that he had been affected by the visitation; his sleep had been broken, nervousness engendered, and appetite much impaired. Weeks have elapsed, and he is still a patient—insane patient his relatives believe him to be, though he talks sensibly on every topic suggested except the one that refers to the ghost, and he believes his friend has come to him for some good purpose which he cannot define. He attends to his business almost daily, though, and none but his near relatives know of his ailment. It is not unlikely that a trip abroad may be advised for the patient.