172 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



wonderful truth was than any fiction that could 

 be composed for the purpose of creating '' sensa- 

 tion." In those tales, instances were given of the 

 mysterious link which occasionally manifests itself 

 as between man, animal, and bird, rendering their 

 lives, to some extent, when least they seem to have 

 anything to do with each other, as curiously and 

 circumstantially conjoined. That narrative of facts 

 thus far has shown liow", at times, some omnipotent 

 will ordains, that when all the ingenuity of the 

 most cunning and experienced men, detectives and 

 others, have failed to bring the hideous crime of 

 murder liome to the guilty hand, some dog or bird, 

 some beast, or an ^^ eagle," as referred to in the 

 tale of ' Tlie Colleen Rhue,' appears on the scene 

 on heavenward wings, points out the murderer, 

 and even soars, a speck in the immeasurable vault 

 above, as if to witness the execution. 



There cannot be the smallest doubt but that 

 the human race, tliough in occasionally rare in- 

 stances, have felt upon their souls an unaccountable 

 depression, prophesying approaching misfortune or 

 death. No more doubt is there also than that the 

 same occult feeling of pending misery has as fre- 

 quently overshadowed the mind of the sagacious 



