Portland Guardian (Vic. : 1876 - 1953), Wednesday 31 October 1894, page 3


Melbourne Cup Dreamers. " Sound " writes thus in the Hamilton "Spectator":-The near approach of the Melbourne Cup Meeting has again co.verted Victoria into a D)ream-land and after it is all over we shall probably hear of a great many visions. I say "after it is over," for as a rule the dreamers are not struck with "remark. able Ecoincidenz es " until the Cup has been won and lost. Indeed some of these visionaries dislike telling beforehand fearing that the revelation might be so generally acted upon as to cause a dreadful shortening of the odds before they can get their half-a-crown or fiver on, as the case may he, and even after they have invested still fear to tell lest, in the event of their dream not being realised they may be laughed at. But Mr. John Cameron, the farrier of Lonsdale street, is not one of this sort; when he knows a good thing he likes his friends to ihare in it. lie has had two dreams and as one of these his already been veritied it may haippen that the other will be attended wit Ih a like result. Som.e few weeks ago lie saw a copy of a Melbourne paper of the 7th November, which, as usual, gave the list of all horses that had won that cent. At the tcp of this list, of course, apl peared the two victories by Archer in i86n and I862 and at the battom were 1893 Tarcoola, 1894 Tarcoola Surprised he, in his dream, p:nched himself to see if lie was awake. Yes, he was, he fancied, wide awake and there as pain as print could make it, appear:d the statement that this year's Cup had been won by Tarcoola. Next morn;ng he took the double, l'aris for the Caullield Cup and Tatrcoola for the still more important event.Whether Whether he w;ill "pull it off" remains to be seen, but it is a significant fact that since then Mr. Cameron dreamt that our local "lepper," \\'igania, would win at Ilallarat, backed the fancy that had thus conie to him, and won. Reverting to the Tarcoola business, I asked MIr. Cameron if previous to that he had fancied the horse for the event and the reply was in the negative. lle had neither thought of the horse nor eaten \Velsh rarebits on the evening previous in order to produce disturbed sleep. Personally I amt not a beliecer in dreams, and Alf Joseph, the leviathan metallician, is reported to have said that dreams are splendid for " the book," as so many different horses are dreamt about as winners. However, this may be, the fact that one dream has come true is rendering not a few sanguine about the result of the ether. It this ehould also be verified it will he another ins:ance of history repeating itself in I lamilton, for it will he in the recollection of many of my readers that when MIr. Lineker, now of Ararat, was a resident in this town, he twice dreamt all about the winner of the Caulfield Cup. On the first occasion, lie placed no faith in his vision, but on the secend backed the fancy that had coime to him in " the still hours of the night." Then again we have the fact that the late Mr. Craig's dream about Nimblefoot was realised, so it is not true that "dreams always go by a rule of contrary." At the same time I do not advise my readera to back Tarcoola ; I simply place IMr. Cameron's statement on record. This they must read, mark ,and inwardly digest, and then exercise their own opinion.