Historical dream account · English · published source text
The cotton mill in flames
Horace G. Hutchinson
Dreams and Their Meanings (1901) · Original 1901 edition, printed pp. 289, 290; chapter VII; PDF pages 301, 302
Dreamer identified by the source: Anonymous insurance-company secretary (name withheld in the source)
Read in your language or share a constellation ↗
Last year I dreamt that a certain cotton mill, insured in our company, was burnt. The mill was one that I had never seen, nor was I acquainted with any member of the firm ; and nothing to my recollection had been before me connected with the insurance for some years. On reaching the office the following morning I turned up the surveyor's report, which I found to be rather meagre, and one that had been made some years before. I accordingly gave instructions to have the place re-inspected, and when this was done it was found that the mill was in an unsatisfactory condition. Not being able to relieve ourselves during the current year for any portion of the amount for which it was insured, we re-insured with another office for part of the amount. A few months afterwards the mill was partially destroyed, our company saving, through the action I took in consequence of the dream, near upon a thousand pounds.
Source & context
The printed source withholds the secretary’s signed name; the person and company remain unidentified here. This single dream is followed by a reported business response and later fire. The letter’s dateline is not assigned as a dream date, and the relative “Last year” remains in the narrative. The outcome is a historical source claim rather than independent proof of prediction. Source qualification (The 1901 source’s explicit publication restriction, printed pp. 290): “(The true name of the secretary is signed, but is not for publication.)”
Anonymous insurance-company secretary (name withheld in the source), reported in Horace G. Hutchinson, Dreams and Their Meanings (Longmans, Green and Co.,1901), Original 1901 edition, printed pp. 289, 290; chapter VII; PDF pages 301, 302. Earlier reporter: Anonymous secretary, first-person letter; original name deliberately not published. Chapters VI–VII were prepared by an unnamed collaborator. The book author/compiler, dreamer and earlier reporter are credited separately. Editorial title and navigation themes added; no generated narrative or new translation.
The publication year1901 and letter datelines are not assigned as the dream date. Dates/relative dates in original prose remain unchanged.
Public domain in the United States (1901 edition) ↗
The original English 1901 edition is public domain in the United States by expired publication term; Archive metadata reports NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT. No new Archive license or Public Domain Mark grant is asserted. The linked NoC-US statement describes the US-only rights basis; blanket worldwide clearance is not asserted. These are named, initialled or anonymous published-correspondent accounts reproduced by an unnamed collaborator in Hutchinson’s book. The dreamer and earlier reporter are credited separately; no contributor is assigned the compiler’s death date. No modern translation is used.
Source locator and text provenance
Original 1901 edition, printed pp. 289, 290; chapter VII; PDF pages 301, 302
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Descriptive editorial title only; no generated dream prose or translation. Book repeated paragraph-opening quotation marks and trailing presentation quote excluded through exact source-span boundaries. Literal internal dialogue retained. Whitespace/line wraps normalized; only explicitly listed scan-confirmed corrections/dehyphenations. Complete qualification spans retained separately as attributed source context. Addresses/signatures/letter headers outside dream prose are boundary furniture, not silent dream omissions.
- Account text SHA-256
- cc68054ca87de0c8874fdcf0c3c7b1e58c9e82a821f0330d78950acf3b0d4d4d
- Source file SHA-256
- 40a41bb112104c3680401c260e060fde498bfe84e41f4394ee28e47f7e827b5f
Content notes
- Fire
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.