The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1876-03-31

ment is just the point which we can n o
determine; the markings on the leaf
may have been only the natural zigzag-
ging OF the lightning.
In 1858, a little girl was standing at
window, lear which stood a young ma
pie tree; a flash of lightning struck
either the girl or the tree, or both, and
an image of the tree was found imprint
ed on her body. In another instance a
boy climbed a tree to steal q birds nest;
a lightning flash struck the tree;
the boy fell to the ground, and
" o his breast the image of a tree, with
the bird and nest on one of its branches,
appeared very conspicuously."
Scientific journals, as well as those of
more popular character, contain a rich
store of incidents more or less, similar
to the above. DR.. Franklin stated in
1850 that about twenty years previously
a man who was standing opposite a tree
that had just been struck by lightning
(or, as he called it, by a thunderbolt)
found on his breast an exact represen-
tation of that tree. M. Poey, who has
treated this subject somewhat fully in
the French scientific journals, mentions
twenty-four cases of lightning impress
sions on the bodies of men and animals.
OF these eight were impressions of trees
or parts of trees, one of a bird and one
of n cow, four of crosses, three of cir.
Giles, or of impressions of coins carried
about the person, two of horse shoes,
one of a nail, one of a metal comb, one
of a number or numeral, one of the
words of a sentence, and one of the
back of an arm chair.
There is no mention, so far rs we are
aware, of any imprinting on the bodies
of the two hapless lovers mentioned by
Gay but a very little exercise of the
imagination, aided by al element of
credulity, would have sufiiced to pro-
duce imaginary crosses, hearts or trees.
Those who know the story will remem-
bel. that Pope and Gay were visiting at
Stanton-H arcourt in 1918; that Gay de-
scribed the incident in one of his letters
and that Pope memorialized it in verse.
Two rustic lovers, John Hewitt and Sa-
rah Drew, about a week before the day
fixed for the wedding, were at work
with other harvesters in the field. A
storm of thunder and lightning came on
in the afternoon, and the laborers has
xnool Coz. ehn1tn. 20 fha troac aud haInac
: Sarah Drew, frightened and dismayed,
. fell in II swoon on a heap of barley, and
John Hewitt raked up some more barley,
: to shield her from the cruel blast.
, While thus engaged an intensely vivid
t flash appeared; the barley was seen to
smoke, and there lay the two lovers, he
, with one arm around her neck and the
other arm over her, as if to screen her
from the lightning. Both were dead;
, her left eye was injured and a black
spot produced on her breast, while he
was blackened nearly all over. Pope's
epitaph on the hapless couple is engrav-
3 ed on a stone in the parish church of
| Stanton-H arcourt.
I In all probability no one explanation
will apply to these several cases. The
t descriptions require to be examined
closely, and they meet with the most
consistent solution by separating them
into groups. There is, in the first place,
t Il love of the marvellous which induces
some persons to stretch the truth in or.
} der to make up a striking story. Not
D habitually u%ntruthful, they nevertheless
yield to the temptation of so rounding
: off a narrative as to cause hearers and
bystanders to make EXPLANATIONS of the
"good graciousP" kind. Other per-
s sons, repeating what Jack told Dick
!, that Sam had heard Bob say to Bill, dc
e not reflect how much a story gathers as
@ it travels from mouth to mouth, until
+ the final version bears but slight re-
$ scmblance to the original. In another
q group of instances q physiological
e agency of much Importance has to be
a taken into account. Persons of nerv'
k Gus and excitable temperament, when
under the influence of strong
= mental agitation, have beer
a known to receive marks on some part
# of the body or limbs corresponding in
g shape to the object which they were
Q thinking of at the time. This is known
to have occurred in other domains OF
n human feeling, and there's nothing i'm
n possible in the occurrence of q similar
v phenomenon when the mind and the
body are alike exposed to the action OF
a lightning stroke. This was probably