Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-08-01
The Fear of Lightning.

deepen the horror OF those who suffer
from fear of lightning. The most
agonizing of all nervous fears is that of
lightning, and count of those whose
lives are really embittered by this dread
would number scores of thousands,
many of them persons who know no
other fear.
Twenty years ago, the writer remem-
bers turning with a smile to others who
shrank and cried at the peals of terri
bic storm in a country house. The
glare of bolt coming down the center
of the room caught the eye at that very
instant; the next was an explosion that
shook the house, and insensibility fol-
lowed. Two men in the same room
were burned by the bolt, though no
lives were lost; but l have never been
able to smile at lightning again. To
give any idea of the terror left on a
nervous organization by the shock
would involve extravaganza of terms.
But, unfortunately, so far from being
an exception, there are too many who
suffer the same harrassments with me.
Nor are women alone subject to this
nervousness. L knew school superin-
tendent and canal contractor, a man
over fifty years old, with a large fami-
ly, who would hide in a closet in a
storm, and had been known to rush
from bed with fright at lightning.
Many will remember the professor at
Bowdoin College who always retreated
to the cellar in q thunder storm, al
though his house was bristling with
lightning rods. The strongest man [
ever knew, who could throw another
man across the street, and work a
hand-press in printing Office as if he
were part of the machine, was dis
charged as a reporter because his desk
was vacant every time there was Il
thunder storm. The mother of Wash
ington was afraid of lightning, and
never failed to retreat to her room at
the first flash of q storm, where she
stayed till the last flash died away.
The physical effects of this fear are
most depressing. One woman knows
when storm is coming, hours before,
by prostration of strength and spirits,
accompanied with symptoms like chole-
ra. One of the most dauntless young
women know was sick in bed for hours
after the great storm at Springfield,
NA"So'3 lhob ChC ICCClNbu u
shock of lightning years before, and
never fails to be ill in u thunder storm
since.
Reason and study of the laws of
lightning have done much to lessen the
fear of it. 1t is true we live between
two magazines of electricity-one in
the earth and the other in the air-and
a cloud charged with electricity pass
ing over point or body in negative
condition will discharge its surplus by
the very quickest and most congenial
medium, which it finds in the human
body, a tree or house indifferently.
But it is also true that, provide the
lightning with a convenient and easy
conductor in the shape of stout iron
rod higher than any point of house,
and reaching well into the ground,
where electricity may scatter harm
lessly in the damp earth, it will prefer
that conductingrod to anything in it's
vicinity, and people who stay indoors
in a well-protected house are safer
from lightning than any bomb-proof
from bursting shells. Every accident
from this cause | ever knew of came
from careless exposure in situations
known to be unsafe. The first l noticed
after my own accident was that of a
missionary's daughter killed while
passing an open window, just as a
woman was on Long Island last sum-
mer, while sitting at her sewing-ma-
chine. A young man in Maiden, l
think, was killed while sitting out on a
porch with his chair tilted back and
his head against the knob of the door
bell, making an excellent connection
with the bell wire. Many men have
been struck while riding into barn on
load of hay. Many will rememt er
the frightful calamity at Scranton, Pa,
where party of women, out picking
berries on one of the high hills, crowd
ed into a deserted log hut in a sudden
storm, and seven were killed by one
bolt. Steep hills with mineral veins
cropping out are not places for anyone
to live on who wishes to escape light
ming, and unprotected houses there are
doubly dangerous.
1t is never too soon to go in the house
when storm is rising. When the
clouds are fully charged with electrici-
ty they are most dangerous, and this
f1uid obeys a subtle attraction which
acts at great distances and in all direc-
tions. A woman told me of bolt which
came down her mothers chimney from
a rising cloud when the sun was shining
overhead. N. p. Willis writes of a
young girl killed while passing under
a telegraph wire on the brow of hill,
while she was hurrying home before a
storm. Sundays sad accident at Nor
risiana should warn every mother that
it is not safe to let children stay out of
doors till the last minute before the
storm falls. People should not be fool
hardy about sitting on porches or by
open widows, whether the storm is hard
or not. Mild showers often carry a
single charge which falls with deadly
effect 1t may or may not be fatal to
stay out; it is safe to be in the
house, with the windows and doors
shut. The dry air in a house is
a reader conductor of lightning
than the damp air outside, and
any draught of air invites it. A hot fire
in chimney attracts it, 50 to speak,
and it is prudent for those who would
be sure of safety to use kerosene or gas
stoves in summer, and avoid heating
the chimneys of the house. People are
very ignorant or reckless about light
ming. l have seen girl of eighteen
crying with fear of lightning, and run
ming every other moment to the win
dow to see if the storm was not abating,
that she was putting her
self in danger. Ifevery one would hur-
ry to shelter as soon as a storm-cloud
was half way up the sky, when certain
Il was coming nearer; if they would
shut the doors and windows, and keep
away from them afterward, and from
bell-wires, stoVe-pipes, mantels, chin
ney breasts, heaters and mirrors, with
their silvered backs, which carry elec-
tricity, and keep away from lightning
rods and their vicinity, and from metal
with good rods on their
houses, they might dismiss the fear of
lightning from their minds, so far as it |
is thing of reason and not of impress