The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1879-08-07
miscellaneous.
FEAR OF
Some Very Seasonable Suggestions

of thunder storms
The painful story in last Mondays papers,
of two happy children killed while setting in
their garden seat, under the tree, by a stroke
Of lightning, will deepen the horror of those
who suffer from fear of lightning. The
most agonizing of all nervous fears is that of
lightning, and a count of those whose lives
are really embittered by this dread would
number scores of thousands, many of them
nersons who know no other fear.
Twenty years ago the writer remembers
turning with a smile to others who shrank
and cried, at the peals of a terrible storm, in
= country house. The glare ola bolt coming
down the center OF the room caught the eye
at that very instant the next was an explo-
sion that shook the house, and insensibility
followed. Two men in the same room were
burned by the bolt, though no lives were
lost: but | nave 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 harassments with me. Nor are wo-
men alone subject to this nervousness. [
knew a school superintendent and canal con
tractor, a man over fifty, with a large family,
who would hide in a closet in a storm, and
had been known to rush from his bed with
fright at lightning. Many will remember
the professor at Bowdoin college who always
r~etreated to the cellar In a thunder storm,
although his house was bristling with light
ming rods. The strongest man | ever knew,
who could throw another man across the
street, and work a hand press in a printing
Office as though he were part OF the ma
chine, was discharged as a reporter because
hS InSt yaoant pyprV tImp thnrp was a
thunder storm, The mother of Washington
was afraid of lightning, and never failed To
retreat to her room at the first flash of a
storm, where she stayed till the last fash
died away. The physical effects of this are
most depressing. One woman knows when
a storm is coming, hours before, by a pros
tration of strength and spirits, accom-. 'anied
with symptoms like cholera. One of the
most dauntless young women L know was
sick in bed for hours after the great storm at
Springfield, Massachusetts, last month.
She had received a shock of lightning years
before, and never fails to be Ill III a thunder
storm since.
Every accident from this cause | ever
situations known to be unsafe. The first |
noticed after my own accident was that of a
missionary daughter killed while passing
an open window, just as a woman at Long
Island last summer, while sitting at her
machine. A young man in Maiden,
[ think, was killed while sitting out on a
porch with his chair tipped back and his
head against the knob of the door bell,
making an excellent connection with the
bell Mire. Many men have been struck
while riding into a barn on a load of hay.
Many will remember the frightful calamity
at Scranton, Pennsylvania, where a party OF
women, out picking berries on one of the
hills, crowded into a deserted log Int during
a sudden storm, and seven were killed by
one bolt. Steep hills with mineral veins
live on who wishes to escape lightning, and
unprotected houses there are doubly dan
gerous.
1t Is never too soon to go in the house
when a storm is rising. When the clouds
are fully charged with electricity they are
most dangerous, and this fluid obeys a
subtle attraction which acts at great dis
tances and all directions. A woman told me
OF u bolt that came down her mothers
chimney from a rising cloud when the sun
was shining overhead. n. i. Willis writes
Of a young girl killed while passing under a
telegraph wire on the brow of a hill, while
she Was hurrying home before a storm.
Sundays sad accident at Morrisanla 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 foolhardy about sitting
On porches or by open windows, whether the
storm is hard or not. Mild showers often
carry a single charge which falls with deadly
eject. 1t may not be fatal to stay out 1t IS
safe to be in the house, with the windows
aud doors shut. The dry air in the house
fa reader conductor of lightning than the
damp air outside, and any draught OF ar
invites it. 4 hot fire III a chimney attracts
IT. so to speak, and it is prudent for these
VINO would be sure of safety to use kerosene
or gas stoves in summer, and avoid heating
the chlmneys OF the house. People are very
ignorant or reckless about lightning. have
seen a girl OF eighteen crying with fear OF
lightning, and running every other moment
70 The window to see if the storm was not
a5atng, unconscious that she ,7as not put
ting herself In danger. If every one would
hurry TO shelter as soon as a cloud storm was
half way up the sky, when certain it was
coming nearer, If they would shut the doors