Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1880-08-28
Afraid of Lightning.
THE SAFEGUARDS WHICH SUPRR-
STITION, IN ALL AGES, HAS
RAISED AGAINST THUNDER
STORMS.
London Telegraph.

LonQon IeieSrapn.
Science with all its confidence,
has provided no safeguards against
thunder storms. 1t can warn, but
it cannot protect. Conductors may
happily carry off the electric cur
rent, but they cannot secure us
from danger. The timid may be
told emphatically to stand in the
middle of the room, to avoid fire.
places and brass ornaments, or TO
roll themselves up in feather beds
ar hearth rugs: but these precau-
tons will be of little avail If
houses, as at Manchester, tumble
down and bury all alike, the ter
rified and the bold, in common
ruin. There have been in all ages
popular superstitions having for
their object to avert the dangers OF
thunder and lightning. The Thra-
clan soldiers took mp their bows
and arrows and fred into the
clouds to drive away the storm,
and it was considered necessary to
erect a cross on st. PauPs steeple,
filled with the relics of saints, in
order to free the city from all dan
ger Of destructive tempests. Con-
slant 10 the belief that an evil
spirit ragged in the storm, it was a
custom in old times, as we'll in
England as in Germany and
France, to ring church bells in or
der to protect the Heightened in
habitants. When they rang out
the great bell at the abbey of st.
German, in Paris, or chimed in
the tower Of st. Adelon, in
Malmesbury abbey, the frithful
assisted the bell ringers with their
prayers, and helped to stay the
storm. Many more homely charms
against thunder and lightning ex.
list to this day In some parts of
England. The curious herb known
os the house-leek, glowing on the
housetop of rustic cottages, is sup
posed to be as valuable preserva-
tive as any scientific lightning
conductor of approved pattern.
Peasants, true to the faith of their
forefathers, still carry beneath
their waistcoats scrads of bay leas
or laurel as an amulet-a custom
as old as, if not older than, the
days of Tiberius Cesar. We may
have got beyond the superstition
that allowed a dead man killed by
a storm to lie where he fell, in or
der that the spot might be fenced
about and q sheep promptly sacri-
feed on a rude altar; but 1t would
be strange If country folk did not
still place q cold iron bar on the
beer barrels to prevent the liquor
from turning sour, during a tnun-
der STERN; and that swans eggs
are only Matched during a loud
peal of thunder is a belief yet cher
ished by those who watch this
bird for signs of atmospheric cleo
tricity as closely and confidently as
they listen for the scream ofthe pea
cox to betoken rain. Countless ex-
periments have been tried TO ascer-
tarn the scientific causes of thun-
der storm and to determine its prop
er meaning, from the time when
Franklin sent up his silk kite at
tached to dry hempen cord and
narrowly escaped the danger of
drawing fire from the heavens,
until the days when electric re-
searches were checked by the
death of Prof. Richmann, of st.
Petersburg, who drew out so
much electricity from the thun-
der cloud that he was killed on
the spot. 1t Is consolatory to re-
fleet, however, that the chances of
being personally injured by light
ming are very much less than the
risks involved in thousand hu-
man inventions.