The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1880-09-10
CHARMS AGAINST LIGHTNING.
The Safeguards witch superstition Has
Rafsed Az Inst rhunaer- storms

London Telegraph
Science. with all its confidence, has
provided no safeguards against thunder
storms. 1t can warn but it cannot pro-
tect Conductors may happily carry off
the electric current, but they cannot Sc
cure us from danger The timid may be
told emphatically to stand in the middle
of the room, to avoid the tireplaces and
brass ornaments, or to roll themselves up
in feather beds or hearth-rugs; but these
precautions will be of little avail If
houses, as at Manchester, tumble down
and bury all alike, the terrified and the
bold, in common ruin. There have
been, in all ages, popular superstitions
having for their object to avert the dan
gers of thunder and lightning. The
Thracian soldiers took up their bows and
arrows and fired into the clouds to drive
away the storm. and it was considered
necessary to erect n cross on st. Paul S
steeple, filled with the relics of saints, in
order to free the city from all danger of
destructive tempests. Constant to the
belief that an evil spirit ragged in the
storm, it was custom in old times, as
well in England as in France and Ger
many, to ring church bells i'll order to
protect the nedinhabitants. When
they rang out the great bell at the Alb
hey of st. Germain, in Paris, or chimed
in the tower of st. Adelon, in Malmes-
bury Abbey, the faithful assisted the
bell-ringers with theirprayers and helped
to stay the storm. Many more homely
charms against thunder and lightning
exist to this day III some parts of Eng
land The curious herb known as the
houseleek, growing on the housetop of
rustic cottages, is supposed to be as val
liable preservative as any scientific light
ants, true TO the faith of their forefath-
ers, still carry beneath their waistcoats
scraps of bay leaf OF laurel as an amulet
"a custom as old as, if not older, than
the days of Tiberius Caesar. We may
have got beyond the superstition that al
lowed n dead man killed 10y storm to lie
where he fell, in order that the spot
might be fenced about and n sheep
promptly sacrificed on rude altar; but
it would be strange if countryfolk did not
still place cold iron bar on the beer bar
rels to prevent the liquor from turning
sour during Thunderstorm; and that
swans eggs are only Matched during a
loud peal of thunder is belief yet cher
ished by those who watch this bird for
signs of atmospherical electricity as
closely and confidently as they listen for
the scream of the peacock to betollen
rain. Countless experiments have been
tried to ascertain tn e scientific causes of
a thunderstorm and to determine its
proper meaning, from the time when
sent up his silk kite attached to
a 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
Professor Richmann, of st. Petersburg,
who drew out SO much electricity from
the thunder-cloud that he was promptly
killed on the spot. 1t is consolatory to
reflect, however, that the chances of be-
ing personally injured by lightning are
very much less than the risks involved in
a thousand human inventions.