St. Landry democrat., 1880-07-31
Nervous Dread OF Lightning.

Twenty years ago the writer remem-
bers turning with smile to others who
shrank and cried at the peals of a terri
BILE storm in country house. The
glare of a bolt coming down the center
of the room caught the eye at that very
instant; the next there was an eXplo-
sion tnat shook the house, and insensi-
bility followed. Two men in the same
room were burned by the bolt, though
no lives were lost; but have never been
able to smile at lightning since. To
give any idea of the terror felt 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 women alone subject to this
nervousness. | knew School Superin-
tendent and canal contractor, a man
over fifty, with large family, who
had been known to rush from his bed
with fright at lightning. Many will re-
member the Professor of Bowdoin Col
lege who always retreated to the cellar
in a thunderstorm, although his house
was bristling with lightning-rods. The
strongest man ever knew, who could
throw another. man across the street,
and work hand-press in a printing
office as if he were q part OF the ma
chine, was discharged as reporter be-
cause his desk was vacant every time
there was u thunderstorm. The mother
of Washington was afraid of lightning,
4 IoI t<, fr
at the first flash of a 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 cholera. One of the most dauntless
Young women | know was sick in bed
for hours after the great storm at Spring.
field, Mass, last year. She had received
a shock of lightning years before and
never fails to be i'll in thunder storm
since.
Reason and study of the laws of
lightning have done much to lessen the
fear of it. It 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 passing
over point or body in a negative con-
dition will discharge its surplus by the
very quickest and most congenial medi-
UNI, which it finds in the human body,
tree or house indiff'erently. But it is
also true that, provide the lightning
with convenient and easy conductor
in the shape of stout iron rod higher
than any point of a house and reaching
well into the ground, where electricity
may scatter barmlessly into the damp
earth, it will prefer that conducting rod
to any thing in its vicinity, and people
who stay indoors in well-protected
house are safer from lightning than any
bomb-proof from bursting shells. Ev-
erv accident from this cause ever knew
of came from careless exposure in stu
ations known to be unsafe. The first
| noticed after my own accident was
that of missionary's daughter who
was killed while passing an open win
dow, just as a woman was on Long
Island last summer, while sitting at her
sewing-machine A young man in NAL
den, i think, was killed while sitting on
a porch with his chair tipped back and
his head against the knob of door
bell, making an excellent connection