The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-08-16

4S8 GAOCto OROA THO 1NCEWOuo 6yDeCAAA-
ITS Liability to Strike Twice in the
Same Place
Brooklyn Eagle.
A few weeks ago an item was extern
siveiY published relating the circumstan-
ces of the death of q child from fright
caused by thunder storm. She was 10
years of age. and. having been reused
from sliced by the thunder, Implored per-
mission to share her mothers
bed till the storm was over.
This was refused her and she
grew so quiet that the parent went to
see what was the matter. She reached
the chlld's bedside just in time to see
her die. Another instance of death
from fear of lightning was reported from
Cleveland recently. The victim was an
elderly lady who lived alone. An uu-
usually sharp and near flash, followed
by an instant crash of thunder, SO oyer
come her that she fell to the floor and
died, as though the current had passed
through her. While cases OF extreme
terror caused by lightning are rare, even
rarer than death from the shock itself,
fear oflightning in less intense form is
by no means uncommon. 1t is q nOta-
BILE tact that courageous and healthy
men are sometimes very unpleasantly
affected, If not with fear, at all events
with sense Of acute discomfort, not
only after sharp flash and intense ex-
plosion, bat before storm approaches.
During the progress of the tempest their
discomfort increases. Some complain
of lassitude and headache before
storm, due, doubtless, to the
absence of ozone in the air
others, as the flashes occur more fire.
quently, experience nausea, and some
times an unpleasant quivering about the
abdomen. There are SYMPTOMS that &C.
company acute terror sometimes, but
the sense of fear is probably absent.
How TO account for the phenomenon is
not easy. Surprising that its cause is
purely objective, why should some peo-
pie suffer and Others escapei or why
should the same person suffer at one
time and not at another? AS a general
thing, children do not fear lightning, or
even thunder; and adults who have long
suffered may overcome the dread IN var
ious ways. A mother who would take
refuge in closet during a storm, for
instance, and give way to the most un-
reasoning terror, on being warned to
master her fears for the sake of the
wondering children may be entirely re.
Iieved of apprehension durI0g storm
OF course, reason tells usthat the chance
of being killed by lightning is so small
as TO be hardly spprecIable. Accord
ing to the state census of 1875, during
that year eighteen people were killed by
lightning, while forty were murdered
| 1874 committed suicide, $50 were drown
ed, 279 were killed by falls and thirty
three by kicks from horses an mules.
Water, therefore. is twenty times as dan.
gerous as lightning, and the horse and
the mule are doubly deserving OF
the terror which q thunderstorm pro-
vokes. Moreover, it could be shown, NO
doubt, that 90 per cent OF the deaths
caused by lightning were due to foolish
exposure, such q thing as taking refuge
beneath tree or carrying an umbrella
during thunder storm. These facts fol
their general differences, are pretty well
known, but they are powerless to pre-
| vent fright. One solution Of the mystic
| Fy Is that nerves out Of tone and haccid
may be susceptible 20 subtle iaflu'
encss. unfelt by healthy per.
sons; another Is that the dread
comes from habit rather thar
1 anything else, and may be overcome b
the exercise of viii power. There il
current belief that lightning neyel
1 strikes twice in the same place. Black
however, processes to haYe data TO prove
the contrary principle, so Tar Is humaz
beings are concerned. namely, that I
person who has once been struck Invites
repetition Of the blow, and Is In great
er danger than one who has never had
that unpleasant experience.