The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1884-12-11
SNOW AND THUNDER.
Recalling a Singular Storm Which Start
led People Thirty-one Years Ago.

Il don't believe there has been
thunder storm that | have witnessed for
the past thirty years, said gentle
man of this city, (which has not given
me occasion to ask scores of people If
they had ever seen thunder and light
ming snowstorm, and | never met but
one man yet, besides myself, who ever
had. He happened to be from Mount
Desert. Me-, and was one who had wit
messed the same phenomenon of this
kind that had, at Bar Harbor, thirty
one years ago. | haven't the least
doubt that there are plenty of people
there yet who remember that frightful
storm, and who can substantiate every
word say. They certainly remember
it if they were there at the time. for
no one could ever forget that sight.
Il remember that it had been snow
ing all day that day, and strong
northeast gale came along with it. The
day was made terrible enough by the
natural elements without needing any
aid from the unnatural ones that fol-
lowed. The wind stopped blowing
quite suddenly an hour after sundown,
and everybody remarked the singular
stiffness that succeeded it. Although
il was showing still and very cold the
evening was not particularly dark un-
til about Z O'Clock, when it began to
darken and continued to increase in
darkness until the blackness was in
tense. Then E
THE SOUND OF DISTANT THUNDER
was heard in the west, accompanied by
faint blush lightning flashes. The
thunder grew rapidly louder and the
lightning more vivid. until peal seemed
to pile on peal. and the play of electric
ity was almost constant. The thunder
shook the buildings like an earthquake.
In short time after the first appear
ance of the phenomenon the lightning
became a deep purple or violet color,
and took the form of balls of fire. /
had stepped in at the house of MIR.
Holden at the first approach of the
storm, and when it reached its height
remember we were all nearly frighten-
ed to death, and huddled mechanically
in the middle of the room like parcel
of sheep. Suddenly there came clap
of thunder that shook the house from
foundation to roof, and almost immedi-
ately a ball of purple fire crashed
through window and shattered clock
that stood against the wall-one of the
old-fashioned, tall clocks. The shock
did not affect any of us beyond creating
8 slight numbness, and we all rushed
out of the room. Almost Immediately
there came another thunderclap, and
the room we had left was instantly fill
ed with purple blaze, accompanied
by peculiar swapping and cracking
sound. similar to the throwing off OF
electric sparks by rapidly moving
belt, only thousand times louder.
With the exception of the clock not q
thing was injured about the house.
Il don't believe there ever was
worse frightened lot of people in the
world than the inhabitants of Bar 1Iar-
Dor were that night.
THAT PURPLE BALL OF LIGHTNING 20
flashed about and obtruded itself every
where. There was scarcely house
that was not visited by it. At one
house it entered it passed through one
window and across the room and out
at another window, setting fire to a box
of matches that lay on a table in the
middle OF the room. At another house
a woman was rendered unconscious by
ii shock which extinguished all the
lights in the house at the same time.
The woman's husband was trying to
find match to strike another light,
when he was Frustrated by a second
shock. These two recovered, but the
man was speechless for long time af-
terward. Scores of people were para
lived by visitation of the lightning, but
no one in Bar Harbor was fatally iniur-
ed. The storm was not confined to
Bar Harbor, but prevailed all over
Mount Desert Island. At Southwest
Harbor and Northwest Harbor vessels
were dismantled by the lightning, and
one sailor was killed. There was
scarcely any craft of any kind in the
harbor but had at least one shattered
mast.
1.-The freaks of this strange electric
visitor outside the buildings We're most
extraordinary. At one place one of the
fiEy balls struck the top of flag pole.
The pole was torn into hundred
pieces and the lightning plunged into
the earth. Usually that would have
ended the career of the ordinary elect
ric current. This ball. however, was
not subdued VET. and after plowing its
way to the bottom of the pole beneath
it started horizontally in an eastern di-'
rection. Although the ground was
frozen as hard as rock. this thunder
boft plowed trench through for dis
tance of nearly five hundred feet. The
debris from this trench, consisting OF
great
MASSES OF FROZEN GROUND
and stones weighing in some instances
hundreds of pounds, were thrown in
both directions, and some of them high
in the air for long distances around.
One mass of frozen earth as large as a
fishing smack was hurled more than
seventy-fve feet away. Fortunately
for property owners and their lives the
course taken by this erratic ball of fire
was through an open piece of land with
no buildings near it. If it had chosen
a western course it would have plowed
in under several residences, and in the
inevitable wreck that must have fol-
lowed scores of lives would undoubted-
ly have been lost.
"A grove of trees that stood in those
days between the residences, | think, of
a family named Carter and one named
Lodge, seemed to be an especially ia
SOrlte SpOI LOT tHe HSntulilS " l'ias
about. While the purple bolts shot in
among the trees no less than six times,
neither of the adjacent houses was
touched. o. the second visit of the.
lightning to the grove the tension on
the nerves of the inmates became too
great for them to bear, and they sought
other quarters without delay. The
grove was sight to see next morning.
Only few trees were left standing.
Great stones had been torn up from BE-
meath the surface and lay scattered
about in the snow, which had been
swept entirely away in some spots as
though there had never fake fallen
there Several trees had been torn up
by the roots. One of these was carried
twenty-five feet into the yard of one of
the houses. Another tree, a small
spruce, hung by its roots in the upper
branches of larger tree a long dis
tance from whero the smaller one had
been torn up.
1.-The thunder and lightning cOntin-
ued for more than twenty minutes,
when the storm passed out to sea and
gradually died away. During it all the
Snou oont;puod fali;pr apd soon aftar