Connecticut western news., 1884-07-16
THREE TIMES IN ONE STORM.
RefutRtiOn of the Saying thRt LiRhtninl Never Strikes Twice In the same Place.

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 Never Strikes Twice In the same Place.
 A letter from Bath, N. Y., says: The farm house of Henry Axtell is in tho town of Catlin, Chemung county, two miles from Pine Valley station. In the sitting room was large base-burner stove, the pipe from which ran mp through the ceiling into another apart. ment, where it entered the chimney. While the terrible thunder storm oI Saturday was at it's height Mir. Axtell and several members of his family were Tn tho sitting room, some of them sitting close to the stove. Suddenly tho room was filled with blinding light. Tho stove flew into a hundred pieces about the room, breaking windows. walls, and furniture. None of the flying fragments struck any of the inmates of the room, nor were any of them prostrated by the shock.
 Lightning had struck the chimney, nearly every brick on half of which was reduced to dust. The other halr of the chimney remained standing. The fluid had followed the stove pipe in the chimney above, dividing it into four sections, each one of which was split into halves. After demolishing the stove in the sitting room the bolt had torn four holes in the carpet and set it on fire. From the carpet it entered the partition wall back of where the stove had stood, slid down to the base board. and tore it away for distance of five feet It then passed down into the cellar, where it struck crock of butter. The crock was broken into countless fragments and the butter spaitered over all parts of the cellar, some pieces being found sticking to the ceiling.
 A table on which several pans of milk were standing had all four of its legs taken off close, and every log was torn into splinters, which were found in all parts of the cellar. There was not a mark on any part of the table top. Under the table an old chair without any back was standing. The legs of the table must have been cut off simul- taneously, for the top was found resting on the chair, and only small quantity of the milk was spilled, but the milk was all turned thick and sour.
 What became of the eccentric fluid after it had done its work in the cellar could not be learned, as there was no mark to be seen where it had entered the ground.
 The inmates were still running about the house in excitement when another bolt struck the building. A neighbor says he saw a streak of fire run from the chimney down one side of the rool and down the side of the house and dis. appear in the ground. A track of miss. ing shingles and clapboards and a hole in the ground marked its course. II also took with it A portion of the rem. nant of the chimney. A few minutes later the fragment of chimney still left standing was demolished by a third stroke of lightning. The fluid from this passed down to the cave trough, which it followed to the end of the roof, from which it jumped to the corner of a woodhouse, tearing off a part of the root, and passing down through the floor, and into the ground No fire re- suited from either stroke, and no serious shock was felt by any one in the house.
 Another singular freak of lightning is reported from Hornellsville. Abram Ford saw a bolt strike the chimney of John Regan's house on Hartshorn street during the storm of Saturday. The bricks were thrown in all directions far around. All the other evidence of the presence of the electric current about the house was round hole in the bottom of tin basin which stood in the sink in the kitchen. Around the edge of the hole was black rim of an equal width of a quarter of an inch, having the appearance of being burned in the tin.