St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-11-22
POSITIVELY woNpERFUL,

Startling Freaks of Lightning ChronicIed
by Yeracious Humorist.
When, after nearly a quarter of a
century of power, the Repub- fear
me it is going to be a very difficult task
to keep this column out of politics;
nevertheless I am reminded by some
thing of which I never thought of, some
queer freaks played by the lightning
during the past summer. About four
o'clock on an afternoon of July, during
a heavy thunder storm at Sheboygan, a
bolt struck a large frame house with
terrific force, rushing down the CHM
ney and coming to head in a pantry,
where q boy had just assembled to the
third shelf and inserted his arm into q
lar of Jam. The electric fluid Immediate
ly effected q TRANSMISSION by endosmodic
action. In an instant, in less time than
it takes to. relate it, in less time even
than it took to think it out, every par
ticle of that jam was evenly distributed
through that boys skin by superficial
absorption, and the lightning whipped
off his shirt without removing or I'M
buttoning his jacket, rolled it up COM
pactly and stuffed it into the jam jar.
Incredible as this may appear, / have
it from the most trustworthy and unim-
peachable authority - the boy sIown
mother. She had it from the boy him
self, who, whatever his moral training
may average, was too badly frightened
by tie startling occurrence to lie about
such little thing as a half gallon of
jam.
A young man named Shadinger, Will
fred II. Shadinger, was. riding down a
shaded lane near OttumWa, Ia, about
the third watch in harvest, when vio-
lent thunderstorm oVerspread the sky
and at once proceeded to the same by
the broad green earth, as is the unVary-
ing custom of Iowa thunderstorms. MIR.
Shadinger was a Boston emigrant, and
did not know the ways of Ottumwa
girls. Fearing that the young lady
might be frightened at the thunder and
fall out Of the buggy, he wound his arm
around her waist as far as he could
reach, when there was binding flash,
and the bolt fell like block of North
ern Pacific stock Mr.. Shadinger, being
sworn, deposed that he thinks the bolt
took the top rail of neighboring fence
to hit him with and the appearance of
that side of his face corroborated his
statement, and when, under skillful
discrimination, he gave the details
and told the name of the young lady
who was with him, the jury said it was a
wonder it hadn't killed him, and pro-
nounced him sane with a recommends
ton to mercy. He has since joined the
Salvation army.
A fearful streak of chain lightning
was observed to leap from dark cloud
over Amsterdam, N. Y, on the day be-
fore the next one, in June last, during
terrible storm of lightning, thunder
and hail. 1t darted down toward
house in the fashionable quarter of the
city, with that zigzag movement which
the lightning would naturally adopt,
after few moments residence in Am
sterdam, and was about to smite the
house into numerous fragments, when
a lady appeared at the door. She wore
a red Jersey, a Mother Hubbard and
hoops, and had banged her hair herself.
The lightning looked at her for q sec
ond, faltered, reeled madly in its gate,
to say nothing of trying to climb over
the fence, and then cur1ed up in the
road and remained in state of coma
until removed by order of the Street
Commissioner, which was some time
during the following year.
It's hardly probable that we have
reached the farthest limit of electrical
development and its application to the
common forms of human belief. For
those who disagree with me, I have no
word of censure or rebuke. Robert j.
Burdette, IN Brooklyn Eagle.