The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-11-19

advantage of saving plumbers bills, as
1T will not freeze in winter. Even tile
drain-pipe may be used instead of tin
as furnace fiues with good effect. It is
argued from scientific view that the
employment of so much metal in house
building is njurious to the health of
the inmates, as it interferes with the
magnetic currents. and That delicate
persons condemned to live in buildings
with metal roofs. iron stairs
and girders, or with battery of
gas and water pipes, steam coils and
electric wires about them, infallibly suf-
fer in strength and nerves. Be that as
it may, and the view is quoted only as a
curiosity, it is certain that low houses,
broad rooms and the least metal about
them are safe houses in thunder-storms.
And all the clatter about modern con-
veniences or the ridicule of friends in
rugged health, who never knew the
quiver of nerve, will not weigh a
feather against the gain in peace of
mind in these constantly recurring
crisis of weather. People do not laugh
at man who takes every precaution
against fire in building, who laws his
beams in mortar and his floors in con-
crete, cases his ash-bins with brick and
threads his galleries with fire extin,
tinguishers. The chance of fire may
come once in a lifetime, but it. is worth
all pains to be ready for it. Why should
not the chance of having a building
struck by lightning. which happens a
dozen times season, be prepared
against by every device and forethought
imaginable? asg essf
The chances of accident from light
ming are about equal to those from shot.
guns, yet people treat the latter with
great respect, while they laugh at any
one who is cautious of exposure TO the
former danger. As nearly all injuries
from it come of foolhardy exposure out
of doors or at open. windows, the Jest
does not lie with those who study to
avoid it. Children should be taught to
guard themselves in the few moments
of danger during storm, to stay in.
doors and keep away from windows.
chimneys and large mirrors or metal
fixtures.,of any sort. That their elders
should learn care seems past hoping for.
In the heaviest storm of the season doz-
ems of people went trooping from the
trains across open fields and country
roads, strung with telegraph and tele-
phone wires, Drawing all chances
sooner than wait half an hour in
safety at the station or accept offered
shelter. Few railway stations ara
guarded as they should be, and a CITY
depot, with its reels of electric wires
and high iron castings. is the last place
a nervous person wants to be caught in
during storm. Telegraph operators,
in their narrow dens between the wire
and window are as exposed as it is pos
sible to be, and it is simply foolhardy
for them to stay in their offices in a
storm. Nearly every country town has
its record OF an operator struck from
the wires, though not all as sad as that
OF the girl at the next station to this,
killed at her instrument two summers
ago. A telegrapher doesn't want to take
any chances, for the odds are against
him anyhow. Most mortals would rather
die than take care for their lives; still a
few are of sufficient value to themselves
to practice caution even against light
ming. For when people say it is no use
guarding against it, for it will strike
anyhow, they fly in the face of science
and fact, which comfort us with the as
'surance that its stroke is to be prevented
as surely as cholera, with care Chtca-
40 journal. a