The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-11-19
AFRAID OF LIGHTNING.
A Peculiar Nervous Fear, and Not
Want of Courage.

The victims of hay fever are not more
in number or more to be pitied than
those who suffer from nervous dread of
lightning. Probably more people than
usual have learned to sympathize
with this terror during the August thun-
der-storms which made such panic at
summer hotels. Only persons of very
strong nerve can 60 through q hard
electric storm without uneasiness. But
there is class whom electricity affects
with such peculiar force that. as one of
them said, each storm is like being led
out tor execution, uncertain whether
one is to be shot this time or next. As
one who knows this species of bliss pret-
ty thoroughly, for over twenty wears.
permit me to offer the deepest sympa-
thy to such unfortunates. and mention
such alleviatiOns as lifetime of acute
misery on this account has found for
itself.
The dread is neither fanc;ful nor
durable by any effort of will Usually
it comes from a violent shock early in
life, and lightning does not more clearly
print the image of veins and branches
on the skin In some cases than it leaves
its possession upon the entire nervous
system in others. Hours before the
storm comes on the electric changes in
the air are felt by the person. either in
nervous excitability and restlessness like
that OF birds and animals before storm.
or intense depression and sense of i'm
pending doom. No Tartarus has cur
talns of more awful gloom, or such
shapes OF uniformed dread as inhabit
these hours of oppression. l do not
doubt that many of the apparently
causeless suicides we hear of are COM
mtted under the influence of such dis
tressing moods. They are beyond all
visltations of the mind most aponizino
and unbearable till one learns to recoo.
nize them as purely physical. the effect
OIL Indigestion, OF overwork. bodily
weakness or the subtle electric changes
which bring them on with especial
trouble. In some cases, while vet the
sky is brilliant and not threatening
cloud shows sign. the effect of coming
storm is felt in drastic purging, or the
eyesight is affected, while neuralgic per-
sons have a double portion of suffering
meted to them. As the barometer sinks
with the coming storm, the vitality
sinks with it, breathing is hard. and the
hears alternately beats SO low it can
nardiy be detected, or with sharp con-
traction that seems the precursor of the
panlg OF death. The danger NAV be
entirely fancied, but the distress is be-
yond description real / have known
lae nrst flash of lightning in summer
STORM TO send strong person into an
attack like cholera in three minutes.
ana strike one buoyant and blooming
hs moment before, colorless, shrunken
and unable to stand.
my my own memory of storms for nearly
tnrty years has been one of wretched-
ness mat turns me sick to think of. At
oesR endurance; atother tines, a palsy
ing sensation that the next bolt was to
oolne down my spine, a tension of every
aslse 70 its highest. that felt every flash
~,ngntning =, Ike the lash of whip. and
~ eh II could bear no more went off in
e aarkening, ringing. swimming
osses OF swooning, but never its mer-
rai am unconsc BUSINESS. 1t has left me
sf.au aoie 70 stand or sit up for an hour
- ssf ail was over, and made wreck
ine Tor days. If anv man suffers
no. aele horrors of distracted brain and
tbs eaes she morning after -debauch
a 90 days after thunder storm. T
tu.;a aa NOT imagine how he ever drinks
naIe ra.ce IN his life. A body of unstrunp
hrs;a rssss with unsteady fingers. heart and |
cord 1 eacn rapping independent dis
rnna:s a, q mead with an alarm spring lust
for ns aown in it. and 4 separate ache
an0, w saen joint in my frame, are the Sc
s,oa. sae. ior two or three days after a
bs,, ,u. ~, In such dog-days as we have |
eam;a snls year. with three storms a dav
enSnug Sag up to stir the murky air. I have
NAV p'sa - lneipient delirium tremens, and
ssn; a oe believed without difficulty in
snir;, nate lightning like a malignant
sff3iot @ only one thing can add to the
base bso1loh of such lot, and that il to
ereisa ss aense people say: .'You should ex.
dread >, your reason and control this
with :. "A As well undertake to reason
The a ,s oI Vitus' dance, or erysinelss
wbollr,' lllr'ssFy OF the dread is that It il so
livslns reasonable, and consists IN
oIses apprehension of what NAV taka
. any moment True, as these