The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-09-18
Two Lightning Strokes.
N, Y. Tribune.

y = iDu -
The fact that two lightning strokes,
n of which fell on the site c~hosentol
Gen. Grants tomb in the Riverside
Park, and the other at MIcGregol
where his body lay, should have occa-
stoned scarcely any comment. shows
the extent OF the advance made in APP
prehens on of mans relations to ma
ture. and the virtual d appearance of
n OF the most prevalent and persist
ent of supp os!tious. 70 day these oc-
%eurrences are 5 IMPLY regarded as CO
medicines; strange, perhaps, but per-
fectlv natural, and assessing no hui
man sign !~icance. But for ages man
k nd, and yen the most highly civil
ized races, firmly believed that The
deaths OF great men We're marked by
~pertHrhat ons in nature. The history
OF Eel g.on shows that in regard to the
founders of creedS this belief was uni
verSal, and throughout the history of
pagan Rome prodigies were supposed
to attend the acces on and death OF
rulers. Shakespeare has faithfully rep.
resented the feeling of that period
when he makes an old Roman say:
The heavens themselves blaze forth the
Nv
And the rcverential credulity of the
age finds expression in the assertion:
1t is the part of men to fear and tremble
When the most mighty gods, b. toiens, send
Such dreadful heralds to astonish US.
During the republ C of Rome the Sen
ate itself undertook to interpret such
prod gies, and the augurs had class
iticd lightning strokes into eleven cat.
egor es, each of VIII ch had its special
application and s~gniticance.
Nor did the belief in portents. and
especially in the occurrence of convul-
S II of nature upon the death of great
c cease with pagan m The nat
ural tendency to associate earthly i'm
portan e with some special relation to
the cosmos proved too strong for the
renaissance to eNtirpate. and even
long after science had removed the
foundat on from the prevailing pop.
ular superstitions this one sury we'd.
That it did so, however. is certa My
due quite as mach to the occurrence
of co ncideuccs as to the inherentforce
OF popular crcdul ty. In the ipiin te
variety of natural phenomena of course
II must happen sometimes that re
markable storms 81 other convulsion.
coincide with the deaths Of great men.
In such Cases the co ne dence alone Is
remembered; and the great minority
of ca eS in which nothing happens are
ignored. And - 1T is possible to find
many curious instances O. such events,
o OF VIII CHI have been noted by his
torans deprecatinglr, vet with that
touch Of superst't.o on. or feeling for
the unseen, which is a part of human
nature.
Down into comparativelv modern
tines this kind OF coincidence has
been remarked. Thus. on the death
of Cromwell. u great storm swept over
England. Il storm commemorated by
Waller in the lines:
Heaven his great Aoul does claim
In storms as loud as his immortal fame.
Such a storm dashed the desolate plat.
eau of ST. Helena and wrecked the
plantations about Longwood when Ma.
poleon breathed his last, aud it is re-
corded that a favor,tetrec under which
the dead Emperor had been wont to sit
was e ther strack by | ghtning or pros
trated by the wind. at the moment
when, m%uttcrjng tete d armee--he
passed away.
Condolences such as these have often
occurred. but 1t is only recent,
that Their true character has been rec,
ognlZed. Not many generations aga
the two lightning strokes at Riverside
Park and Mount M,Gregor would
have caused Il widespread sensation.
and people with blanched cheeks and
fe~ar-haunted eyes would have wills
pered to II another the ~fanciful
IDEAS as TO the supernatural meaning
OF the occurrence. and would have Gag
erly discussed its supposed bearing up
on the career or the ultimate fate of
the great departed. Now the world
has passed beyond such illusions. and
co~lncidences, however seeming strange,
have lost their mysterious aspect.