Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1889-02-08
THE EXTINCTION OF LIGHTNING
RODS.

THE EXTINCTION OF LIGHTNING
RODS.
/. is said that lightning-rOds,
once so popular in this country,
have nearly gone out OF use. PROOF
of this is furnished by the fact that
there are now but three factories
engaged in their manufacture,
against Some ninety three only a
few years ago. There are not many
things except the roller skate ana
blue glass which can boast OF a
greater falling off. 1t would APP
pear that the lightniDg.rod IS
passing away with that yourger
institution, the tobOggan slide.
It the IIghtnmg.rOd has really
gone, as the figures quoted would
seem to show, it must afford con-
siderable relief in rural cOmmuni'
ties by doing away with the light
ming rod agent. This handle bat
aggressive individual has long been
the terror OF the unprotected farm
house-that is, the house unpro'
tected by Advantageous Even
when a house has been well sup
piled with rods he sometimes de-
clares that they are OF an inferior
make and worse than useless, and
If the own er will not consent to a
change he has been known to
pounce down upon the house while
he was absent, strip the building
of the obnoxious rods and erect his
own along every ridgeboard, on
every chimney, around every cor
nice, I i'll the helpless house bristled
like the fretful porcupine ; and then
sit down on the front stoop and
wait calmly with the bill for the
return of the astOnished agricul-
turist. No other agent approaches
him in all that goes to make up a
successful man in this line save the
Apple.tree agent. The professional
seller of superior varieties OF IL
berian crab.apples need not usually
fear comparison with the man en-
gagged in the lightning rod indus
try. But the book agent cannot
approach him, great aud deserved
as the book agents reputation is.
The book agent frequently sells a
book to a man who really does not
want 1t very badly, but the light
ming rod agent has been known to
sell man q rod who bad no honse
to pul it on, crOoklng 1t into the
proper shape and driving one eud
of it into the ground SO that the
man could build bis house under 1t
when the time came.
The passing away of the light
ning.rod can be laid at the door OF
the iconoclastic modern scientist.
Not content with roofing up about
every belief that we ever had in any
thing, he must needs turn to the
hghtlng.rOd and show that II is no
better than an impOstor aud a
cheat, causing more lightning TO
strike the house than it frigbte"s
away or lures gently to the earth.
Amid the crash of Thousand fond
beliefs of the past he IS not happy,
but hurts the long-cherished light
ming rod with the rest. He has
been working skllfully up to this
for a long time, so we need not he
surprised to learn that lightning
rods are practically thing of the
past. A number OF years ago he
began to warn people against poor
rods, and hut that a great many
of them were no better than they
should be, aud gave directions for
making superior rods-and even
then he would not guarantee them
III every case. Then he went a step
further and SAID that it was only
in extremely exceptional cases that
lightning rod could possibly do
the least good, aud then ouly when
made and set up by one of his own
number. Then, few years ago,
he came out boldly and told us
that all lightni ug-rOds were arrant
humbugs that they attracted the
lightning aud communicated 1t to
the house, watched the building
burn down With fendish glee and
danced derIsive, one-legged zig
amid the darkness over the ruins.
A little OF this kind of talk, of
course, soon settled the tate of tue
ligbtning-rOd. People began to
mistrust them, then to abandon
them altogether. It is not strange
that tue number Of factories has
shruuk from ninety three 10 three.
Lightning rods will linger a little
time yet in Philadelph ia, and then
they will pass away.-Ne'o York
Tribune.
DANNY WAS TURNED LOOSE.
About midnight the other night
a patroIman on Cbamplain street
was halted by a woman living
around the corner, who Informed
him that a burglar was trying to
effect an entrance by the back door.