Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1892-06-25
A DEADLY STROKE.

Gathered Tor shelter Under It's Arches
Are Instantly Killed and Many In
jured.
CHICAGO, June 17.-Lightning dis
played its terrific, unexplainable power
in shocking manner Thursday night.
During the thunderstorm which passed
over the city shortly after 8 o'clock
bolt struck the bronze horse of the
Grant monument in Lincoln park. At |
the time no less than forty people
were crowded in the open corridor
just beneath the pedestal on which |
the bronze work rests. There was |
binding fash, loud report, and all |
who were under the shelter were
thrown off their feet. Three people,
two men and woman, were instantly
killed. All received terrible shock,
but only four were so badly injured
that they required immediate attention.
. The following is list of the killed:
Lewis Meyer, % years old, single, lived at No.
S3 Mutt street, body removed to the county
morgue. Mrs. Schiele, 20 years old, lived with
her son-in-law William Hummel, agent for the
Wacker.Birk Brewing Company, No. q Austin
avenue body removed to the county morgue.
Carl Horst about 10 years old, lived at No. lso
East Ontario street
oCNCh PClooho WCiS hui ohN
a score or more slightly shocked.
Lightning has seldom wrought worse
havoc at single stroke. When the
storm came up hundreds of people were
seeking shelter from the burning rays
of the sun under the trees and about the
artificial lake at the south end of the
park. Suddenly and almost without
warning dense masses of clouds rolledup
from the west. Faint flashes of light
ming played over the rising clouds, and
with the cool west wind light shower
began to fall. The people who were
scattered about the south end of the
park ran for shelter, and about forty
collected in the massive granite
corridor beneath the Grant monu-
ment. Then the rain, until this
time only a slight shower, began to
| fall in torrents. Flashes of light
ming came in quick succession, but the
thunder rolled low and distant and
none of the group under the monument
seemed frightened. Suddenly at 6:25
o'clock there came binding
flash from the east. The yellow-forlied
bolt struck the left hind leg of the
bronze horse upon which the
statue of Gen. Grant rests, then
bounded to the northwest corner of the
granite coping and glanced into the
corridor Following the seam between
two granite blocks it travelled along
the top of the third archway, from east
to vast, and then glanced to the
ground, passing along the floor
and down the east side of
the base. To people who were hud-
aled together in the path of the
bolt there was a vivid flash but no re-
port. The next instant thirty-eight or
thirty-nine people were lying prone
upon the stone floor, some dead, some
seriously injured, and all ter.
ribly shocked. For the moment none
realized what had occurred or where
they We're. Then the ones least in
jured aroused sufficiently to look about
themselves. They saw the result oi
the bolt and those who were able
fastened to the assistance of the les:
fortunate. 1t was a trying moment
Word was quickly sent to the LARA
bee Street station, and within fifteer
, minutes after the oolt struck the monu
ment the patrol was on the scene.
was followed few minutes later b,
, the Halsted Street station patro
wagon, and with the assistance of tn,
Lincoln park police the work of remov
ing the dead and injured began. 3
The rescuers found Lewis Meye
lying at the south end of the arch, witt
, his sweetheart, a young lady of 10, b,
his side, dazed and badly injured by tn
shock. The young mans face wa
blaciiened by the bolt and he ston
= dead. He was right in the path of tn
lightning, and, if there could be such
thing as first, he was the first to b
killed. Like the rest, his face an
: hands had turned to dark color. Hi
i. coat was badly torn and his rigl
= trouser leg was split from top to bo
= tom. His right shoe had also been tor
from his foot.
In the southeast corner of the mort
{ arch was Mrs. Schiele, the old lady. Sh
was sitting up against the granite wal
{ and, with the exception of dark hr
' about her cheeks, she was apparentl
/ unscathed by the lightning. Sh,
s. however, had suffered the wors
o of all by it's mad freak. II,
n clothing was torn in shreds fro
- her shoulders in many places, ;
T. if it had been cut with a knit
II Strangely enough, her shoes had bee
u torn from her feet and they lay ne;
s by, ripped and broken. She had ev
l. IDENTIFY been instantly killed. At Il
II time that the lightning struck h,
u she held in her arms the Ii
tie child of her son in lay
e William Hummel. 1t had escape
e without scratch, and when the wage
r. arrived it was laughing in it's father
l. arms Mr.. Hummel had arrived at tt
s. monument just a moment before IL
Id flash came to take his family home.
N The great monument escaped wi
At almost no injury at all, notwithstan
N ing the loss of life that took place {
n rectly under it. The bolt made slig
~ depression in the left leg of the hors
re near the hoof, and it Clipped piece
granite the size of mans hand fro
at the coping. Its course across L