The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-24
BIG BUILDINGS STRUCK.
LIGHTNING HITS THREE SKY
SCRAPERS ON BROADWAY

LAtn ON Az
Ne Damage Dono to Thcm Except the Turning
or RinEpole HntO . Corhscrew-A House
struck In the Annexed District-si1ty FER
sons Get q scare In = Central Park Funnel.
Farmer Dunn, who runs tho weather. was
away yesterday, and o certain low pressure that
has been lurking about the region Of the great
lakes for several days took advantage Of his abb
scnce, and. loaded down with natures heaviest
artillery, 1t attacked New York city. Again and
again 1t fired It's heaviest guns at the tall build.
ings that made Ginning marks. Three times
these bolts struck, but each time the armor
proved too heavy and the bolt was disslpated
before serious damage was done. Baked by
the big marks. the artillery was turned on tho
smaller ones. and tho town was peppered
with small shot. So far az reported this pep
pering did no more damage than does the pep
perins Of the rapid-ire gun in the crow's-nest
OF a man-of-war in n human battle, and, bafied
in its assault, the low pressure fed out to seq,
taking Its heavy artillery along with It While |
the damage 1t did was small, 1t made u most in
spring display. After It was gone the people
said 1t was a beautiful storm. one of the most
beautiful that the city had ever seen.
1t was nearly 4 O'Clock in the afternoon when
the evidences that the low pressure was on its
way and would soon assault the city were first
seen by the machine lookouts in the Weather
Bureau. The machine lookouts notified the
human lookouts, and away in the southwest
they saw huge black clouds swirling and tum-
bling and coming headlong toward the city.
The country underneath them was being del
uged with rain, and occasionally the flash Of the
artillery could be seen. The gunners were evil
IDENTIFY practising. On came the chords over
Now Jersey, and as they came tho barometer and
the other machine lookouts kept recording lower
pressure. 1t was only the people In the top Of the
very high buildings who got this first glimpse
OF the gathering storm. BY 4 O'Clock the people
lower down could see Il. 1t was coming over
the Palisades in New Jersey. Tho advance
guard was q cotton cloud. white and fluffy. Be
hind 1t came the black one. fierce and forbidding.
Then the white one. driven by the high winds
that were not felt below. passed over the city
quickly, while the black one spread out like o
blanket. Over the Palisades there seemed to be
an immense bank, and the black blanket rolled
out from that endlessly, but never decreasing
the sizo Of the bank
Slowly, a. the blanket spread. darkness came.
Tho lights in the big office buildings were set
going and they cleaned out a. they do at tho
dead Of night. The wind up to this time had
been blowing from eight to ten miles an hour.
There was neither thunder nor lightning while
the storm thus gathered and darkened the city.
The wind freshened. II came in GuSts. With It
S so %S Az tT :'i5sh. 'RRISs si. x on t e. P s;;ssS r.
% esifdasa a e !. sS Be- ess sSxsthi .i Msa; sI e sRs s con-!
City Hflaliff were 5sm@sd With people: The gusts
RRooaulri th Sc vino 5SsS%nEpeSS. in i aSs n fi9as R q thirt sc
;ta a z. So. but +: stl iif, sss sRst ss9f hs ssis q. fRa
darkness Increased, The cable car, their lights
s snaI', liz %o Sss. sIsss n as s'HaGi%; t assn sis.: isls az tss
, MSsls %sS. ardnsd e g e. e. . sssR % SG sSe soa Tx S.e %
a moment there was rift In the
s siSu marble aef bul hdiSash In t sSs city YIN that were ~sts in ats its
line wsss outlined Ih. dag cgninss the . black ,G nit, With start start:
an boar. stih only the Bic, rsindroPs fen scat.
sss ariSa yx;b,a dh9 nsbo Tsrs sn %,n sasst, o. v sSaspe %ss
cloud came q vivid streak. followed, BY, the
s5oorl Fr saSad Es. 2; sn SlGss that sna the sn biz building as d
Of iiGhtping and for a minute the 9ninterrupted
In three minutes the wind jumped from forty
mile, miles Il 70 al aft EcfpH i,m miles s, an sSq frcm Here Here. and I'd
and went scuddinE. Umbfellas we're torn from
rents, and with Il the city grew darker atm.
II night had fallen. and the boats were
e sas1 81 s :isbt ~ b ls P1lsft' Win FSis 1t issE "hist 1t ss q. t tRs
Whistles; The pilots sIignaiisd everybody 70 Keep
away. Every moment the ,downpogr Of rain
blew it along horizontally. so that, unless you
happened tS be in q place facing 70 leeTS ard, yoSS
been out In the storm with no protection.
With the first downpour Of rain the mercury
+. .el ,sH q sh q & mo Sssinn Sssaf In {, tie s twenty i ni Ess.:.
that the storm lasted It fell 20'. II had been
ttSS,nadds n bsen %lnut aim %sen c one tiilEnsnsns ana ahd th hsy
seemed to 30 getting nearer and nearer. Still
s ssm si% Of a sas sg %ns ss ss ssaRf GGs s 81 .t the bS Shil
ings by, the force, of the conclusions. Il
T TSs e siSs 2 sislo sa,,S Shsn 4 sb tbs h sSIn sSl 3, S s,suss
the tRe s %H9a saiSs's Su i1Gsfs " Z, I has : e aiso so sHd
particularly vivid nash Of iiE6t q, psrticuiarls
savage crash Of thunder. and peelings q thai
s aSsP the bolt Gsn str Hs,n . f FAR as ;ni Ts ss sou r sS .
could learn. Nobody in the building felt y, blu
S sssss IN MI he 3 b s,ftliins a aP r they !" were sSss6 6u ssasSe oas
The bolt struck the pole two.thirds Of the way
% SES,dsa' oe aisRsSa; '1@S{ha e4s, the t bolt 'V %sae o.
s BY il after ss. Il e asas ts' S Spl ts;a pG ssssl h lrs%ss q e0 e,
f sSltSl1E aP PSo w wss d H.4aGsars on h its %ss I
III was some minutes after the first bolt struel
t INA lnesss second IN one Ian Landed Gs ~ IL ! plchhe sila Gm
OF the Mutual Life Association. two block
further VI, Nassau street; Y was seen =
building, hut II WIS gone in an instant, leayini
only a sPlintered pole toshow where i mad been
artillerymen was made within the next fv
minutes. The cupola Of the New York, Lift
finished. But two figures that are TO ornamen
4 have been put in place. They are ~life-siz
bronze figures Of men. In tho present state Q
these men are supposed TO be doing, but the,
seem TO be about to strike at something o
somebody. Natures gunners could easily mistak
them for a pair of Ajaxes In the act OF defyin
them, II they did so mistake them, they &C
cepted the challenge and turned their next GU
at them with what was intended to BIO deadl
accuracy. But alas for them. the armor wa
ing didn't know II had been lift. They denied
siren uously. But the bolt was seen TO strike by
crowd gathered In the Criminal Court buildin
near by, At the moment of the shock the figure
thiyered. Bright lights shot around them