The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-27

ing between the members and the preacher
IN charge. The meeting broke up at last
and the preacher was the last one to leave
the church, and alone. When he reached
the street, however, he was Joined by one
of the members, who had Jagged behind to
try and persuade him to give in for the
sake of harmony. But the preacher was
obdurate, and would not recede an inch
from the ground he had taken, maintain
ing that his cause was just. Then the
member became discouraged and disgust
ed 'Parson," he exclaimed, ''it would not
surprise me if the Lord caused a thunder
bolt to strike our church and rend it from
dome to foundation" The preacher smil-
ed disdainfully but the next moment there
came binding flash of lightning and
deafening crash of thunder, and when they
looked back at the church which they had
just left they saw that the lightning had
struck 1t, and that its steeple and roof had
been demolished.
The saying that 1.-THE lightning never
strikes twice in the same place. must be
revised, because it does. Numerous in
stances could be quoted, but one will suf-
1ce. The schooner Primrose, laden with
lumber from Louisiana port and bound
for Mexico, was caught in thunder storm
in the gulf, and the foremost was struck
by lightning and shattered pretty badly
One of the men ran forward to lower the
foresaii, when the lightning struck THE
mast once more, shattering it completely
and killing the man. The time between
the two thunderbolts was not over two
minutes.
Lightning and blackberries come to-
gether in the coast region of Texas. The
people there as a rule, are more partial
to the latter than the former. An ex-
ception to the rule exists there to-day,
however, in Mrs. Pennington of Plum
Creek, who says that one timely stroke
of the lightning has done her more good
than all the blackberries in creation could
possibly accomplish. Just behind the
Pennington home is a small clearing, in
which the blackberries grow. large and
sweet and in abundance. One day Mrs.
Pennington went there to pick some ber-
res for supper, and took her little baby
girl with her. The baby grew tired in a
little while, and the mother arranged a
bed of dry leaves for it under a shelter
ing sumach bush. In a few minutes the
child was asleep and the mother resumed
her berry picking. 1t was an oppressively
hot day, when the air was fun of cleo
tricity and not a breath of wind stirring
anywhere. A squal was coming UP rap
idly from the east, the lightning showing
dimly on its upper edge, but Mrs Penning-
ton was apparently oblivious to the APP
proach of the storm, glad only that the
baby slept so well and gave her so little
trouble. But it was not the storm alone
that threatened danger. A the very edge
of the ticket, and only few feet from
the sleeping baby. its eyes cleaning, its
head laid fiat on the ground and its tail
lashing its tawny sides, a huge Mexican
lion was crouching, ready to spring. For
a moment 1T dug its hind paws nervously
into the ground, and then it leaped into
the air. 1t fell dead only a few inches
from the sleeping baby, just as a loud
peal of thunder caused Mrs. Pennington
to look around for the safety of her child.
The baby awoke, looked up and smiled.