Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-02
A TIPPERARY THUNDERSTORM
Terrifying Experience of n Body of
Troops the March.

FROM the Ilpperary Champion.
a more terrible terrifying and trying
experience than that through which the ID
Battalion Cheshire Regiment passed on
Thursday night it would be hard to imag-
inc. The march from Newport to Upper
Church was a long one. the distance be-
tween the two places being twenty-one and
one-half miles, and Col. Curteis, command
ing the Cheshires. determined, on account
of the heat, to do it al night. Accordingly
the camp was struck at Newport about s
p M. and the regiment started out at 8
pm. When they reached Kilcommon rain
began to fall and halt was made to put
on OvercoatS. This done, they proceeded
The road here was a pretty steep hill and
they had not gone far when the first flash
Of lightning burst upon Them and the cleo
trio MUD appeared to run along the whole
line from front to rear. The second flash
which was more intense, gathered its great
er force around the Maxim gun. struck
down Lieut. Cooper and six men in charge
and overturned the gun. For a time these
men lay PROSTATE on the ground and were
quite blind. They recovered, however and
were able to proceed. The next couple of
flashes were very bad the lightning racing
along the rifles. Corporal Caley's rifle be-
came red hot and he dropped it. while
Lance Corporal MOw's rifle was torn from
his hand. Matters were now getting 50
bad and dangerous that the regiment was
halted and drawn up in line instead of
being in tours. All the rifles were then put
down on the ground fat as it was thought
that the rain, which was falling in a per
feet deluge, and the water. which was run
ming down the hill like a river would tend
to keep electricity away This however
did not happen, the storm, in fact increas-
ing in force. Darkness of inky blackness
prevailed and no officer man who had
served in the tropics ever experienced any,
thing like the rain. 1t was while standing
stiil under these conditions, in an open
barren country, far from any shelter, that
the most trying ordeal for the men took
place Every flash of lightning struck down
one or more men, and the doctors hands
We're soon full. The police sergeant and his
men at Red Cross turned and rendered
most valuable assistance in carrying the in
iured to couple Of poor laborers' cottages
close by.
These two cottages were like cock pits
Some of the victims vomited violently. a
large number had one leg paraIyzed, others
had two and some had their arms. while one
man was struck blind, and 1t was only after
a long time that he recovered the sight OF
one eye. During this terrible ordeal the men
behaved most bravely. They went with
alacrity to a fallen comrade. assisted in
carrying him to the cottages, and in some
cases were struck down the way them
selves. There was not a man in the regi-
ment who did not feel the effects. more OF
less. the electricity regularly played
about each man, giving him the appear
ance of being phosphorescent.
Sergeant-Major Foley, who felt terrible
shock on his left side when one of the
flashes came found on examining his sword
in the daylight that the scabbard was bad
ly burnt The wood work of nearly every
rifle was burnt to a greater or less degree,
and ,the only explanation as to why men
were not killed is that the number Of rifles
was so great that. while attracting the
lightning, they distributed it's power over
a large area. splitting it up and thereby
weakening its force.