The sun., 1901-07-03
ROITS HIT SHORE HOTELS:
,s,cgTOy BEACH AND ORIENTAL
STRUCK NJ LIGHTRING.
,,.,,,.r IN Former stunned by shock k--Paaic
Among Great crowd ON vsran6a-Fire
alarms Runs-Oriental's Cupola damaged
po,ic.man's Son Killed at sheepshead.

rho priyhton Beach Hotel and the Oriental
-, Manhattan Beach were both struck by
T,btnlne during the fiercest part Of the storm
,a.t .,aninz The electric current ran all
,h,oush the Brighton Beach Hotel. rang
.,sry he'll in II. scared the immense crowd
rb,cb had sought shelter under its roof half
al, or their wits and jumping down into the
4,.,,,pp room knocked out Henry Messner,
,ta engineer He wa, badly. but not danger
ougy shocked The hotel was not damaged
,,, extent \ few shingles were torn of
tho roof but that was all.
The rrn-h came shortly before O'Clock.
I, had been hailing. raining and blowing
,err,Gcally Tor nearly an hour. The great
,-osd which had been scattered along the
a. walk had crowded into the hotel oovsr-
ing the uIal2as and llling the adj AGENT train
stal, Lightning bolts were flashing all
round aud the thunder was booming great
guns The electrical storm had knocked
oyt the trolley wires and hundreds Of people.
vL, would have otherwise been on their
v,y home were huddled under the hotel
roof
IN the midst of all the excitement there
camo q binding fash and then every bell
in the hotel began TO ring. All the rooms
alarm purposes They jingled virulently
and the Inevitable fool howled. Fire" In
nm instant there was panic. Men and
women began rushing around in all directions.
Women began 10 scream with great unani-
nifty and hore and there the monotony was
broken with faint or two
Men camberod. jumped and fell over tho
bgms,radr Of the wide piazzas into the rain.
- l.. hatr
rooms came pilinz downstairs. helter- -skelter.
NJ one knew what had happened, and hence
none knew what TO do. The general sup
position was that the hotel had been struck
bv lightning and fired This was only half
true. but 1t took some little time 10 find this
out
As soon "a Manager Lindsay could get
hold of some Of his employees he marched
them through the building to the roof They
found no evidences Of fire. but they did find
a bunch Of shingles torn of one corner OF
the roof either by the lightning OF the wind.
This much asccrtained. the guests were in
formed that there was no danger and things
legan TO quiet down.
Meanwhile there had been almost a tragedy
In the dynamo room down in the hotel base
mont MrS~ner, the engineer. was down
there talking with friend when the mys-
toriouS bolt jumped out OF the sky and ran
through the wires Of the hotel down TO his
dynamo The first thing he knew there
was a fash and over no and his friend went
The friend got up. but Me,sner didn't
He was unconscious The friend rushed
upstairs and told the clerk at the desk that
something very strange had happened below
Policeman Flohr Of the Sheepshead Bay
station went down there and found Messner
.ti uncon scious He succeeded after some
dncuty on account Of the condition Of the
telephone lines in calling an ambulance
Surgeon Skcnk from the Concy Island Emer
grncy Hospital looked the injured man over
and decided that he would recover. He
was. however. removed to tho hospital
Lightning struck the cupola Mt the north
west end Of the Oriental Hotel rs the tail
end pf the thunder and haiilstorm passed
over Manhattan Beach There were not many
per son, in the hote at the time. as every
body seemed 10 be either in the water or on
the beach Drawing the elements The bolt
that struck the hotel tore down the edge, OF
the oupola, marking its course with ridge
six inches v ide and tearing away the shingles
around that side Of the cupola few Of
the shingles on the roof were torn away,
too, but further than that the hotel was not
From the nature Of the storm at Man
haitian those who were on the beach were
inclined to believe that II might be divided
into two parts There We're about 900
par.. ns on the beach and nearly as many
more IN the water when the storm first came
NJ
There was heavy surf running all afternoon
and u became more turbulent when 1t began
u rain There were a few drops Of ram
and then IL commenced to hail furiously.
NobodS however. left the beach and very
few of the bathers left the water although
there was heavy thunder
An unusually heavy gust Of wind caught
a srrt'pH Of the fence that separates The
bathing houses from the beach and carried
(, away Then bolt Of lightning struck
another section OF the same fence making
In me storm after that and some OF those
Who had lcrt the water vcntured back again
Suddenly the storm came from another
direction with greater fury than before
ono man who had been swimming far out
cv. l.r'. rUlldnr mako any headway against
ttr ru I"r- for he became frightened and
and .u.. the NAN aboard TIe didn't attempt
to com" tack again, but rowed around to
q inlet whore there was shelter
The boIf That struck the oriental seemed
~ tna parting shot, for the storm had almost
o.. man va. standing on the vernnda at
th. ."I uf rhp hotel whore the Cupola WAS
struck Nhe'her from fright or shock ne
arrr. rrd 20 lr-" his hena. for With a bound
l- ..au for the inside II the hotel, hurdlihg
tables .nd throwing chairs aside He finally
't...N .H 900 open WlOIpW tlI 'lIN'' N'll'hNH
lf lNlf was the last soon or him.
f.- ug'us Cher. son Of a policeman az
S'...... ..I p.v. wps killed by a." lightning
vi.. .H'...r In front of ! II McCormiokS
s-..n. NIfn Gallu CHER ~ the tlue y ere
Iar.t- Nauu McCormick's stable Jockey.
ur. '.Iv En,rheiwer. "a stable boy. WASH
ni- vr.."I uuCou~CIuus md one slde ol
H'. body Nus paralyIed Eh-inheim"r was
snr s..,.,- for foW mo ncnts after the Dolt
s.r.... I.f soon recovered
I.. '.rao boys had been sitting on ben.h
u ...rf ~ 10 she'd ~ the end Of MCCorplch
s'.". There vera several flShe5 oi light
'Irg Iut tuer ono pilnd!n9 fash followed
~ h.lry .rs sh Of thunder II Is thought
ta' 'sn bolt frat struck tho she'd and tl9n
{. ..u-lrr. Nhp wa -lttlng bet" en- ths
tv. '..r boys Gallagher was hurled
Ter 'r"' from tho shed, ana the
Jockey .ll the stable boy were thrown
uu t.a Ground When Gallagher was ptSkedh
ar.r down his forehead and hls body was also
rs.G The lightning act fire u the rout
.. '.a-'I1,r butU bucket hrlsad" was Iortlru
A'I 't' Gro put out before Il did much gam
vas no telephone communicative
.'. loH.y Island last night because ~ -.
N Nr r., land rlall tho local Seryrs
ra- crippled, and among Lhn T'res khochea
rH.. LIGHTNING struck q pole IN tr3nL
o. '-nn ui"r. without d'ina,nn parNcu'eo
dH..t.... -.I.."hoiv '"lApil nn"d the alarm '"
r.. .'..tou near tho frnhOusc, and u was
co.,. ..r..l ty rnsspUE"r In transmi7Nlon
u...n.-l -, was tvi,'od into this 'BrlHht'n
t. li...I a'rGr6 br lightning pahlG
'.,'- N ftrfrr