The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-08-13
LIGHTNING ODDITIES.
Batch of stories from Canada.

played some curious and expensive
tricks in this locality lately. The Lau-
Tentian hill country IS rather notorious
for its thunderstcrms, but the record
for this summer far surpasses that for
previous seasons. Probably if a total
could be arrived at, losses Of animals,
building and crops, in the the counties
of Pontiac ana Ottawa alone would be
found to amount to more than half u
million dollars.
One farmer found that his cattle had
broken out of their pasture, and were
believing around the barndoor early in
the afternoon as though terrified by the
approaching storm. The men, having
tied the frightened creatures in their
stalls, had just made their way to the
house when the storm broke right over
head and vivid flash Of lightning APP
peared to cleave the roof Of the barn.
The farmhands instantly rushed back
again, and found that twenty-five out
OF tWenty-eignt animals had been killed
ny the stroke. One cow in the center,
and one at each end Of the double row
were unframed. The other were badly
were unframed. The others were badly
had been fastened, and the iron links
were either. as in most cases, fused
together or driven into the flooring of
the stable. A curious feature of the
accident was that the hoofs of the dead
cows We're split or torn off.
On a neighboring farm one of the
men was milking in a large stable full
of COWS, when a flash seemed to fill the
building with a dazzling sulphurous
flame. AS soon as he recovered his
sight he found the COW he had been
milking lying dead before him, the only
thing about the place to be injured.
Every particle of hair had been clipped
from the body OF the dead animal, and
lay upon its white skin in the form of
fine ash.
A few fields away new moving ma
chine had been set up in readiness for
next days operations. This the light
ming wrecked, breaking the heaviest
parts, dislocating the rest and scatter
ing the fragments over half an acre of
ground. The owner was congratulated
upon the fact that, as is usual, the SELL
all repairs to the machine for the first
season.
Near by an attempt had been made to
start a fish preserve. Five hundred
young trout were thriving under care
full management in a little shaded shall
low pool. A flash destroyed a tall,
overhanging pine just at the edge of the
water, and was probably conducted
downward by it for the trout were all
dead when the pool was visited next
day, A flock of black ducks were found
to have been killed during the same
storm on a lake a few miles away, the
whole brood having evidently been
stricken while resting on log.
| In CaWOOd township a farmer having
| heard that lightning never strikes twice
In the same place, had built large
combined stableand barn on the site of
a shed which had been destroyed the
previous year. But the adage was not
proved true In his case, for the new
barn was seen to take fire all along it's
| length at once as the lightning touched
| it. and with its contents was soon a
| heap Of ashes!
| brick house was struck for the third
time, the chimney wrecked and part of
| the gable torn out. In the cellar, where
! she had gone for safety, the dead body
[ Of servant girl was found, the cloth
| ing torn from the upper part Of it,
showing imprinted across the shoulders
a representation of the open brass work
of a fender which stood upon the shat
tered hearth, through which the light
ming flash had made its way.
Some years ago several persons were
| killed near Montreal while sheltering
under a maple tree. All over the dead
bodies were clear impressions in light
gray of maple leaves, transferred and
fixed on the flesh by some subtle photo
| graphy of the lightning.
On an invalid's table in one house
which was badly shaken, lay thick
printed scroll of Scripture Texts for
the Afflicted" The electric force eX-
pended itself in that room in Wrecking
the little stand by the bedside, not even
awakening the aged sufferer, who was
resting there. The lightning had
stamped the heavy black letters of the
| open text through the whole scroll as
though they had been punched through
to make stencil plate, without other
wise damaging or disfiguring the paper
in any way. The text thus cut out was
the prayer book version of Psalm xviii.
2S: 1.-THE Lord my God shall make my
| darkness to be light. New York Sun