The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-11-06
some FUNNY FREAKS
or the LIGHTNING
Disasters From the Fluid Are
Il;
Not at All FIRE.
quent.
COURAGE in BIG STORMS
Men and Women About Equally In.
cIined to Timidity Whom tho Light
ming Is Shooting Its Forks
Through tho Air.

Washington Star: ~"Calamities, sucn
as recently occurred at the bathing
beach in this city. are not common oc-
c%urrences," said a well-posted me-
teorologist to a representative Of the
Evening Star a day or two ago.
"On the contrary 1t is very unusual
that the electric fluid causes such hap
penings. Considering that every sum
mer is marked by more or less of just
such atmospheric disturbances the
comparative ~infrequency of fatal con-
sequences attending them is deserving
Of mention"
such an assertion coming from the
lips of a man who has made thunder
storms n their outcome something
of a study may AVE the effect of calm
ing the regulations of many persons
who, at the first reVerberations of
thunder in a black sky, begin immeI-
ately to seek out a place somewhere
that will afford them sure shelter from
any possible LANCER. Some folk are
under the impression that women are
more timid than men when the artillery
Of the heavens begins to roar and the
lightning ZigZags all over the skies,
but the probabilities are that the fears
as well as the fearlessness are about
equally divided. Some women are eX-
ceptionally brave in the midst of a gen.
eral war among the elements. There
is n young woman employed in a
government office, located to the east
ward of the White House, who Is q
genuine feminine Ajax. She is one of
+ the fairest of the many fair daughters
of Mississippi n her conduct when
just such a storm as caused the hap
less events at the ill-starred bathing
beach is progressing is a source of
wonderment and uneasinesS as we'll TO
her many friends. She is, on such oc-
casions, more han apt to seize upon
such coigne of vantage as an open win
dow, a porch or some other favorable
point from where she can survey a
storm in all its sublimity. To her the
loud thunder and constant fashes Of
lightning have in them something of
the majestic music Of Wagnerian OPP
era, as it appeals to the lovers of that
great artists stately. works.
Another Whimsical Event.
On the other hand, there is another
woman residing in the northern section
of the city who, upon the first mutter-
ings of Jupiter Tonans, as they are
sounded over the southwestern hills,
calls her brood of girls about her-and
estate of womanhood-and all together
they darken up a room and .crowd
themselves under a feather bed, which
is kept as a refuge when storms are
near, not unlike the fashion of the
westerner's cyclone cellar, into which
he dives when the funnel-shaped cloud
makes It's appearance in the Sky.
lightning is freakish In all its ac-
TONS. said the meteorologist with
whom the reporter vas conversing.
He told Of an. acquaintance Of his
who was up in a balloon when a thun-
derstorm gathered and, though the
flashes of electricity cavorted all about
him, they seemed to have respect for
the sphere carrying his car and never
touched 1t. Dwellers on mountain tops
have seen lightning playing about their
heads half the time, but it is rarely
that they are scorched.
Many curious pranks of this crotch
ETY. element are related in an interest
ing volume written by A. II. Godbey,
concerning disasters and horrors in the
worlds history. Among these are re-
lated curious circumstances that hap
pened, some of them centuries ago but
which have great interest even unto
! the present day.
The theater at Mantua was struck by
| lightning on March 20. 1884. Two per-
sons only were killed, but many who
: We're not hurt IN any degree found that
!, the bolt had melted their Watchkeys
J and earrings n split the diamonds
], that they Wore. Somewhere in France
in 1855, a lightning bolt descended upon
a flock of sheep, killing s~eventy-eight
of them, as we'll as two dogs, While an
aged woman, the shepherdess, was not
f even stunned
Another Instance.
I Another whimsical event was the de-
scent of an electrical bolt into the refec-
: tory of an abbey in Tours, wherein were
$50 monks enjoying their supper. Not
one was hurt and the only damage done
was the upsetting of $50 bottles of wine,
: one bottle to each monk. Whether 1t was
/ a sort of supernatural temperance lesson
or not goes unrecorded.
l An incident Is reported wherein q man
was sitting under a tree feeding a dog,
I with a suddenshock killed both the
e man and the dog. The mans hand was
t it, and the dog was sitting as he had been
with an extended air upon him.
Instances are noted where men have es-
G capped unframed when struck by light
t ming, while the hobnails in their boots
e were melted. Many times the impress
gions of leaves. whole trees and even
houses have been left upon persons,
whereas the persons themselves received
not the slightest harm.
In Brazil, a little more than a century
ago. the lightning struck thirty-seven
times within the city and killed nineteen
n persons.
V One of the most disastrous occurrences
ever caused by lightning Is mentioned by
e Mr.. Cooley, and this happened in August
e 1863. when the powder vault in the tower
n Of st. 'Nazaire at Brescia was. struck. Al
t that time, though lightning was the I'M
mediate cause, the explosion of powder
e as a secondary event killed 5000 people
: while $1,000, 900 worth Of property was DE,
S stroyed.
: There IS always one good effect from
lightning. 1t puriies the atmosphere.
s
. Trials of the Inventor.
{ New York Press: The other day 7O(
. Trunks arrived on an ocean steamer