Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-05-27
LAST NIGHTS STORM.
Lively While it Lasted Lightning
 Struck i'm Several Places.


 The storm of last night did not last long, but 1t made things hum while it remained, and if 1t had tarried and kept up the racket until morning half the people in town would have gone out of their wits. The thunder was terrific and the bolts of lightning that darted through space made up the most magnificent electrical exhibition ever seen in Waterbury. 1t was too pad that 1t was not ueferred until July so that patriotic citizens might en- Joy red fire to their hearts content without going to the expense of pur- chasing powder. The big crash came about Il o'clock and In addition to causing women folks to scream and stout men to turn pale, 1t tickled the disabilities of house furniture and delf so that all joined in a grand tollifica- ton party and some things got so ex- hlerated they fell to the floor and were knocked into smithereens. Rain fell in torrents and between the down. pour Of water, pealing of thunder and glare of the lightning, people who were out had lively time getting around, and those on the inside didn't know whether to keep their seats or make wild dash for liberty What's that!" exclaimed a resident of lower Baldwin street, gasping for breath, and then answering his own query by as- surlng the rest of the family that the Mulcahy school had been struck and leveued to the ground. Investigation showed that the situation was not quite as bad as that, though the man mad some ground for his rash conclu- sion. A bolt of lightning had collided W1th huge tree on the Tracy Bros property in the Bernier barnyard and split It in two. The timber creaked and groaned like ship at sea In a neavy storm and nearby residents mis- took the strange noise for the pitiful cries of human beings in distress and ventured out amid the dangers that oeset them bound to render assistance regardless of consequences. One of the ne1ghbors laughed at the affair thls morning and said his wife possessed h-ore courage than he. She refused to remain in the house until she satisfied herself that there was nothing for ner to do on the outside.
 At the corner of Grove street and brst avenue box on top of one of the poles got whack that knocked it askew and set the neighbors scurrying about like crowd of school children at recess. The home of P. T. Hayes was filled with the aroma of sulphuric gas and the occupants never before sneezed so ,slly without the aid of snuff. Nobody was injured, but every body was scared. People in different parts of the town had similar expert ences, everybody thinking his own case the worst of all. When one stops to think of the storm and learns that no damage to speak of occurred he reels that the public has great reason 10 be thankful for coming out of such confusion without scratch. Think of It. There was enough destructive force at large to knock every building in town off its underpinning, electrocute every soul in the community. bury them beneath the furrowed trenches in the ground, not leaving even one soli- tary person to tell the tale. and yet ev- erybody was spared, The baby that didn't know what 1t was that startled It's mother and the sound sleeper never heard thing about it until he sat down to the breakfast table this morn ing, all were safeguarded and survived to relate what they had heard and Seeen.
 The telephone service was temporari- ly paralyzed, but Manager Sperry said that things would be righted on all the inside lines by noon. Things were up Set by the storm, but MT Spery didn't consider the trouble of a serious char acter.
 The shower helped everything and hurt nobody. The lawns and shrub bery show what q good effect it had upon them, and the crops were sharers in the benefits, too. The air Is invigor- ating and many who scarcely could move yesterday are as nimble as ballet dancers to-day. The lightning did world of good, too-7people pay large sums for charge of electricity-and the thunder got folks worked up so that they forgot all about their woes, and probably they may never again relax into the state of mind that made them miserable before the storm. The thing was a God-send.