The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-09
LIGHTNING SMITES MANY
1T Looked LIKE 4 BATTLEFIELD
UNDER PROSPECT PARK TREES.

Mounted Cop Sees Elm Stricken by Flash
INK saber OF Storm and Gea Ambu-
Iancss and Reserves in Hurry-Two
Badly Hurt and Score Moro shocked.
When the thunder wagons began to roll
over Prospect Park, Brooklyn. yesterday
afternoon, and the sky darkened. the tennis
courts near the West Drive were gay with
players, and on tho lawns and In the shade
OF the old trees hundred or more Brook
lynites enjoying Saturday afternoon IN
the park were Watching tho players. With
the first growing Of the thunder and spat-
tering OF warm raindrops there was shrek
ing and scurrying. Girls in white duck
and young men in hannels grabbed Jackets.
balls and coats and rushed for the trees
that border the courts and shade them
pleasantly. Some OF the finest old trees
| in Prospect Park, big elms and oaks, grow
there.
BY the time the rain began to pour there
was hardly tree that didn't shelter a group
Of merry folk, who took the storm as fine
Joke. Under gnarly old elm that lowered
eighty feet or more and was three feet IN
diameter at the base, the family OF Augustus
Lede Of 27e Nineteenth street were sheltered.
There was Leide his wife Ross. and their
two children, Richard and John. The
physical director OF the Central Branch OF
the Y. NJ. C. A. in Ninth street, John Wilkin-
son, was with the Leides. a dozen moro
also Gro wded under the tree.
Near the elm was big oak that sheltered
a score. Mrs Margaret Haithwaite OF 342
Ninth avenue had rushed for the oak with
her four sons and daughters. The other
trees sheltered perhaps 200 who had been
playing tennis or sitting on the lawns with
their children. There were plenty OF
babies In the crowd and they didn't like the
rain and the heavy air a bit. From the
GASES under the trees the stormbound folks
poked fun at each other about their drenched
clothes and laughed at the idea that there
was any danger from lightning.
They had the grounds pretty much to
themselves. The mounted McAdoos OF
the Park had ridden to shelter except
Donahue, who sat his horse in the down.
pour, watching the damp people under the
trees. Donahue knew from experience
that big trees are not the best place for
folks in q thunder storm, and he told the
tennis PLAYERS 30 when they ran for it,
but they laughed and said they guessed 1t
would be all over in minute or two.
Right on top Of tn, binding fash came
terrific thunder a concussi on that deafened
and stunned everybody in that part OF the
park. Over at the old Litchtield mansion
which serves now as the Park Departments
offices and az a police station, the clerks and
cops were Jared by it, Glass shivered
and tnkled from Windows. / he sergean
didn't wait for news. He knew there were
plenty Of eople in the park who had
soampered to the trees and he was dead
sure that something had been hit. He
hustled the reserves into their rain coats
and sent them out on the run. They met
Mounted Policeman Donahue driving his
horse through the rain at q gallop toward
the station.
There's hell to pay, sure enough, said
Donahue. THE ground under them trees
looks like battlefield. It's 10 to there
ar. some dead and the Lord knows how
many hurt"
Donahue slid of his horse and rang up
three hospitals, Seney. the kills county
and the Brooklyn
The air was pungent with ozone, keen,
sharp smell like burning metal Women,
men nd children who had survived the con-
cussion were running heter-skelter, too
excited to know what they were doing or
where they were going. They were bare
headed coatless and hat!ess, and their
clothes were sopping. The policemen
gathered them in, assured them the danger
was all over and then gave their attention
to the PROSTATE ones under the trees.
Every one OF tho Leide family, Wilkinson
and John Lewis Of 3sl Pacific street, under
the tree that had been hit by the lightning.
we're lying on the water soaked grass,
unconscious Wilkinson's shirt had been
torn half off his body. and IN his face and
breast we're red burns. Es In bad
way and looked like a dead man. Mr.. and
Mrs. Leide were burned badly. too. Their
faces showed marks OF the lightning. The
children were stunned and slightly burned
There we're others unconscious under the
elm. felled by the conclusion and slightly
burned by the flash.
Under the oak were the Haithwaites.
the mother and the four children. None
of these was seriously burned. but all we re
in serious condition from shock and fright
Mrs. Haithwaite lay whore she had fallen,
face downward, and two Of her children
lay across her body. Margery Spear OF
1928 Carroll street was insensible. and fully
shocked out of their senses.
Three ambulnnces galloped up and six
doctors found plenty to do The injured
were treated where they lay in the driving
rain. 1t was found that John Wilkinson
was the worst injured.
The elm wasn't much damaged by the
bolt. The trunk was split at the junction
Of three great branches, about fifteen feet
from the ground, and it was gashed crooked
" from the crotch down. The lightning
acted peculiarly, 1t Scared the tree a
little-one place, then skipped a few feet
ripped IL again, took another lump, this
time half way around to the other side
and made black streak to the grass Sever
al branches had been cut off and thrown
to the ground None Of the other trees
was struck Several persons who were
not hurt described the thunderbot as "a
white streak that zigzagged down from
the cloud 40 binding that nobody could
see for few seconds.