The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1906-07-31
LIGHTNING PLAYED.

And Thunder Pealed-Satur-
days Storm and Things it |
did-Greatest In Years.
The Willamette Valley had an
electrical storm last Saturday that
paralyzed the natives, and Benton
county came in for life sized sha e
of the proceedings. Lightning
blazed and frolicked through the
whiskers of the old inhAbtant in a
way that fairly took his breath. 1t
began before daylight in the morn
ing, perforue at intervals during
the day, and put up its more i'm
portant stunt late in the evening.
Itstruck trees right and left, shiver-
ed telephone poles and burned out
telephone coils and electric light
fuses. John Prices horse with
buggy attached was hitched to the
door yard fence in Kings Valley,
while Mr.. and Mrs. Price were in
side the near bv house, preparing
to journey to Corvallis. There
was a binding flash, a terrific
thunder peal, and when John went
to the door to see, his horse was
tearing down the lane. The front
end of the buggy was hopeless
wreck, every spoke having been
torn from a front wheel by the
lightning. The harness on the
horse was torn to pieces by the
electric fluid, but strange to say,
the horse was uninjured. The an
imal was quickly captured, but af-
ter the experience, the trip to town
was indefinitely postponed. The
case is one of the most startling
freaks of lightning that has ever
been recorded in Benton.
John and Charles Fisher were
hauling hay on the E. w. Fisher
farm two or three miles north o
town when the electric storm broke
over the vicinity. One was on the
wagon and the other pitching uE
from the shocks. There was {
binding flash and deafenins
thunder peal. The man on thu
wagon was badly stunned and th'
horses started to run away, bu
were captured and held by th'
brother on the ground. The, othe
quickly revived and operation
resumed. By and by they discov
cred 100 yards away, the spo
where the bolt of lightning ha'
struck. It had torn a great hole il
the earth two feet in depth and tw
feet in diameter.
A mile or two over the William
cite, bolt of lightning struck thre
telephone poles. They were on tn
Oakville line The cross arm O
one of them was cut off as perfect
as though it had been done by
man with a fne.toothed hand saw
The other two were splintered an
, shivered, a convincing picture {
F how mighty is the thunderbolt.
/ At about six o'clock in the ever
ing of this day of thunder an
+ lightning there was sudden Aas
, and heavy peal that followed
, as quickly as the lightning itse
, came. 1t startled everybody
Corvallis. It struck the Indepe1
dent telephone wire that spans th
Willamette river, ran along it an
disappeared finally in the depths {
the water. Guy Clark, superinter
dent of the electric light stood O
i. . the bank of the river not far away
! and saw the lightning strike an
run along the wire. The peal {
! thunder that followed it was
mighty one and ratified window
;; and shook buildings with muc
l violence.
A small boy stood on a fan1il
porch at the evening perfotmanc
of the electric elements. He wa
a ho7eful of eleven summers. H
| looked out on the black cloud:
7 and eyed the zig-zag flashes an
: sheet ligh nirg with much curio:
I ity aud heard the musketry {
heaven with osen mouthed wondel
Apparently bis mind was more c
less given up TO- reflection as th
battle of the elements went on. A
last he enquired: "Does thunde
: ever bust through and CON
down. Near Oregon City,
farmer who was afeld with his bine
er, was knocked from his machir
T. by the force of bolt of lightnin
which struck near him. The ele'
{ trio cars from Portland to Orego
{ City were put out of commissio
+ temporarily by the ravages of tt
y storm. At Newport, there was
a terrific storm during the afternoc
= with lightning playing everywhe
L 10 the CONSERVATION of those u,
accustomed to such performance
1t The Corvallis telephone lin