The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1906-05-05
TELL OF LIGHTNING
MEN WHO KNOW REPORT QUEER
FRANKS OF ELECTRIC FLUID.
Will Get Its Man at Many Miles Dis
lance if Good Connection Is Made
1t Pays to Keep Away from Barbed
Wire Fence During Storm.

Freaks Of electricity were the sub
ject of the discourse last evening
among number of the members of
the BUNCH says the Anaconda
Standard. One OF the boys asserted
that he had worked in a placer mine
on Wisconsin creek, near Sheridan,
a few years ago. In company with
another man he was winding a rope
around rubber neck which made
connection between thes pipe and
the canvas hose which fed the by
draulic nozzle. All around him the
| sky was serene and the sun was shin
| ing. Suddenly he felt a shock which
| paralyzed both legs, which were
astride the big steel pipe, and it was
! fully an hour before he could restore
| the circulation and again be able to
move about. Investigation showed at
terward that there had been a thun-
derstorm further up the creek at the
head of the big ditch and big bolt
| of lightning had dropped into the res
ervoir. Seeking an outlet, the electric
fluid Travelled down the ditch until
it found good conductor in the steel
pipe, which it followed until the
miners legs made good connection.
Then it gave passing shock
''Speaking of electricity and it's
strange Freaks spoke up another
member of the bunch, reminds me of
a time when was working on ranch
which sported many piles of barbed
wire fencing. The boss and I went
out one day to fix a considerable
amount of fencing which had been
broken by a band of wild cattle The
day before. We had worked pretty
industrially for a few hours and the
repairs were nearly all finished, the
top wire alone remaining to be strung
to complete the job. In the mean
time storm came up a few miles
| away and the lightning was dropping
along the river bank. four miles away
by the way the crow flies, but three
times that distance by the way the
fence ran.
II suggested to the boss that it
would be a good idea for us to go into
the ranch and get bite to eat; that
it was dangerous to monkey with a
barbed wire fence when the lightning
king was out But he was obdurate
and laughed at all of my suggestions.
Finally he told me that if l was such
an old woman as to be scared of
little thunderstorm / could go home
and go to sleep in the hay-he would
finish the job alone. With that he
walked across to the last wire just
as terrific clap of thunder came.
The next thing I knew he was
wrapped in a sheet of blue fame and
, was thrown half a hundred feet into
ditch the other side of the fence,
, where he lay Unconscious. With the
greatest difficulty he was loaded into
a wagon and taken to the ranch,
where medical assistance was secured
After twenty-four hours he came to
t and wondered what it all meant. He
, said that he had heard fusillade
, which sounded like Chinese New
Year at close quarters and then his
soul went floating through the air
: with a vision of blue flames pursuing
it. Finally he came back to earth
: again, but from that day to this, it
he is working along a wire fence
when even the slightest cloud appears,
he will forsake everything else and
get as far as possible away from the
fence before the cloud has time to
!: do any damage. At the time he was
hurt lightning had struck the extreme
end of the fence fully ten miles away,
but the distance did not lessen the
effect of the shock in the least"