The Libby herald., 1911-12-07
OHE summer of 1911 will 20 down
in history as one of the most
remarkable in respect to freak
ISL electrical displays and the
lIrl 1,

remarkable in respect to freak.
ISL electrical displays and the
havoc wrought by them.
Winged death out of the angry skies
Is more terrible now than 1t was to
the primeval cave dweller. He -four
ished centuries before the metal age
cons before the time of harnessed
electricity. Neither his clothing nor
his utensils offered an attractive mark.
But severe electrical storm in this
age OF universal conduction spells un-
limited possibility of horrors. The
lightning bolt Is Identical with the
force that drives the street cars, that
transmits telegraph messages, that
works the telephone, that supplies
light and power.
The lawless flash has an avenue
over every open wire. 1t can deal
death by applying the spark to manu-
factured explosives. It cavorts and
prances with fiendish delight over and
through the myriad shapes OF metal
within it's 1eld-metal of universal
necessity in our dress, our house con-
struct1on. our sports. our amusements
and our business. Moreover, 1t travels
for greater distance to slay. Fifteen
miles from the center of a storm the
bolt has stricken a lineman mending
a wire; It seeks the bowels of the
earth, and, as in a recent wonderful
disaster, not even the miners burrov-
ing far below the ground are safe.
The type of lightning fash shown
above is one which extends hori-
zontal1y for a considerable distance.
A correspondent writing to Nature
concerning a curious multiple-fash
photograph which he had obtained
mentioned that he did not leave the
camera shutter open as is usually the
case, but snapped 1t when he observed
slight movement of the storm clouds
from which the flashes were proceed
Ing. The impression his letter con-
veys Is Of slight twittering move
ment In the cloud.
ScaIping a Houseful Of People.
In Monticello, N. Y, Charles Garet-
sky runs a summer boarding house,
crowded during the hot spell. He
had sixty guests the morning Of July
rs, when the electrical visitor came
down through the roof and, neglecting
to register, entered without ceremony
every room OF the house. Singeing
tho hair costs Is to 25 cents in the
average barber shop. Without money
charge, but with very decided elec-
~ hN1 Gil hot
and scorched the scalps of twenty
two men and women guests. 1t did
them no other damage. Coquettishly,
1t woke a young woman out Of her
sleep by tearing hole in the wall
beside her pillow. 1t didn't touch the
beds, which were possibly Of the feath-
er sort dear to our grandmothers, and
the late sleepers, as distinguished from
the early birds who had already got
up and were moving around, escaped
bodily injury.
Lightning altered still more remark
ably the domestic arrangements of a
family In Columbus, Ind, when it gave
back to Mrs, Jonathan Drake her
voice. Two years before she had lost
her speech as the result of paralysis
of the vocal cords. But when, on
July 20, the lightning flashed and the
heavens roared, Mrs. Drake simply
just had to scream. 1t was a good,
healthy scream, too, and the manner
Of 1t surprised the good lady even
more than 1t did her gaping mouthed
friends and neighbors. Having re-
learned vocal utterance, Mrs. Drake
has kept right on talking Sign Ian
guage has been forgotten, chalk and
blackboard have been sent to the at
tic, and given her choice of two sig
nal depriyations, Mrs. Drake probably
shares the opinion of universal woman
kind that they would rather talk than
eat.
Golfers as Target.
The golfer out on the links with
his midiron, putter and brassie offers |
a true mark for the wandering bolt |
The lamentable death of Tristan |
Burgess Johnson, the former New York
occurred on the Chevy |
Chase links, near Washington, In this
wise: AS Is we'll known, these are
the links that the president uses, and
1t was rather a matter of luck than
Otherwise that My. Taft did rot play