Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-08-25
SOME QUEER STUNTS
OF LIGHTNING BOLTS

OF LIGHTNING BOLTS
This Summer Remarkable for the
Number of Its Freak Per-
formances
The frequency and intensity OF elec-
trical storms this summer, sffecting
not only this vicinity but the cOun-
try at large, have been the source
of comment by more than one city
newspaper. Strange and freakish
pranks are recorded daily in some
sections of the country, the whole
summing up as varied a list of per-
formances as was ever ascribed to
one particular agency.
The lamentable death of Tristan
Burgess Johnson, the former New
York Alderman, occurring on the
Chevy Chase links, near Washington,
furnishes an instance of lightning
coming practically fro ma clear sky.
AS is well known, these are the links
that the President uses, and it's was
rather matter of luck than other
wise that Mr.. Taft did not play that
day. An extraordinary feature of
the Johnson killing was that the bolt
came without warning. The heav-
ems were clouded, but there was no
storm.
At Columbus, Ind, occurred the
remarkable case of a woman who
had lost the power of speech having
her voice restored. Likewise, Mrs.
Jane Decker, deaf woman IS years
old, living in Canaan, Conn was mira
culously recovered her lost hearing.
In Sessex county, New Jersey, one
man lost his entire herd of 22 kline
and a neighbor his horses.
There are many cases of lightning
stripping persons of their clothes, |
sometimes without otherwise injur- |
ng them. A man near Vallerois. |
france, was struck and stripped near
y naked. All that could be found
If his clothes were a shirt sleeve,
ew other shreds and some pieces
If his hobnailed boots. Ten minutes
lfter the stroke he regained con-
opened his eyes, and COM
'lained of the cold.
Even miners underground are not
casualties being not un-
ommon. In the Hudson aqueduct
unnel, David Emery and Thomas
Brown survived a premature explos-
on of dynamite set off by a bolt of
lghtning which entered through a
haft and followed the car tracks
o where the men were working.
lightning may be as playful as
.itten or as brusque and vicious
an old tomcat. 1t is as unreliable
S ever was any member of the
cline tribe. Its vagaries are so
umerous one may use it as an il
1stration of extreme freaishness.
his capriciousness has kept the
cientists as much in the dark re-
arding what it would do next as
yer did a coquettish maid an an
lous lover. Its flash, like the CLEAN
'om the aforesaid lady's eye, may
e killing or deliciously refreshing
nd stimulating to the blood.
Lightning's playful and tragic
'lcks this summer furnish Gas has
cen said) an extraordinary record.
he South and East generally have
itnessed such dreadful storms this
INNER that self-congratulation on
eing distant from the Kansas cy-
one belt is at least premature. It
rs been hot enough to sizzle one
Id cold enough to remind the New
orker of chilly Octobers. Long
ought, much rain and, sandwiched y
stween, these storms have helped
make the weather god unpopular.
ut in the Ohio Valley it has ac-
ally showed! Hereabouts we have u
I'd hail. p
Camille Flammarion, the French
tronomer, gives illustrations of
hat he terms ascending lightning,
at is bolt rising from the earth. I
stroke of lightning struck thatch- fl
houes at Glen-sur-Cure and set it "
fire. At the same time a woman j
40 was in a house 10 yands away G
1t shock and saw the tiled floor
'e beneath her. Her sabots were p;
oxen on her feet, and a bottle of K
ly water, with which she was bless to
the house, was broken in her Ell
nd, only the neck remaining in D
r fingers. She did not suffer from M
shock, althoug 10 tiles were c.
rown in all directions. ID
About all that the scientists have CT
lrned regarding lightning is that &c
is electricity, obeying the laws of
It element, and that there are three
Ids, ball zigzag and sheet. The
1t of these is especially mystifying ci
its actions. A small globe of bril- pi
Mt light, it moves slowly through ch
air a short distance above the LII
'und, or even rolls along the 81
'und itself, disappearing with an I'll
)losion. Many instances of the Ve
narkable freakishness of bail LII
htning have been reported.
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