Vashon Island news-record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1919-1954, 1923-09-07
TRY CELLAR IN
THUNDER STORM
innumerabIe Superstitions Exist
as to What to Do in an
Electrical Storm.

uluB Is III ANl VI AbNANSlNNt anu iht
ways of Providence are mysterious and
past finding out. Hence the innumer-
able superstitions as to what TO do or
what not to do in an electrical storm,
to guard ones self against the flaming
flashes that carry death and destruc.
tion.
Grandmother used to plump herself
into the middle of a huge featherbed
and cover up her head when the form
god ruled the heavens and threatened
the earth, and she deluded herself with
the belief that that was the very safest
place in the world for her. Perhaps it
Is true that no one was ever killed by
lightning who had taken refuge in
featherbed, but scientists agree that
the feathers have nothing to do with
the immunity enjoyed by those who re-
pose thereon. SO don't feel helpless
and hopeless If you are afraid of
lightning and haven't featherbed in
the house. No one has in these days of
modern mattresses, and the statistics
as to deaths by lightning are just about
what they used to be.
Lightning Follows Humidity.
Then there's that other idea about
putting your hands on a window pane
on the theory that glass is noncon-
ductor.
People who would not stand at an
open window, or at an open door, on
the theory that draft is a conductor,
will close the window and drape them.
selves against the glass as the best pre-
caution they can possibly take.
AS a matter of fact, the window,
open or closed, is decidedly bad place
to be in an electrical storm. The light
ming will not follow a draft. 1t fol-
lows the stratum of air having the
greatest relative humidity, and there Is
no evidence that air currents have any
thing to do with humidity.
But If lightning chances to strike the
side of house or other building, the
chances are it will enter the window as
the point of least resistance, and the
thin sheet of glass will count for moth
ing in the path of the tremendous
force Of thunderbolt. Open door
ways, or closed doors, unless they are
of steel or extremely thick, are also
to be avoided, according to the ex-
perts.
Not Likely to Be Hit.
Perhaps the best advice that may be
offered those who live in constant fear
of lightning is-forget it. If Joye aims
a thunderbolt at you, the chances are
that he will get you, no matter where
you are or what you may be doing to
safeguard yourself, but you may find
a deal of comfort in the mortality rec
ords which show that the odds are
about 2500O0 to 1 that you will escape
the fate you dread. Moreover, 1t Is
we'll to bear in mind that If you are
killed by lightning you viii never know
anything about 1t, unless you wake up
In the hereafter with a good memory
for events in the world you have just
quilted. You will never see the flash
that gets you, nor hear the crash that
accompanies 1t.
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