Evening star., 1936-07-30
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES Z. TRACEWELL.

such a tree, is to say that it will be
dead inside of two years. But will 1t?
Nature has not made these great oaks
among her mightiest children for moth
ing. Many such specimens, although
badly hurt by lightning, come back
within the year, and use what bark and
underlying cambium remains for the
purposes of nutrition for the entire tree.
Just what margin Of safety Is left in
such giant remains to be seen, but the
tree lover, viewing it, is inclined to feel
that in the end it will make the best
of its bad fortune, and in Spring send
forth its leaves again as If nothing had
happened.
The home gardener has a curious mix
ture Of feelings, as many days of
drought are succeeded by continuing
afternoon thunderstorms, varied by be-
fore-breakfast storms. The latter are
rare. An old saying, Rain before 7,
clearing by H." often goes by the board
with electrical demonstrations which be-
gin at am, let us say.
Usually these are worked up in the
grand manner. A sprinkle begins, and
does not stop. At first there are only
rumbles of thunder in the distance. The
light rain continues, the thunder comes
at long intervals. AS daylight arrives
the sky Is seen to be very overcast. The
rain increases, the whole sky seems to
be coming closer and closer.
Then the real storm breaks. The
lightning is close at hand, not far away.
The roll of thunder makes one think of
Rip Van Wrinkle and his famous elves
at bowls
Suddenly, out OF this Sodden sky, comes
that one terrific bolt.
1T must have struck somewhere close"
everybody says, pretending not to be
afraid. Some persons, of course, really
have no fear of lightning, but probably
7 out Of 10 do fear it, and properly.
The scientific world of today has a
great deal more to fear than the old
world of long ago, when bolts were re-
garded as instruments of divine judg-
ment. Today it is realized that such
flashes represent tremendous charges of
electricity, all-powerful beyond the belief
Of those who regarded them as strange
instruments of the capricious will of
queer being getting even" with some
human for miscalculation.
Summer thunderstorms, following
heated spells, make it imperative that
all windows and doors to dwellings be
closed, even though the preceding heat
makes this difficult. The path of drafts
is clearly the path of electrical currents,
and the danger of sitting at an open
window or standing at an open door
during thunderstorm has been proved
many times.
Another point to be remembered by
the city dweller, especially the sub
urban dweller, is that it is better to be
late to work than to run the risk Of
being beneath one of the great trees if
lightning strikes it. This applies, of
course, to the early morning thunder
storm, which is rare. The faithful worker
has a habit of plunging out into the
storm, in keeping with his normal sched-
ule, when a wait of IS to 80 minutes
would see the storm ended.
Look at that gigantic, splintered oak.
How would you have liked to have been
walking along beneath it when that bolt
hit it, splintering off all that bark,
knocking down those big limbs?
Surely the person who had been be-
meath it would have been knocked un-
conscious. at the least. or scared out of
his skin, which would be almost as bad.
The huge power of lightning is something
to respect 1t may be old-fashioned to
be afraid of lightning. but, like so many
old-fashioned things, it is common
sense