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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (July 22, 1906)
PORTLAND, 'OREGOK , SUNDAY MORNING JULY - 2 t906 - i - , --' 1 i ... f. '..- V 0 FEARFUL wastheRontan-Smperor : Caligula.-of having hu 'du graceful career cut ahort by lightning that ha 7 1 Ai constructed; an underground re -treat for use during thunderstorms fr " - p"Z Had the cowardly despot' read a "book, , "Thunder and Lightning,": just' written -by r Camllle Flammarion, the noted French sciem w, A would Aazrc concluded, doubtless, that '" even a cave was not safe from the intrusion of. - eccentric electrical bqUs.:,z-Y& :': .1' ; '''Wl-V.- 'i For nwijf jri Mr. Flammarion hat kec collecting instances of the freaks of lighte ning, and a Targe number of the most strik ; ";; mtj of these are presented vt the volume? Some very remarkable doings of fireballs are related; cases or itrntmng bolts dropping v; twVA . results from cloudless skies, or pop ping unexpectedly out of . the ground attracted by electricity in the air. are mentioned. Pic tures' have been painted upon human flesh by the mysterious fluid.' ' :'..-:,-. , jJess is known of lightning and thunder, agencies and effw-ta-rwnMkable ctrnM haps,-thanyr nun. u6 7Kw vr iitj u, nu uuuif, ine jgjj, after a stroke pi lightning. . dangerous - nature : of 1 the studl. rl Beniamin "A paralytic had been talon the curative wa Franklin was exceedingly fortunate that, he Vf f Tunbridge Walls, for twenty year, when more serious :than tingling fingers TAf'-M;-; "Lightning has onetimes worked marvels on . ancients naa wnpiesome respect for "j overs--the blind, deaf and dumb, to whom it-restores thunderbolts," and Flammarion' s book shows vght. hearing and speech A-inantwho had ihs -;.;.v.'- j -- " whole of his left side paralyzed from infancy was w,c Wm,.,i. uuj. ;:::ttrnpc & Utr ,oonu- After some days he gradually ; and permanently recovered 'the . use of, his limbs. ered he found that his boots and cap -had disap-' peared, M ; .V . '; , f , - - -Lig-htjiing sometimes -undertakes -theraponne- woman,: years, sua- Tise-ox-her TTPnsrn -naa i.J ttua b. " w'"iv'1'"'"' A weakness of' the right eye also disappeared, and JSS-SSTa1 KcouH ite without spectacles. On the other r vww w "VOU A Will A UX SUl L J 1 1 ' J f nann na nnpnma naar aamage oy; lightning la this "indeed.- if we are- to belie W.atories Which ports of country. iv . j j U1 wjnumoer m wawm matismhave been cured-by-lighthingJ' .that caused damage wasK27r the iramber of build-TT " Rfa Jh.ori.lZ : we . appear to be authentic, a cold,' a tumor, Some of the curious pranks played by ' lightning are related in the opening chapter of the book: - A young" woman was in the field during a storm, when suddenly there appeared at her feet a globe of fire about the size of a billiard balk "Slipping along the ground, this 'little fireball j i t i : . j keen -MDorted. this vear. At nifi tt n-; r' r rt"r " . . . '.''.r'its way under ncr cioines, issuea agaia irom xne A.-xage, ranoaman, was Siruc wnile UV his : -.51- nf tAi, , .till tnino- it. -lKnl i ings damaged was 6256, the value of. property de stroyed $3,016,620. Deaths to the number, of 663 were -reported, and 820 other persons were in jured; the number of lire stock killed amounted to 423 having a value of $129,965. . 1 - r . Some freakish performances of lightning have field. ' Starting at his head, the electrical bolt singed ; the hair from the right side, took off part of .his, moustache, melted the stem of his watch and toro his shoes to pieces. He- was unconscious about fifteen minutes, but .revived. - v " ; "Of all the f antastio actions "of lightning," states Flammarionts book, "the most extraordinary nd incomprehensible is the mania it has for un dressing its victims, and leaving them dead or form, darted off. into the air and exploded noisily 1 he woman was "unharmed. , . . . : ,v ;.. v ..' ; 1 - "In 1897, at Linguy, a man and his wife, were ' sleeping quietly,'-when, suddenly, a terrible crash - made them jump out of bed.-. They thought their, last hour had come. The chimney, broken to Eicces, had fallen, and its wreckage filled the room ; ' ricks f rom onofwall had been dashed horizontally: against the wall opposite with such force that they were imDedded in it: a 'looking-giaBs; dotacnea famung in the primitive costunjof ourfirst psr- from the wall, stood on end whole and delicately . . '. mAiym w vv buvwvu ,uj vur t balanced. "On June 29, 1869, 'at Pradcttes, the Mayor ' . ThlnS Spirited Away r was unfortunate enough to takeshelter under a ' "A chair near the bed, upon which clothing 7-.hiS poplar-tree. Soon afterward a burst ,r had teen nlaced. had been snirited awav ta a mot w. u.u.u.ud .j .c n uu iiiuuk win uena. - in jma.r th door. :A im.U-Umi-aHia-Bf -mtti-hi one of its. diabolical freak." It ' entirely undressed him, throwing 'his .various garments about him, reduced to rags with the exception of one shoe. "In 1894, the keeper of the Commune of Saint-Oyr-en-Val, near Orleans, was struck while on his ; rounds; the fluid deprived -him of all his clothes nd removed all the nails from one of his shoes.". were undamaged upon- the floor. , An old gun, sus pended from a beam, was violently ahaken and 'lost its ramrod. 't'- , . : :"! m..;. : -f. MTKe bolt passed Into an .-adjoining 'dairy, where it carried a whole row of milk, cans, full of '. . milk, .from one side of the room to another, break- , . ini. tlA lirla kilt .tit. lirOAttiniv a .iinffl, ai ' ft - Another instance is related of t woman, near mUA TAm ... mn ...t Nice, who hsd. started to the fields, when a bolt which emptied itself in consequence. : descended.;. It removed every particle of her cloth- ."There is no telling whst lightning .will do. ing, but did not kill her.Her body was uninjured. Sometimes it wiU snatch things out of your hand ' kut she becm dumb from the'hock.'.: v - . -elitry Aem wtlS. -,t : . -y Near. Ajaccio, Corsica, J.- B. Pantalohi, ' , -For example, there is the case of a mug be-U. j-Baaw.waa seaieu-in. iwai wu wo isona -iif ipinted away, from a Wan, who had just been and a daughter, when lightning entered and killed drinking out of it, and deposited undamaged in a . him. The others were unharmed, but were com- eourtvard near the man himself sufferimr no in- ' pletely undressed and their garments disappeared. vjury . ,...,;,.,',. "Lightning," says Flammarion, "seems to , A youth of 18, holding up a missal from ' ; have a special predilection for shoes; it. seldom respects them, even when it spares other garments. Shoes and- hoots are removed, unsown, unnailed, cut to pieces and thrown far1 away with extraor dinary violence.. Very of ten. the discharge pene trates the human .body through the head and leaves it by the feet -""During vioIei.S sTorra, June8Ti 868, a work man, near, the Jsrdin.des Plantes was. knocked down by sn irresistible forcev and deprived, of his senses. .He was picked. up and carried home; on being examined his body bore no trace of a wound. .When he recovered-he- remembered- that he had won! boots at the time of the accident' These were " men took- refuge i under trees during and destroyed. ,A whip is whisked out of a rider's A -hand; two ladies, quietly knitting,-have their knit- " ting needles stolen.- A girl is sitting it her sew ing machine, a pair of scissors in her hand; a . flash of lightning, and her scissors, are goneand -she is-sitting-Ott the sewing machine.A farmer's"-" r laborer Is fcarryina? pitchfork on "his shoulder: lightning seizes it, carries it off fifty yards or so, r and twists its two prongs into corkscrews. - n "ao sudden, snd so petrifying is lightnings ef fect that victims are frequently left in the attitude they last had in life.; In July, 1844, four, French- A J a siorm. lound in the street: the soles had the nails com- thn. n tham.nnrfov nnh1.- .n1 n-tt, . pletelv removed,, although , they - were screwed, in der willow, against which doubtless he leaned. In '", and the boots were nearlynew.. , , - , , a fcw minutes .this one was struck by lightning. . KJ.J: "A workman was killed May 81, 1904, at Ville- .bright flame waa issuing from his clothes, but ho ' montoire. 'and his shoes' wera nerer' found. A ' Mma!n) tAIt.' n.nn.Af.. young shepherd, watching his flock in the fields,' had happened. .When his companions went to Lin. " I was knocked, down by ay holt When he recov they found he was a corps. 4 ' ' , S I -t "?. I fir i r v . . i - ji t . ... 1 i I ti-l JL... ATtW 'j I. . V Tn harvest men took. reftigevundwB.lbvJrsy ' and four were killed by lightning. One oxhal was found still holding a pinch of snuff he JhsAl been in the act of taking.; A second .had on omd, , on the. head of a small dog, also dead, and still sut-4 , ting upon his knees, and in the .other hand uieo of bread; a third was, sitting,. bis eyes opsni, iaMri ing in the direction from whictt tho awrm oaswi "Seoently a young man at FTanxault waaklll ed by lightning. All the nails were found to hva been torn out of his shoes and the links or hii sil ver watch chain were all moulded together.- OCts fust silver in this way beat of 951 degress nesaeq. His Beard Taken Off : "BeaDy, it is extraordinary what lightning will do.- ir. Oauiner de 4 crueesrtlia aubxy ' struck, with the result that his beard waa taken 7" off. roots and all: so that it never grew again. :A Fresneaux, lllle. Laure Leloup had her head ahdmj by lightning as though by razor. . v. - "Here is sn occurrence reported from insy: United States: An immense barn had been bdilt" ': by a man named Abner Millikan, who adorned tb ' front walls with portraits of McKinley and Ho K.rt. . Thirinff a violent storm the building wasi itnwkrhy-lightnlngrefstrimies, and looked '.a thongh'itvwere enveloped in great sheets of flro, JiUUkan rusnea, to . it, ana xouna. w mi reuex. thatnodamagJiadibeen:donell portraat " a - m i a 3 V f .1 a. ' mn naa been aestrovea. anoww ir twimv r . . . . . t 1 . 1 .V . M , , detail tne ugntning naa uicw wiwnBBa -' features upon the walL". ' :. . Rimwt nun : lu-htmnr snruura unwara xrom wis ' grounarui ums cm u v ii ' ity ia seeking that , in the air . or clouds. In July, t . ' 18 u, during a violent siorm at rong-aiei jjlmw- ' 4... a llffkfmi'ni. TlnTTl'n.tAtfl it.' ,1X9 ieil a great iiuguug u .iiii iw'i uicu jjm. . bis legs, then all over his body, and finally in bis head; his hair stood on end to such an extent that, he was obliged to. hold his hat to keep it from falling off. ; At the same time a white flame burst from the ground about, two yards in front of Lian, accompanied by a shower of sparks. ' ' --"Near the village-oi-Rnmignyr.lncsjdy. 'August 20, 1769, there wss a sudden eruption of fulminating matter from the earth in such quarcU- : ties as to produce the most .violent results. 'A young farmer and his wife were following, A some distance, vehicle drawn by four horses., "Suddenly the driver of the team waa thrown' to the ground. His four - horses - were r stretched - dend.-There waa a Smoking hole in Jthe ground. from which the effluvium came forth and killed the; young farmer and his wife. :-" ' - "Two men, surprised by storm, . lay dowmoar the ground. . Some moments later, one of them got' up, feeling very tired, but the other was dead. Hist bones were so soft that it was easy to bend them; his tongue had been torn out by the roots,, and jxo one knewwhat had become of it "Among all the electrical "phenomena to- be -,.,. .. observed in the' atmosphere, there r is nothing - stranger .than fireballs. . In shape they are not al- , ' ways quite spherical, although that is their normal ' ' appearance, and they are sometimes encircled by at V-kmd of luminous yspor,' such' as we often see. en- circling the moon. Sometimes they are furnished? '" with a red flame like a fuse that has been lit There' Stone. -. v : -I -.' r j i . t 1VeW ft 'Vim flnl1 f ..-if f , . 1 v , v - f v , , f f , ' '.""One reminrkable thing about thom 'is the dw . ness with which they move and .which! sometimes enfthlna thntr eonras ' to be ' watched i for ' aevetal ' minutes. v Balti. a marine painter 'of .Milan. :in . ' 1841 saw one drifting slpwly down the .street on, -'.level with the windows, with several excited per '-I-sons' following it.' After a time it ' arose,' hit the ' . cross on a church tower, snd exploded, . . ' ; ; . .: jLruring a siom av vuroisn, in Juay, , ivvi some young men snd girls took refuge in the ves tibule of houses- One-Mile.-K-sat-down on the. 4t.A.k1.t k.,,L a lw atM. K..r1.l,...1 4ftn ''w was a violent clap of thunder, and in front of the 1 '. " door-appeared a daxrhngly brilliant ball of 'fire. , ' gradually ' descending to where . they were ali . . grouped. . , . -.- :- i ' "After touching .Mile, i K.'a head, the fireball , .w. ejj m tjje grottn jn the' middle of the party, mada ' ; . circtiit of it then, forcingt its way into the own- . , er's room., it wreaked "Thavoo with the apartment, broke through the wall into stove in the adjoin-TI,lJUCIxooin,:emahcdJAe2tOYepipe:and-carried74 i - off with such violence that' it was dsshed sgsinst ! i the opposite wall, and. went out through broken window. After it was all over, MUeK. was found ., ;,:.:dead. -''- r , "..w. ." T; .... ,', "In. her i kitchen 'a, German i peasant womat . . . " ' : . i . . . . - ti i . waa -preparing- a -meat, wnen,-aiiT i-wmim cm .7 .";of thundei1, she saw a fireball the size of a f-f ''':)(' come down the .chimney, pass between her f.l , without hurting, her, and continue on its cot:. ' Much frightened, the woman ran to the doot -V k opened it, when the fireball at on follows 1 . n, tplayed about her feet, went into the nrrt-i , which opened- outdoors,' crossed It, : and ; ' through the door into the yard. - " ' . ZSCi (CmTlXVtD ON ' XJfWPS J
