Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1894 — FULL OF ELECTRICITY. [ARTICLE]

FULL OF ELECTRICITY.

A Connecticut Xu Who is m Human Barometer. For thirty five years Os we 11 Powell has lived the life of a hermit in the woods six miles north of Hadlyme, Conn., in a locality known as Partridge Run. The man’s seclusion, says the New York Press, was forced upon him by a circumstance that happened when he was about 28 years old. At that time Powell was a prosperous and happy young fanner. He had been two years married, and his domestic relatfbns were extremely pleasant. While attending the county fair one day he came across a friend who was anxious to test his ability to hold electricity, and the two sought a battery that was doing a heavy business in the fakirs’ corner of the fair grounds. The men tried the machine, and a goodnatured dispute as to who was the best man arose between them. Powell’s friend claimed that he could hold the most electricity, and he started in to prove it. He sent the needle aroand the dial to the 320 mark. Powell pulled off his coat and clutched the handles. The operator sent a stream of electricity into him that took the crook out of his elbows and caused him to stand on tiptoe. Still Powell called for more and got it. The needle swung around eighty points, and yet Powell howled for more. The charge was sent into him, and, leaping into the air, he came down flat on his back. He had put the needle up to the 410 mark, but nearly killed himself in doing it. He was dazed for several hours, but finally came out of it apparently ail right. In less than six months after this experience there ifas trouble in the Powell house. Mrs. Fowell left her husband and refused to live with him any longer. She said that he was kind to her, but there was something about the man that repelled her, and the strange power, whatever it was, seemed to be growing on him. Powell told his fatb«r-in-law that he hadn’t felt like himself since tho day that he tried his hand at the eleotric machine. He said that he couldn’t blame his wife, and be made no effort to reclaim her. It was evident that Powell’s nerves had somehow been seriously affected. Expert medical advice was taken, and a good deal of money was spent by Powell in searching for a cure, but to no purpose. The strange power grew upon him, and finally became so strong that the cattle shrank from his touch. Finally Mrs. Powell was induced to return to her husband’s house but the two occupied separate apartments. They lived in this way three years, thep Powell left and took up his residence in his house that hn built in Partridge Run.

The man suffers a good deal «f pain just before a thunder storm. He is a sort of human barometer, and during the haying season the farmers consult the man regarding .the weather probabilities. His prognostications are seldom incorrect, and the visits of his neighbors in the summer season became so annoying to him that he adopted the plan of pasting weather bulletins on a tree near the road so that the farmers could get an idea of what the weather was going to be without disturbing him. Daring the times that Powell suffers pain, medicine has no effect on him. The most powerful sedative administered to him is as so much water. The only relief that he gets is by laying his hands on oats, and he has surrounded himself with these animals that appear to be warmly attached to him. When he feels a spell of suffering coming on he takes to stroking the cats, and by this-meaus his suffering is greatly lessened.