Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1894 — Startling Visitor. [ARTICLE]

Startling Visitor.

A case of balflightning has been observed in the Oderberg postoffice, Prussia. During a violent thunderstorm a telegraph post about 1,600 yards from the office was struck by lightning, and at this moment three clerks round a table in the office saw. a few inches above the table, a ball of tire as large as a man’s fist, of blinding brilliance, which immediately exploded with a loud crack, but did no damage. One observer said that the ball descended from the ceiling and rebounded from the table.

The value of the timber annually destroyed by fire on this continent is estimated at from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. In the alchemy of nature nothing can be lost, and, in distant epochs or eons, this may be recovered; but practically it wipes out that amount of wealth from the world with no compensation. Cut down and worked into the thousand utilities lor man’s comfort and convenience, or to keep him warm, cook his food and run his machinery, its original value, by means of his skill, is returned to him fourfold; but to be burned up in the heat of summer, with nothing to show but a heap of ashes, and to carry with it houses, farms, implements, crops and even the very soil, which it renders unproductive, is, humanely speaking, an absolute loss. Were it not destroyed it would shelter, or warm thousands of human beings, and administer in scores of ways to their varied wants. In consequence of this destruction, sooner or later they must give more of their labor to securing the shelter, warmth, fuel and the like which these abolished forests would have furnished them. Apart, therefore, from the indirect loss caused by alternate flood and drought, which the loss of timber aggravates there is a direct and remediless wiping out of so much natural wealth in a highly available form. Europe has so learned the lesson of the value of timber that Germany at least expends a large sum annually in preserving its forests by strict watching, scientific culture and careful cutting. They have discovered that the people cannot afford the loss of valuable timber and that the expense of preserving it is a very small percentage of the gain. Harriet Beecher Stowe shohld not be held personally responsible for the numerous “Uncle Tom" companies now devastating the country.