Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1859 — Awful Effect of Lightning. [ARTICLE]

Awful Effect of Lightning.

On Friday evening hUt, between six and seven o’clock, at the Gaffney Rice Course, near Limestone, shorijiy alter a neighbor-' Ju>od race-, some disci]-Hon w is going on of the preii etn.tries of another race.at a f.:' u:*'■ day, and many w ere par tic i pat i n g in it a round ■a tree. At this time tljq sun wms serenely 1 setting, with, in indivatipn ;ofa st ;rrn. Suddenly a discharge, loudjas a h’lin m's roar, with subseou.-nt sounds like the falling to pieces of a gun carriage, were heard. The Tree was riven' by the fjol ; arid William. a son of l)r. William No t, leaning • again.-t the trunk, was prosiratt’d. as was also some six or eight others, whfik* some four or five were stunned by the j elect fie 'discharge Nott lived a few minuti-s only; Win. Ltng was supposed to he d'.'.iif, hut. llioirgli frightfully burnt on various portions of his person, an 1 his bo >t«. hitrst i»y ft i • si >:.’i ; fluid, he recovered; Mr. Milwood was also burnt and scarred: Thomas Ci iffney was severely shocked; o’hers, to tue nu.nher of six or eight, were affected, hut not otherwise injured. It may not ire peculiar to these cases, but those receiving the charge, of electricity, when consciousness returned, thought they had been shot, and looked to see whence the ball came, no one thinking of lightning. We have often heard of the photographic power of electricity, but this is the only instance in which this phenomenon has been certified to us. It was mi the person of vwrng Nutt. On the front surface oi the thigh was indelibly impressed the perfect branch of a tree, leaves and all; and this jnot-withstanding the part was protected fry his pantaloons and drawers. The figure wlis distinct In ail its ports, and of a reddish purple hue.—Spartahsburg, (.S'. C.) paper of Jane 9.