Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1881 — Freaks of Lightning. [ARTICLE]

Freaks of Lightning.

Lightning struck a tree at the head of Colvin’s Creek, N, C., and kindled a Are that swept 7,000 acres of land, destroying timber, crops and turpentine. Mother and son were struck by lightning in the residence of Widow Crenel, at Watertown, Wis. Tbe mother lost her hearing and her twelve-year-old son was killed. - Lightning struck the house of A. J. Smith, at Amherst, Wis., and made kindling wood 1 of the four posts of the bed on which Mr. and Mrs. Smith were sleeping, killing Mrs. Smith instantly and injuring her husband and child. Mr. Lill, of New York, was talking with Mr. Payne and Mr. Wynn, in their warehouse, at Dadeville, Ala., when lightning struck the warehouse. Mr. Lill was tossed up against the ceilings, Mr. Wynn threw an involuntary double Bomersault backward, and Mr. Payne was stripped of his clothing and thrown to the floor. The sun was shining bright at Adrian, Mich., although there were indications of a distant sterm, when a lightning stroke instantly killed Charles Mead' a boy who was playing ball. The holt struck tbe boy’s right temple, burning off his hair, stripping him of his elotbes, and sent into the air the ball he held in his hand. A bolt of. lightning shattered an elm in front bf the residence of George Tate, at Biadeford, Me., entering the house by a second story window, shivering tbe mirror without injuring the* frame, broke a fragment from the steel Elate of a sewing machine, cut a round ole through the floor into the room below, broke a vase on the mantel in this room, and departed after throwing to the flobr Miss late, who was sitting in the next room. Iu a recent storm iu lowa, h ball of fire came out. of the sky, remaining apparently motionless for a few seconds, aljff than sent out in os many different directions, fully thirty zigzag bolts o( lightning, which flashed over the whole northern heavens. In this same storm a wave of'light shot up from the southwestern horizon and illuminated the heavens for twenty minutes. Tbe light was flame-colored and bright as sun-light. It changed to violet and bluish-red, which colors lasted forty minutes.