Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1888 — A STORM IN CANADA. [ARTICLE]

A STORM IN CANADA.

A thunder storm passed over eastern Ontario and the whole of Quebec, Thursday and Friday, and was the most terrific ever known there. Hundreds of houses and barns have been burned and blown down. Crops are in many places entirely destroyed. Horses and cattle by the hundreds have, been killed and many people are lost. Reports are justbeginning to come in from the surrounding country and the list of people killed 4^’ r

is rapidly increasing. At a small village called St. Louis de Gonzague, Captain Louis Saue, his wife, son and daughter were sitting in their kitchen when several bolts of lightning struck the house at the same time. The building seemej|Lto collapse and then caught fire. The flood of rain extinguished the fire and those villagers who were not panic stricken dragged, the family from the debris, but it was found that while none had even been cut by the falling house the whole family had been struck by lightning.—Father, wife and son” were" instantly killed. The daughter can not live. A laborer, pvhose name is unknown, employed on the Sauve farm, was also killed j>y a bolt that struck the barn half an hour after the house was struck. At St. Ignace, George L. Lorimer was killed by a tree which had been struck by lightning falling upon him. In St. Hyacinthe, the son of a hotel proprietor, while closing the window of his room, was killed. A report comes from Chaudiere that two lumbermen were swept over the falls while crossing the river. Lightning struck their canoe and they were swept to death in the raging river. The hotel at Smith’s mills was set on fire and it is reported the wife of the proprietor died from fright. From all over Quebec come reports of houses being set on fire and families left destitute, and in a small place called l’Original, the parish church was struck by lightning. The place was full of people at the time, who were praying for protection from the storm. A panic ensued, and many people were seriously injured by being trampled upon. To the superstitious French-Canadian Catholics the storm was frightful. The churches were fairly besieged, and priests in many places held masses at midnight and every hour thereafter during the prevalence of the storm.