CURSED GOD AND DIED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1370, 14 October 1886, Page 3

CURSED GOD AND DIED.

The followin'' remarkable s'ory was related to the Cincinnati Inquirer correspondent by a re iabla farmer who live* near the county line between that »m Mercer County. ~ Last week, while at work in the fielos a farmer by the name of Sylvester Bedyan owner of several hundred acres of fine farming laud in Mercer country, began cursing in a most shock'ng manner about the drought injuring his crops, nt>;. wound up «itn an oatn that he W'-uld cm Go. e heart out if he would come down. No sooner were the words uttared than a vivid s'reMt of fire resembling lightnimr came down from the citudleaa sky and struck Kedyan, His companions who were in the harvest field w th h>m were rendered ineensidie for several minutes. When they rec vered they were nearly rlghtenel to (hath at the sight which m—erned itself Hfdyan, the man who just a few seconds u ef. ro had uttered the terrible enr-e, had been transformed into stone, a d lay on the ground mar where he had stood when he made the shocking oflor t ■ tho tMioreme Being. His clothes had been burned from h ; m, »t d the lips wore partid in the stone figure, just. »a Rtdyao had finished the oath. An awful heal arose from the piece of store, and was so intense that no person could yo near it.

While the story Is so strange that it miy no', be bel eved by many, its truth U vouched for by my informant and several other as eqna'ly reliable men of that vicinity, with whom your correspondent has talked regarding the strange fffdr. Each of them had heen to the pluce and seen tho transfigured body, and do not hesitate to say that every word of the account which I have giv n is correct. Ore mao < tiered to hire a nag and drive tha Enquirer man to the spot, and if things were not as he represented them to be he would pay the expense. Redyan was a man about 40 years of age and had a family of a wife and five children, who are nearly wiH with grief. Reuyan w?s addicted to sweraing, and could scarcely speak a word without accompanying it with an oath. Tha country near where the affair happened is not very thickly populated, which accounts for the remarkable transaction not being given to the public sooner.