NATURE AS A PHOTOGRAPHER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 203, 21 May 1908, Page 4

NATURE AS A PHOTOGRAPHER.

While tho receut storm in-Sydney was at its-hoight,-a-..Mmarkable incidont occurred in the backyard of a Lewisham resident, a sheet' was hanging., .on tho domestic clothes jina ,in closo; proximity .to a shrub. When the fall of. rain; commenced' it was intended to.take tlie'.'sheet indoors, but, possibly owing 'To' the'free' mn'nner in which lightning wag 1 -flashing' all; over the locality, the mcmbers'of -the housohold changed their mi)id. Littlo'rain fell at Lowisham, as it happened, but tho storm niado up for this deficiency by distributing-an'unusually, largo quantity of electrical .disturbance over the promises. In fact, for 'a few i minutes tho quiet backyard soemed ito. bo the centre of a .pyrotechnic display;;, ,At..last tho air cleared, and a dash was -made for tho linen against any further downpour. To (he housewife's.astonishment, instead of tho plain whito sheet she had left thore flufitbred on tho line what appeared to be j tho covering of a Japanese • screen designed by some master hand. The whole area of the sheet was covered with delicatoly traced grey linos, depicting with the utmost liccuracy. a .nuiss of foliage and. presenting a highly decorative effect, resembling bighblass stencil-work. When the shock of the ;dfec6wory>sPß9scd away, the members of tlis , househ.qld, ,se.t out to reconcile effect . and cause, and found that tho shrub, adjacent to the clothes lino I bad been burnt to a crisp, browjn-. mass, ovidcntly_ through a stroke of lightning.....The ;sheet is to_ bo framed and presei'Vecl in the- family archives.