AN APPALLING DEATH.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1036, 28 November 1882, Page 1

AN APPALLING DEATH.

A strange story comes from Union County, Arkansas, but is as true as it is strange, says the Chicago Tribune. Three young men were sitting" on their horses in the road, discussing the probabilities of rain from a cloud which was just rising in the west. The youngest of the group, named John Freeman, referred to the drought, and remarked, that a God who would allow his people to suffer thus couldn't amount to much. As he was speaking thus the boys were encircled with lightning, and the speaker stunned severely. Recovering, he renewed the subject, bitterly reviling the Supreme Power. Instantly a bolt of lightning flashed from the cloud overhead, and the young- limn fell dead in the track. Nearly every hone in his body was smashed to a jelly, while the boots were torn from his feet, and the clothing from hi* lower extremities. The body presented a horrible appearance, being a blackened and mangled mass of humanity. His companions were stunned and thrown to the ground, but not injured. The funeral of the unfortunate young man occurred next day, and attracted a large crowd, the greater portion of whom were drawn thither by the rumor of the strange events preceding the death. When the body was deposited iu the grave, and the loose earth had been thrown iu until the aperture was tilled, and while the friends of the dead man yet lingered in the cemetery, a bolt of lightning descended from a cloud directly over the burial place, and struck the grave, throwing the dirt as if a plough had passed lengthways o.vor it. No one was injured, but those present scattered a"most paralysed with terror. The incident is exciting a gre*t deal of interest, ministers and religious people generally holding that the young man was the victim of the wrath of an offended God, while the others assert that the case was simply a wonderful coincidence, having no connection with causes either physical or supernatural.