A CAT ELECTRO-PLATED BY LIGHTNING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2295, 19 December 1891, Page 3

A CAT ELECTRO-PLATED BY LIGHTNING.

A strange freak of lightning is reported by the Boston corresdondent of the St. Louis Republic, which recently occurred near the small village of New Salem, . Vermont, at the foot of the Heldeberg ! mountains, Arent S. Vandyck occupies j an old mansion, in the parlor of which hung a collection of awords,.one of which ; was heavily plated with silver. On the I night in question a terrible thunderstorm I burst, and one particularly fearful crash stunned everyone in the house. Quickly recovering the family hastened to see what damage had been done. Suddenly the younger Vandyck pointed to an oldfashioned sofa. There lay'- vvdiat seemed to be a silver cat, curled up as 'crimfortably as could be. Each glittering hair was separate and distinct, and. each silvery bristle of the whiskers described as graceful a curve as if in life. Turning to the swords on the wall, just over the sofa father and son remarked that the plated sword had been stripped of all its silver, the scabbard was a strip of | blackened steel, and the hilt, had gone altogether. The cat had been electro- I plated by lightning. A round hole in a window pane, about the size ,of a halfdollar, showed where the electric fluid had entered. There was a charred streak showing the path of the lightning aa it made its way to the sword, down which it passed to the sofa carrying with it the fused silver which it had swiftly deposited on the cat. Of course'the cat was killed instantly, and remained exactly in the _ position as the lightning 'found her — i peacefully sleeping. .It is thought the plating of the cat's surface will prevent decay, and that she may be retained permanently among the family curiosities.