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Show SAVED BY HIS SHOES. Lightning Kills a Barefoot Uoy and Spnrea Ilia Comrade. A storm passed over Kansas City early one evening recently for which the "oldest settler" failed to recollect a rival. A hot and sultry day preceded the tempest, which, when at its height, seemed to be made up in equal parts of rain and electricity. elec-tricity. The thunder crashed, water fell In torrents and the lightning wrought havoc. Two lads, Archie Trimble and Benny Diinond, sought refuge from the storm beneath a carriage shed, over which waved the branches of a large tree. Simultaneously Simul-taneously there came a flash, a roar and a sound of splintering wood. People who looked out from a near by house saw tliat the big tree had been split from top to bottom, bot-tom, and that the two boys were lying on the ground. Examination showed that Archie Trimble Trim-ble was dead and that Benny Dimond's lower limbs were paralyzed. The former W-as barofooted and the latter wore shoes. According to the theory of the physician phy-sician called at the time, the bolt first struck tho treo and descended into the ground in sufficient volume to flash across 10 feet of intervening space and strike the shoeless boy eVgrouVd6 AncniE tiumble. Young Dimond's feet were also on the ground, but his shoes, acting as an insulator, insu-lator, protected him from the full force of the current and probably saved his life. So at least the doctor says. The dead boy was about 12 years of age and the only soa of a widowed mother. |