Show n electroplate ft a 0 at bobon globe the globe correspondent has come into ip to the possession pOE Bession sion of the facts regarding a freak of lightning probably more remarkable than any hitherto recorded which occurred near the small village of new salen salem at the foot toot hel deberg mountains on the ath of or july one of the tho oldest ridente rei ri Jent dents of thai that locality is arent 8 van dyck who occupies an ancestral mansion a mile or eo so west of the village in the large parlor of t the e van dyck mansion there a displayed many quaint and curious relics of the olden time vine which have been handed banded down in the van dyck family ill ly from generation to generation among the collection was a notable deword deith with a revolutionary lutio nary history the scabbard was heavily plated with silver and hung on a wall near a window on the night of july 3 a heavy thun derstore der dera storm torm prevailed among the heldenberg Hel deberg mountains and the fl flashes h of lightning were incessant and vivid some time between twelve and one on the morning of the ath the occupants of the van dyck mansion were awakened from sound slumber by a terrific crash which cadged the w whole hole building to tremble all were momentarily stunned but dyck quickly recovered hia his senses and realizing that lightning lightn ipg had bad struck either the mansion mansion itself or some object in close proximity I 1 m ty to it hastily arose and started to investigate he ile waa was joined by his son and they began a search that the lightning had ignited nothing they soon found out nor were signs of damage anywhere apparent all the lug ingi were intact and as far as they could ag ae certain the mansion had not been damaged T they bey went through all the rooms but fo found und nothing until they entered the parlor in which the relics were kept they noticed a strong smell that was unlike anything they bad ever smelled before it waa was a sickish sick nauseating smell they entered and looked around the room suddenly the younger younge van dyck uttered an elc exclamation a ion on of surprise and pointed to an old fashioned on sofa that stood against the W wall alenar near F a window upon it lay what was apparently the silver image of a cat curled up in an exceedingly I 1 natural pose As far as the shape and posture of the animal were concerned it might have been a live cat each glittering hair was separate and distinct and each silvery bristle of the whiskers described a graceful curve as in life the claws the tail the ears the nostrils were perfect in every detail father and son looked at each other in much astonishment suddenly and almost simultaneously their eyes evis turned toward the sword which hung upon the wall just above the sofa and there they saw that the sword had been stripped ol 01 all its silver the hilt was gone and the scabbard was but a 4 strip of blackened steel like a flash the explanation of the silver cat came to them the family cat had bad been electroplated electro plated I 1 by lightning further investigation showed that this explanation waa was in fact the correct one in one of the panes of glass in the window was found a round hole about the size of a half balf dollar where the lightning had bad evidently entered there was a chaired streak across the sash where the electrical fluid had hod made its way ti to the sword down which it had bad passed to the cat carrying with it the silver which upon the animal of course the cat was instantly killed aad azid therefore remained in the position in which it was quietly sleeping when hen the flash flah came that the lightning passed assell through glass which h is is well known to be a nonconductor proves that t the h e dischar bharga a must have been one of un usuff usual power it is thought that the plating of the cats body will will prevent decay and that probably it may be retained among the collection of curiosities which is more remarkable than all |