As Good as Munchausen

A remarkable story comes from the upper Yakima country, Washington. Two years ago Peter Stromshadt located on a piece of land near what is now known as Borax Springs, his family consisting of his wife and two children. A few days after his settlement Stromshadt discovered a spring close to the shack he had built, the water of which was strongly impregnated with iron, but not unpalatable. Stromshadt dug and deepened the spring, and since July 1893, the family has used the water for all domestic purposes. One night recently a heavy electric storm passed over the cascades, accompanied by vivid displays of lighting. The following day Mrs. Stromshadt, while kindling a fire in the stove, found it almost impossible to separate the stove lifter from her hand. Her husband, hearing her scream, ran to her assistance, when, to his surprise, he found that he, too, experienced great difficulty in detaching any article of iron with which his hands came in contact. Breakfast was finally prepared and the family sat down to the meal. The children, girls of 5 and 7 years respectively, drank their milk from tin cups, and upon raising their cups to their mouths found themselves unable to detach the cups from their lips. Stromshadt, who is an intelligent from Sweden, was nonplused, and while unable to account for the wonderful occurrence, nevertheless laughed at his wife’s exclamations that the family was bewitched. In a letter to a friend he says that the small bed in which the children sleep is upon roller casters. At night when the children are put the sleep the head of the bed is a little to the east. Invariably in the morning the bed is pointing north and south. A member of the Portland, Ore., Academy of Science, to whom the circumstances were related, says that the Stromshadt family has become saturated with iron, which was rendered magnetic by the passage of electricity from the clouds to the earth during the recent electric storm. Stromshadt himself takes the mater philosophically, and aside from the inconvenience of having his head decorated with a fringe of knives, forks and teaspoons, which are attached to him, is inclined to regard the occurrence lightly.