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places, driving a piece of the tin through the brick wall a little above a window, breaking the glass of the window into small fragments; there it passed on to the gas pipe and bursted a T joint of that. Mr Munson hearing of the circumstance immediately came up to see me about it. After making an examination, and probing around where the rod entered the ground, finally concluded that it was caused by a want of dampness in the ground, although this occurred after two days of rain. In order to impress me with that statement, he brought a half cart load of charcoal, dug a hole around the rod, and dumped in the coal, and poured on it two to three barrels of water, then covered it up, and telling me that it would never occur again, and if it did he would pay me five hundred dollars in cash. He furthermore said, if I would [[strikethrough]] keep [[/strikethrough]] say nothing about [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] it he would patronize me hugely in my business, which all went to show that he had no confidence in the concern himself."

  Mr Furguson concludes his letter in the following words, "My own opinion is that a house is in more danger with a rod on, than with it off."

  The following case happened the past summer, and was communicated to me by the Hon. S. E. Paine, Mayor of Iowa City in Sept.