Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

Mysterious showers of stones are one of those Fortean classics which never get old.  The “Richmond Dispatch,” September 8, 1886:

Mr. Cuthbert telegraphs from Charleston (upon date of September 5th) the following about the shower of stones.

One of the sensations of Saturday in Charleston was the fall of three showers of stones in the neighborhood of the News and Courier building. The first was observed about 2:30 A.M., mainly in the vacant lot across Elliott street, directly south of the News and Courier job-office. The second, about 7:30 A.M., fell on the roof of the pressroom, the third, about 1:30 P.M., was in the alley alongside, scattered over the places mentioned, and all the space between them, including the roof of the job-office, and for the short space up and down the alley and Elliott street.

The first shower was heard in the darkness by an employee, who was in the vacant lot, but who naturally attributed it at the time to a fall of loose material from the neighboring roofs and broken walls, though there was no shock at the time. When the second shower was observed, five hours later, some of the falling pebbles bounced into the pressroom through the open windows, and it was thought by the pressman and his assistants that some mischievous boy was pelting them. On a close examination, however, no one was found in the neighborhood, and the pebbles themselves were found to be warm. The third fall was witnessed by a number of persons, who noticed it throughout and who are unable to account for it in any way. The line of descent was almost perpendicular, there being sufficient incline from south to north to cause one or more stones to strike the window-sill and rebound into the job-office, where they were picked up from the floor and again found to be warm.

A number of the pebbles were gathered up at once, some of them being taken from the top of the ruins of brick walls and houses that had fallen on Tuesday night. The stones range from the size of a grape to that of an egg. All were worn and polished by the action of nature, and some show clear fractures. The material in most of the cases is flint or of a flinty character, and an expert who examined the collection said that they looked as if they were a part of a cabinet of mineralogical specimens.

Another suggestion by the same person was that the largest stone of the lot was part of the head or neck of an Indian axe, the character of which he was familiar.

However this may be, the stones fell in the way that has been described, and there is no reasonable explanation or suggestion as to the source whence they came. The houses in the neighborhood are covered with tin or tile roofs. The showers fell, as has been stated, almost perpendicular, and the force of the fall, as shown by the breaking of several pebbles, was evidently very great. It should be added that the shower was slight.

The brief account of this which was sent on Saturday night has, it appears, been exaggerated into volcanic eruption, but the above is a correct statement of the occurrence.