Alexandra and Yea Standard, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express 15 Jan 1892 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article57501887
I have had this one in my drafts for a little while and have been dying to share it with you. This article is everything I love about Forteana. Amazing, unusual, fantastical and totally unlikely. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
I read all of these strange newspaper stories wishing they were true, but fully aware that many of the facts are either misreported or total inventions. I am willing to suspend my disbelief in order to enjoy them though. In this case, I could do little else but sigh and thank the gods of ridiculousness for allowing such a story to be published.
What do you think are the chances of a wall-mounted, silver-plated sword being struck by lightning, causing the silver plate to be magically transferred to a sleeping cat nearby?
Amazing how this unplanned electroplating was so selective in its target. It only coated the cat. Not the sofa the cat was sleeping on, nothing else in the room, just the cat.
I wonder if the reported ‘charred streak showing the path of the lightning’ was still hovering in the air, or did the ‘electric fluid’ travel politely around the wall without discharging until hitting its intended target?
Lastly, their expectation that the plating of the cat will prevent any decay is an interesting one. This shiny cat may well be installed among the Vandyck family’s collection of curiosities, but I suspect that they might find they are incorrect. I just hope the maid dusts it gently. Imagine what might be revealed if the thin veneer of silver is cracked….yick…..
Granted, I know very little about electroplating, and even less about electroplating a cat, but I still believe I can justifiably doubt the facts as stated in this article. If you know more about it than I do, or have practiced this alternative form of taxidermy yourself, please let me know how wrong I am. (I’m really hoping here that none of you have ever tried it though.)
Buried words and Bushwa. 
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