A man was lately killed out near Deadwood, in the Black Hills, by a stroke of lightning. The man's name was Coates Kinney—a party who was once a journalist of rare ability, but who became a stroller and an outcast by some misfortune. It will be a surprise to all tho read or sing when we inform such that this man, Coates Kinney—the victim of a thunderbolt in a far away, wild and desolate spot— was none other than the author if the sweet and tender little poem, commencing with the verses:

When the humid shadows hover
Over all the starry spheres,
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears,
What a joy to press the pillow
Of a cottage chamber bed,
And to listen to the patter
Of the soft rain overhead!

Every patter on the shingles
Has an echo in the heart;
And a thousand recollections
Into busy being start,
And a thousand busy fancies
Weave their bright hues into woof,
As I listen to the patter
Of the rain upon the roof.

Wichita Eagle, 7/5/1877

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The Deadwood Pioneer is surprised to learn from Eastern journals that Coates Kinney, author of "Rain on the Roof", was recently killed by lightning in the Black Hills. Kinney also denies that he was killed in a card to the Cincinnati papers.

Bismarck Tribune, 7/9/1877