The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-03-18
EBENsBURG, PA, THURSDAY, MARCH ls, 1869.


many others, were fashioned after the ex>
ample of this solid and perfect piece of
construction. The waves themselves
taught SmeatOn how to build, for they
let nothing but the firmest work remain
on that lsshed and lonely rock.
Every body knows the story OF the
place, how treacheross and deadly it was,
lying under water right in the fair way of
the channel, till Winstanley, the mercer,
first lighted the reef. Miss IngeIow has
told, in charming verse, how the good
haberdasher, sad at the loss of more than
one of lis ventures upon the Eddystone,
vowed that no more lives and vessels
should be cast away upon that rock if he
could help it. People laughed at him
for his courage and humanity but he
stuck to his purpose. After many fail
ur he got his piles and cross beams fixed
upon the reef, and hoisted the first light
over it. Thus many life was preserved;
but at length the channel pillows rose
and swept the timber stuff all away in
November, 3I70.
Next, Redyard tried HE hand, and
reared strong tower, solid and we'll
planned enough; but in this case fire did
what water failed TO effect, and the build
ing was burned down. Smeaton was
then called upon to set up something
which neither water or fire should be able
to destroy and he went, as wise engi
neers should do, TO nature. He saw
how the bole of an oak tree holds up its
gigantic mass against the fiercest winds,
although they lay hold of its green and
spreading head, and bend its vast limbs
The knitted roots and thick base keep
the forest monarch firm; and Smeaton
resolved TO make a ssa-oak tree of his
lighthouse Broad at the base, and solid
as the rock on which they stood, with
their stones bound together and inter-knit-
ted like the fibre of the tree, he laid his
lower courses. Upon these he raised his
hollow super-structure, of great thickness
and strength, but tapering upward inside
the lines of his foundation.
If anybody wishes to read ''romance
of real Iife," let him peruse Smeaton's
''Narrative of the building of Eddystone
Lighthouse and he will see how mao
also learns to make seven the widest
waves obey him" 1t is remarkable that
the form selected by the renowned engi-
neer for his sea tower, as being natures
own idea of soldity in vertical erectIons,
is nearly identical with the symbol used
in the Egyptian hieroglyPkics for
''strength." The priest represented that
notion by the figure of an obelisk almost
precisely resembling the outlines of Smea>
toms lighthouse and a hundred years of
weather have proved that they and the
engineer new what they were about
The hight burned for the first time upon
the new building in October, 1889; it
burns now, all safely; and it is likely to
burn through m my sto my wlnterto c. N :.
And if we on land have almost a1ec
ton for these sturdy turrets erected in de-
fiance of the strongest forces of nature, to
save life and property, and to light the
mariner toward his home, what must sail
ors feel A landsman can scarcely reSl>
ize the blessing of the friendly lights
He knows that they save life. Firm as
Smeaton's tower is, the huge erection
shudders in the shock of such a tempest
as has lately ragged the winds howl like
maddened devils upon its head, while
the big waves burst upon it Sides. and
fling their sheets of green and white right
over the gallery and lantern. Strange
sights and sounds are the recreation of
those hermits of the tower-the storm-
torn craft driving wildly past-the land
birds dashing in the darkness against the
glass of the Highland sea wrecks, min
gled sometimes with dead sbodies, flung
against their water stairs.
1t is not for little that men are found
to live in the dismal solitude of such
place as the rooms under the Eddystone
lamp. Two watchers used to keep this
but useful garrison; but one
died, and the other was forced to live
with the corpse till the relief arrived, lest
he should be accused of murder. Since
that time three have always occupied the
house. The sailor best knows how well
worth pains and cost the trouble and
scrupulous attention are. Each sunset
finds the patient keepers carefully trim
ming the light and setting the polished re-
factors, and not for moment IS that
brilliant glare allowed to relax.
The light>keeper can not see what
help he gives; his business is to guard the
bright monitory CLEAN. Bot, far away
from his rock, the blasted mariner. anx>
ious and in doubt, suddenly "makes out
the Eddystone.'' Some keen eye forward
or aIoft catches the tiny spark over the
dark waters, and then the lead-lne and
fearful watch are no more wanted. so
Shines" as Shakespeare says, "a good
deed in naughty world +" A good and
brave deed it was to plant the cross OF
help upon the ugly Channel>rock, as
first did, and as Smeaton af-
ter him succeeded in doing, with work
which many such gales as this sou wester
will leave safe and sound-the monu~
ment of mans audacity, and, better still,
Of mans brotherhood.
1t is known. that General Grant has