The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1869-04-01

was married at the Greys country seat, and
they say the bride wore blue larkspur in her
hair Horrid ia ste, etc, etc.
j. MANCHESTER
smiled. was very glad.
Eddystone.
THE HISTORY AND ROMANCE OF THE LIGHT
A report was current on the evening o1
Wednesday that the Eddystone Lighthouse
had been swept away by the storm. The
light-keepers, it was added, had been drown
ed, piece of unnecessary detail since, il
the news had been true that the waves had
dashed down the beautiful and proud struct-
ure of Smeaton, they would have made short
work of the poor creatures living in the
desolate sea-tower. "Eddystone Lighthouse
DOWN.? people said, one to others "could
such an event happen? Is it NOT the 'house
built upon the rock, against which the
winds may roar and the waves beat till the
stones wear out, but, till they wear out, no
storm can lay low?" Yet who knows the
power of an Atlantic roller, driven by the
fierce ''sou'- western
A New York steamship, the Pereire, put
out from Havre short time ago to cross the
ocean for America. She was as powerful
and handsome ship as could float, and one
OF the quickest among ocean-going steamers.
Yet, four days out, she ran her nose under
a huge roller, piled up by the gale, and sew
en- hundred tons Of water, it is estimated,
in one ugly gray avalanche of furious spume
and swirl, broke upon her deck-crushing
everything fiat to the plauAiug, breaking
the backs of passengers, and with the blow
Of that one billow completely disabling the
ship. 1t was asked whether, perchance,
some such vast mass of the sea, driving up
with the storm, and falling in the full pow
er of its impulse upon the lighthouse, had
crushed aud annihilated it. In that case
how sad the fate Of the poor light-trimmers,
swept into death beyond all chance of escape
or even knowledge of their doom
No need to tell us that the three men
were gone, if the lighthouse was no more
their lives would be mere bubbles in the
crash-one moment prolonged, and the next
extinguished in the rush of the fierce wa
ters over the leveled tower. And then
thoughts arose of the peril which would en-
sue to homeward bound vessels. Every
captain coming up the channel is used to
make out the fixed white light of the Eddy
stone, it is as sure to be there, with its
friendly CLEAN, he thinks, as the white cliffs
and green meadows of ''home" beyond.
Once inside the Lizard Point, the masters
order is to "keep lookout for the Eddy
stone )" and when it is seen ''home" is as
good as reached. The pilot presently comes
out, and the ships voyage is all but over.
If the lighthouse were really gone, we
might hear next that a great ship with her
crew and cargo had gone bodily upon the
dreadful stone, at the very moment when
the mariners were wondering why they did
not make out the well-known beacon.
1t would have to be built up again, too,
at heavy cost, and with an interval of long
delay and danger; for even with modern
appliances, it would be no small task to RI
val Smeaton, and place another Pharos up
on the desolate, perilous crag. All these
gloomy thoughts were happily brought to
an end by the welcome news that the light
house was as safe as ever. The thick
weather of the tempest had obscured the
CLEAN, and some Plymouth bound vessel
we suppose, failing to make it out in the
sea drift, had come into port with the notion
that it was gone. Yesterday morning, how
ever, the light was made out we'll enough
from the breakwater, and we may trust that
no gale, for many long year to come, viii
shake down one of the nobest works Great
ed by man.
There seems no reason, indeed, why the
Eddystone Lighthouse should not stand as
long as Pharos at Alexandria, which LASTED
from B. G. 47O to A. D. 1903 almost, thai
is to say, for two thousand years. The ia
nous Pharos, it is true, had no such sea to
withstand as that which RACES many times
in the year around the base and over the
sides Of Smeaton's tower. But the chan
nel beacon was built to fight the pillows
and it has been the model of all the light
towers in the modern world. The ligh
houses of the Bell Rock, the Skerry Wore
Bishops Rock, the Brehat, Barheur, ane
many others, were fashioned after the ex
ample of this solid and perfect piece of con.
struction. The waves themselves taugh
Smeaton how to build, for they let nothing
but the frmest work remain on that lashet
and lonely rock.
Everybody knows the story of the place
how treacherous and deadly it was, lyins
under water right in the tairway Of thu
channel, till Winstanley, the mercer, frs
lighted the reef. Miss 1ngelow has told, il
charming verse, how the good haberdasher
sad at the loss of more than one of his ven
lures upon the Eddystone, vowed that nc
more lives and vessels should not be cas-
away upon that rock if he could help it
People laughed at HIM for his courage ant
humanity but he stuck to his purpose
After many failures he got his piles ant
cross-beams fixed upon the reef, and hoiste'
the first light over it. Thus many a lif,
was preserved; but at length the channe
pillows rose and swept the timber-stuff al
away November, 1908.
Next, Redyard tried his hand, and rear
ed a strong tower, solid and well planned
enough but in this case fire did what wa
ter failed to effect, and the building wa
burned down. Smeaton was then callee
upon to set up something which neither wa