News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-03-01
Life in a Lighthouse.

There are horrible stories told of for
mer days, when a couple of men being
on duty on some isolated rock, one of
them happened to die suddenly III rough
weather when the survivor, fearing of
being charged with the crime, remained
shut up in the closest proximity to the
corpse of his comrade TIL the lUlll of the
storm brought relief and the opportunity
of explanation. This very week we hear
of a case which might well seem ncredi-
BILE were it not amply authenticated.
The watchmen on the Wolf Rock, Oppo-
site the Cornish coast, were cut off from
all communication with their kind
through the two dreariest months of the
winter and it was nearly the middle of
January when relief reached them at
last Nowadays, however, the light
warders in similar circumstances invari-
ably consist of three at the least and
both on the hght-tOwers and in the
lightships, the men are surrounded by
all manner of material comforts. They
have rooms as snug as the limited struc-
tural arrangements will admit; they have
ample rations of excellent food, nor are
the needs of their minds by any means
neglected. Still, it must be an unnatural
life at the best. and one that is perilously
fitted to nourish sombre fancies. We
may conceive that in the men who take
most kindly to the occupation, the mag
&c CIV IL .
but nevertheless, they must be quick
and intelligent. Generally speaking,
some moderate amount of exercise is be-
Iieved to be indispensable to preserving
the balance of the bodily and mental
powers and in the dullest routine of or
binary drudgery there are usually occa-
sional changes of scene and company.
But in many a lighthouse the Occu-
pants are held fast by the legs, for exer-
else becomes something more than eff
fort when it is reduced to practicing the
! treadmill upon the steps of a cOrkscrew
staircase, or to taking half a dozen steps
upon Shiny rock at low water. The
crews of the lighthouse are somewhat
more favolably circumstanced in this re
| spect, since they can do their walking on
a more or less rOomy deck, and they en-
Joy, besides, a greater variety of COM
pany. But the life in both cases must
be intOlerably monotonOus; and to a
| landsman there would be little to choose
| between the terrOrs of the one and the
other, when the sea is wrapped in i'm
penetrable fOgs or is being dashed into
| fury by bowling tempests. In a storm,
the lighthouse is in reality the safer resi-
| dence of the two, for, thanks to the skill
of our modern engineers, it is most I'M
likely that another Eddystone will be
swept away. Yet the waves rush up the
sides of the tower, and toss their tons OF
seething green water against the lower
| courses of masonry, seeming to shake the
massive structure from the light-rOOm tC
| the foundation, it must need nerve an6
| long habit to resist the belief that the
violence of the elements may bring abou
q catastrophe As for the lghtships, being
! mOOred i'll shallOwer water, they may be
| less exposed to the extreme fury of the
storms, though there is always chance
of their being torn from their anchorage
But, on the other hand, in even moder
atelybad weathert they must always be emf
nently disagreeabIe places of abode. The
peculiar jerking motion, when the natura
heaving of the ship is being perpetual!
checked by the straining cables, is SAT-
to be trying to the most seasoned o
mariners, and to be one of those incon
veniences to which no custom can re
concile one. -Sattuddy ReUiet0.