The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-12-16
Til Nan At The CRIB.
About His Life Is Woven : Web
Of Sentiment and
Romance.
he IL Unique Among the Municipal
Servants OF the City
OF Chicago.
a Hale, Blur Ex-Arariner. Brought Up on
tho Unsaltsd seas-His Daily
Life m Work. 7

Sa@N Lille ANU NvVEAs
The, . must be men in Chicago who's
FORTUNE 8 make them my even 1.-THE man q
Aha cYihy . but they canno be numerous
asserts j ulian Ralph in Harper's Weekly
IN Is Tar tiaat very reason that the citizen
generally xreave a web of sentiment ant
romance Sb out his life, and have consti
tinted him their pet and hero. His position
ii indeed ! tyGeer product OF q clty.s growth
ana he il uni,YI'e among the municipal ser
wants Of the Gay. He is the a
the gates Of the city's water service, ane
therefore he has to- live out in the lake, as
lonely as a light-hou use keeper; connected
with the greatest buAtle and stir that dis
turbs the heart of a continent, and yet
keeping away from anti in advance of it,
like 4 sentry in front Of n castle. ,or q scout
ahead Of an army. livery morning the city
looks out upon the watery plain of Lake
Michigan. and sees the crib dottinG the ex-
panse, as d single kernel of corn might ap-
bear upon a wsll-swept barn floor. And
the man at the crib returns the gaze as the
gray of dawn strengthens into the daylight
that discloses the rang and ale OF the clty's
buildings edging the lake like an army that
had been halted overnight.
The crib is two miles and twenty-five
rods off shore, in front of the city. It looks
4 little like a lighthouse from the shore,
and like 4 fortress from closer by. It is in
reality d house built upon a great stone
wall, and its use will be understood when
ii is known how Chicago gets her water sup
BY from Lake Michigan. An inclined tun-
mel is built from that point under the lake
in such a way that the incline IS toward the
CITY. It ends under the water-works at q
level several feet lower than that Of the lake.
Their it ID pumped up into a tower, 80 That
itmay provide it's own pressure for distrib-
uted house service as it flows through the
city's mains. In what is called the CRIB
out in the lake, are the cylinders which lead
down to the two tunnel which lead to the
city. One is an iron cylinder. nine feet in
diameter, leading thirty-o ne feet down to
the bigger tunnel of the two, which is seven
feet in diameter. The other is q smaller
cylinder leading to a t%fge-foot tunnel.
These cylinders are in reality the gates OF
the tunnels, for the water is taken from
Just beneath the surface of tlae lake.
The crib is one of the sights OF the visi-
Tors TO OulC0HCt anu, iIhC otl 1oNOihOA o
Island or Goddess of Liberty, is reached by
small steamers that carry passengers out
and back every halt hour. The sail IS at
all times, when the weather IS tine, Il de-
lightful ride; but in summer. when 1t offers
an escape from the heated masonry of the
city to the cool breezy surface OF the big
blue lake, it provides one of the greatest
treats enjoyable by the Chicagoans. / made
the trip on a summer-like September after
noon, with a tug-load of country folk, do
mestics, children, and school-girls. A great
part Of the federal navy upon the inland
lakes CHANGED to lie at anchor in the offing.
and added to the interest in the voyage.
The squadron consisted of a revenue-cutter
and the old side-wheel steam sloop of war
Michigan. She was neat and trim in all
her lines, and she was not a whit too old
fashioned to suggest the vessels that bore
HRo
We passed beside the slender bulwark
that has been heightened out into the lake
to protect the mouth of the Chicago river,
and landed at a high wall of timber loaded
with stone, which IRONS a breakwater
around the folt-like crib. The crib was
found to be a h~exagonal structure of ma
sorry surrounded by a narrow waterway
enclosed within the b~reakwater. Happily.
the man at the crib was there. 1t would
have been q strange freak of fortune not to
have found him. since, as we shall see, he
kcAuOll ARRIVES Alb AOllOW lSldLlus IL UOat'
load of passengers walked aimlessly about
the top of the sea-wall, or stared at the
dim and haZy outlines of the distant city.
A few pieced together the joints of their
fishlng-rods. and prepared to join the silent
company of anglers whose legs hung over
the edge of the wall like the battered rom
nants of a fringe. went with Capt. Chas.
Magee, the man at the crib.
he is a hale, bluff ex-mariner, now past
sixty years of age. but so hearty and sound
that his appearance bellies his years. He
looks like a sailor, and tells his visitors that
he lived upon the cold. foggy. treacherous
and cruel lakes from the time he was Ii
years old until he became a man of the mid
die age. He proudly exhibits his crib, and
may we'll do 30, since he not only keeps it
as neat as a Din, but loves to deck it with
flowers besides. 1t has been his home more
than eleven years. 1t is only the first story
that looks like Il stone fort. Above that is
the captains dwelling-a story of brick
work-and then the Light house lantern
surmounts that. Tn first story into which
the captain leads his visitors proves merely
a massive shell OF masonry around a broad
we'll. Out of that rise those great thirsty
mouths of Chicago-the cylinder gates of
the tunnels; and here one sees boxes of
flowers that cheer the scene even forchance
callers. Who can estimate how much thew
embellish and gladden. the lives Of the
handful OF humanity that clings to that
yVui al hllo ScdI ouus
In the summer time the man at the crib
moves IN q social circle that comprises his
wife. his daughter and a man who acts as
his assistant. 1t is i'll the winter that his
Kingdom is swollen to what he considers
lmperial dimensions, for then he has six
men to help him keep the ice out of the
well. Although the port holes which let in
the water are twelve, eighteen and twenty
four feet below the surface, ice neverthe-
less crowds in through them. and the cap
tain's assistants have all they can do at
times to fish out the cakes and wheel them
to the breakwater's edge, there to dump
them back again into the lake. The can.
tam says that in the summer seasons he
goes TO the city az often as once in n fort
night, but in the winter he seldom leaves
his post. When the ice forms he becomes
q prisoner. For weeks at a time, he saws.
he sees nothing from his quarters but the
ice that hens his island in. He has been
at the crib as long as seven months ut a
time without going ashore. The neyer-dor-
mant newspapers of the city sometimes set
afoot the story that he is starving. when
there has been a long break in the com
munication between the city and the island.
But the captain says he has never wanted
food since he became the man nj tha crih