Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-05-03
STORY OF A LIGHT.
The Two Brave Occupants of the Towei
of Miuot-s Ledge.

The Two Brave Occupants of the Tower
0f MiuOt-s Ledge.
On Monday, April Il, 1851, an east
wind rose in fury until it blew q gale.
At that time there were three men in
Minot's Ledge hghthouse-thet two as
sistant keepers and n visitor. 1t was an
octagonaf tower, supported on iron
piles driven five feet into the ledge be-
low, and held together by braces
Every time storm raised the waves
the lighthouse shivered ominously.
When this historic storm first arose
the visitor on the lighthouse became
frightened, and signalled to Cohasset
for a boat to take him ashore By noon
he was on land, not moment too soon
for safety.
On Tuesday the gale increased in vio-
lence- The wind had shifted to the
northeast, the most dangerous quarter
from which the elements conld hurl
themselves against the old tower; for
the waves gather resistleSs fury, trav-
cling along miles and miles of unob4
structed wind-swept sea Soon the gale
became hurricane, and the fran light
house was so buried in seas that on the
sixteenth the anxious watchers on the
Cohasset shore could not distinguish it.
During the previous night the light had
burned as usual, and the question was
passed from lip to lip, from eye to eye:
''Win the light burn tonight? Will
the lighthouse stand?'
About four o'clock in the afternoon
of that anxious day the platform of the
tower, which had been built upon the
braces, washed ashore Then the
keeper, who happened to be on land,
knew that the water had risen within
seven feet of the tower.
When the time for sunset came the
excitement on land was almost past
endurance. Would the light-a cry of
joy swept from a hundred Threats;
There it burnsi Thank Godr'
Fitfully through the breakers and
the spume, the light cleaned far out
to sea 1t was the dying warning the
living. .
Nine o'clock camel The hurricane
increased, but the light was steady.
Ten o'clock Still the grand old light
shone forth upon the heaving waters.
At one o'clock on the morning that fol-
lowed, just at the turn of the flood,
when the outstreaming tide and the in
coming hurricane met on the fatal
ledge, the mad tolling of the lighthouse
bell was heard After that, no sound
or sight pierced the fury of the storm
The lighthouse had been torn from its
post of duty never to be seen again
When the gale was over, people put
out from the shore to visit the spot
where the tower had so bravely with
stood the perils of hundred storms
The appearance of the twisted iron
piles indicated that it had bent to the
leeward by the gale, lying over sthe
wild, foaming waters until it had grad
ually been submerged.
Up to the last moment the heroes
within the doomed beacon had trimmed
and fed the light. These two men-a
German and a Portuguese, whose very
names are unknown-died gloriously,
and are reverently remembered
''They hung to duty to the last" said
the present keeper of Minot's Ledge
| lighthouse, and as he said it, the indom-
liable spirit of the two who met their
awful fate in the same waters that
flowed beneath his feet, seemed to
glorify his face
Under the starlight and storm the
old light had done its work of benefi-
cence and blessing; a beacon to cheer
and guide; a lesson to every beholder,
of loyalty to duty and helpfulness to
souls in periL-Youth's Companion