The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1894-10-19
LltE-SANiNG SERVICE.
How Our Sea Coasts Are Pro-
vided with Rescuers.
Thousands of Shipwrecked Persons SAVED
from brow ming Ey the Hardy
Men Who Are Ever on
the Watch.

At the late session. says the Youths
| Nonpanion. congress added two months
| Ia the yearly term or employment of
! thc men in the lifc-Saviug service. who
! are stationed along the Atlantic and
| gulf coasts; and hereafter the men at
! these stations will be on duty from the
| LIST of each August to the LIST of the
next June. instead of from September
| To- May. as was formerly the case
This step was taken for the reason
| that, a general rule, destructive sea
| storms are not apprehended in summer.
| in the regions named some of the most
] furious gales occurring in the months
| of May and August. On the New Eng
| land coast, in particular. the August
| Ealcs" are expected annually and are
! greatly feared.
The life-saving service belongs to
| the treasury department. Its officers
and men are nearly all practical sea
| men: all are of mature age. and all are
/ picked men. fitted by exceptional
| physique and by mental and moral
qualities for the business of saving
lives from vessels wrecked in storms.
Great care is exercised in choosing
them, and the service has been kept 50
free from political influence that no sus-
tachcd to it.
The stations of the service are placed
IN exposed situations where wrecks are
most likely to occur. For this reason
they are scattered very unevenly over
our coasts.
In 1898 there were only twelve sta
tionS ON the entire Pacific coast and
there We're two on the little island Of
Nantucket. On the Atlantic and Gulf
coast there We're one hundred and
eighty, and there were fifty on the
shores of the great lakes; while there is
one on an interior river-at the falls of
the Ohio. near Louisville.
Each station consists of little house
where the men live and a boat-house
where the Surf-boatS are kept. The
men are constantly exercised in the
handling and launching OF these boats.
They must patrol the beach for long
distances in storms. and they lead any
thing but an idle life.
Under the new arrangement for ten
months of service n year. the surfmen
are to receive sixty dollars a month
each. and out of this sum they must
feed themselves. They lead lives of
isolation and often of hardship. and are
expected IN an emergency to show, and
always have shown, the highest quail
ties of heroism.
Since the service was established in
1871, it has rescued from wrecked yes
sels more than ten thousand persons,
and saved ninety millions of dollars
worth of property. All this good is
done at an expense to the government
of little more than "a million and a
quarter dollars a year-but an insig-
niticant fraction OF the amount which
the government yearly pays for appli-
ances intended to destroy life in war
fare.
The life-Saving service is one of the
branches of the government in the sup
port of which all men and parties may
cooperate without substantial diSa-
greement Not only is direct good
done by it in the saving of life and
property. but indirect good. of impor-
tance in the building up of character,
by the cultivation of heroism and self
sacrifice through the example of the
deeds done every year by these brave
Surfmen.
The service is still inadequate. Many
points on the coasts of our oceans and
great lakes are unguarded where
wrecks are likely to occur. But in its
present state the life-saving service is
brilliant example to other peoples