The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-06-21
STORY OF a LIGHT.
From the Youths Companion.

from the outhS Companion
On Monday, April "a, 1851. an east
wind rose in fury until it blew gale.
at that time there were three men in
Minot's Ledge lighthouse-the two as
sistant keepers and visitor It was an
octagonal tower, supported on iron
piles driven five feet into the ledge be-
low, and held together by braces
Every time a storm raised the waves
the lighthouse shivered ominously.
When this historic storm first arose
the visitor on the lighthouse became
frightened, and signalled TO Cohassct
tor boat to take him ashore. BY noon
he was on land, not a moment too soon
for safety.
On Tuesday the gale increased in vio-
lence- The wind had shifted 20 the
northeast, the most dangerous quarter.
from which the elements could hurl
themselves against the old tower; for
the waves gather resistless fury, tray
cling along miles and miles of unob-
structed wind-swept sea Soon the gale
became hurricane, and the frail light
house was SO buried in seas that on the
sixteenth the anxious watchers on thu
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:
will the light burn tonight? VIII
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 hundred thrOsts:
There it burnsl 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 came, The hurricane
increased, but the light was steady.
Ten o'clock! Still the grand old light
shone forth upon the heaviug waters.
At one o'clock on the morning that fol-
lowed, just at the turn of the food,
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 70 be seen again.
When the gale was over, people put
out from the shore 10 visit the spos
where the tower had so bravely with
stood the perils o. hundred storms
The appearance Of the twisted iron
piles indicated that it had bent 70 the
leeward by the gale, lying over the
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 Portuguese, whose very
names are unknovn-disd gloriously,
and are reverently remembered
They hung 20 duty 70 the last" said
the present keeper OF Ainot's Ledge
lighthouse. and as he said IL the ind0m-
table spirit OF the two who net their [
{ wful fate in the same waters that I
flowed beneath his feet, seemed 20 4
giorify his face
Under the starlight and storm the 4
old light had done its work Of benes- I
and guide: lesson 20 every benolder. I
81 loyalty 20 duty and helpfulness 70 I
souls n peril