St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-05-20
LIFE IN A LIGHTHOUSE.
Most People Would Find 1t
Hard and Dreary One

Lighthouse Board, and the best men obtain
able are selected as keepers. Preference is
given to men who have spent years of SER
viceini the army or navy, as they know what
discipline is, and know by experience that
orders are to be obeyed to the letter, and
without question. There are many retired
shipmasters and mates who are to-day doing
duty on solitary and isolated beacon rocks,
where they hear no sound but the moan and
roar of the ocean, except their own voices
and those of their families, if they have any,
for months at time.
One of the most accomplished men ever in
the employ of any government was for more
than thirty years in charge of one of the Uni
ted States lighthouses. That man was Captain
Oliver Brooks. He kept the great light going
on Falkner Island, five miles off the Connec-
ticut coast, on Long Island Sound. He had
been sea captain for many years before
entering the lighthouse service, and his
example and methods as a lighthouse keeper
SO improved the capability of all other
keepers that he should have met with more
substantial recognition from the Government
on his retirement than the expression of it's
regret and reluctance at parting with him,
genuine and sincere as it must have been.
Falkner Island light first flashed out upon the
sea toward vessels away from that dangerous
locality one night eighty-seven years ago,
and it has never failed to lift aloft its welcome
beacon single night since. That light is one
of the most Important on our coasts.
Falkner Island lies directly in the track of
all vessels passing either in or out of the
Sound, and if on any night its light should
fail to ntoht hn Of
sells, the consequence might be fearful to
relate. The lighthouse is nearly 100 feet
high and it's signal beams out on each of it's
eight sides every ninety seconds, flash
panel, operated by the most perfect clock
work machinery, contrived by Captain
Brooks, revolving about the towers summit
with unvarying regularity. The sailor on
watch knows whether his ships bearings are
right when he sees the light, no matter in
what direction the vessel may be going or
coming. It is like no other beacon in the
range Of the sailors vision, and Falkner is
his guide and hope as long as it can be seen.
Captain Brooks raised a large family of
boys and girls in his snug quarters on Falk-
ner Island, and their record Of life saving in
that perilous quarter is preserved in a wealth
of silver and gold plate. rare bric-a-brac and
other valuable testimonials from shipwrecked
mariners the captain and his daughters and
sons saved from many wrecks, for even the
great light has not prevented score of dis
asters in the treacherous water surrounding
it. Not only sailors, but drowning men,
women and children. were time and time
again rescued by Captain Brooks and his
courageous children. The famlys home in
the lighthouse was a glad surprise to the
stranger visiting it. One daughter was an
accomplished ornithologist, and the walls
were covered with artistically mounted speci-
mems of the birds of that locality, from the
enormous bald eagle to the diminutive wren.
Each specimen has been shot by this daughter
on the island, and was stuffed and mounted
by herself. Another daughter was an
authority on marine botany, and her collec-
ton was a complete exhibit of the botanical
possibilities of that island and others in the
vicinity. This daughter spent long time at
Yale under the private tuition of Professor
Whitney in the study of her favorite science.
She was also an complished water-color
artist, and there are in the houses of some
of New York's wealthiest and most cultivated
families, albums of her botanical collections
are probably the most unique and valuable
works of art of their kind ever executed.
The books alone cost $40 each in New
York at wholesale. Each page was a card of
cabinet photograph size. On these Miss
Brooks mounted specimens of sea flowers and
plants. These were necessarily dried in their
preparation, and their colors could not be
preserved. These were shown in all their
original beauty and their naturalness by an
exquisite water-color sketch of the flower on
the card below the specimen painted by Miss
Brooks. Each specimen had its scientific
name and description of its characteristics
written on the back of its particular card. For
these novel exhibitions of her artistic skill
and scientific knowledge Miss Brooks was
paid from $3.50 to 5000 each. Every member
of Captain Brooks family was a finished
musician. and no less than five different
musical instruments were brought into use
by them on occasion, and their concerts were
treats to hear. A piano, guitars, flutes,
comets and violins were the last things Wis
itor would expect to see in that bleak light
house dwelling, much less group of young
people who were masters of them all.
Captain Brooks workshop was another
curious sight at Falkner Island lighthouse.
He was an expert in electricity, light, and
sound, and the results OF his experiments in
determining the power of luminants, the re-
Election and refraction of lights under GER
tain conditions of the atmosphere, the audi
bility OF fog signals, and many other subjects
of Importance to the service, were from time
to time adopted as authority by the Light
house Board and he was honoraby mentioned
and commended in their official documents.
All of the intricate and delicate apparatus by
which these results were obtained were in
vented and made by Captain Brooks himself
in his little workshop in the great octagonal
beacon tower.
The captain and his family made para
disc out of that desolate island. His children
were all born in the sea-beaten tower, grew
up with the constant roar and bowling of the
breakers in their ears, were married there,
and not until then left their ocean home for
more comfortable but less beloved abiding
places, 1t was tEen that the captain himself
gave up the life on the island to spend his de-
Ginning days on shore. There are many light
house keepers who have made attractive
homes amid their dreary surroundings, but
this service will probably never see another
Captain Brooks.
But after all is said and done the life of a
lighthouse keeper is d hard and trying one
All ESQ must lie subordnated to his light
He must not neglect it even if his wife and
children are dying. Even if the tower is
tottering to its fall he must keep his light
going as long as it stands, for its absence
even for moment may result in the loss OF