The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-03-27
l. IFE- 81 IING SER VICE.

hllt we are listening 10 the WIG
storms of winter bowling around orr
comfortable homes, let us take look
at the home and life Of the brave life
savers, who are guarding life and prop
ertv along our coas's. Few people
realize what these men have to endure.
or how many heroic de- DIS could be
gathered from the records Of even one
Of these little stations.
In the year 1891 tn. disasters on
onr ocean and lake coas numbered
49,, with passenger list of 3ia1:
Of these 344l we're saved by the gal
liant keepers and their brave men, and
over $50 persons were cared for at
the different stations.
We can judge from this report how
efficient must be the corps Of officers
in this important department of the
Government; millions of dollars worth
of pre- perty, in the shape of valuable
cargoes, are yearly saved from the
greedy ocea'. by The crews of the l.le-
Saving Service.
There are now on the American
coasts 230 stations prop 'rly equipped,
and the cost to the Government is made
good by the value of lives and money
saved: indeed, under the present sys-
tenn, there are fewer lives lost yearly
on the whole colst-llne than were for
mtrlv sacrificed on the jersey coast
alone IN that time.
The general superintendent Of the
Life Saving Service resides at Wash
ington: there are district snperintend-
ents who have charge of all stations in
their district, which they must visit
once In three months. Each district
superintendent must Inspect the pub
lie property, aud drill the various
crews in all exercises, on the occasion
Of his visit of Inspection.
A journl of the daily doings at each
station is forwarded weekly to the
Department at Washington; where
wrecks occur, and lives or vessels are
lost, rigid investigation is made by
the Department, with a view to detect
ing possible neglect or carelessness on
the part of the life-savers.
Or Tuesdays there Is boat practice:
this consists in hauling the boa car
rage to the beach unloading, launch
ing her, and pulling out through the
backing, turnidg, or doing just
what the keeper commands, he steer
ing the boat. After practice, the boat
is put on the carriage, hauled back to
the boat house, cleaned, and left in
perfect order. Wednesday is signal
drill day. There is an international
code of signals, composed of flags
representing the different letters of
the alphabet. Each surfman has a
set of miniature flags, and he signals
to the keeper, who answers them with
his flags so any man at the station
can read message from wrecked
ship. All the principal maritime
nations have adopted this cole, and
as vessels are provided with flags, and
books containing the key to different
signals, printed in many languages,
communication between vessels and
stations can oe easily carried on, what
ever the ships nationality
Thursday is the day for drilling
with beach apparatus. A pole plant
ed in the sand represents the mast Of
the wrecked ship. The beach appara-
tus, ach-cart, hawsers, guns, lines,
blocks, and buoys are all run out in
short time and all the manouvers gone
through with, as if in actually rescur-
ing crew; from the time the word
action is spoken by the keeper till
the supposed man is brought to the
supposed beach, only six minutes have
passed. 1t seems almost incredible,
bnt their training has made all the
men models of promptness and o5edi
ence. After this drill the crew re-
turns the beach apparatus to the
station, leaving everything, as usual
in order.