Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1898-10-07
ALIGHTH0USE ROMANCE
HOW TIE KEEPER or TIT MAN IN
MAINE CHOSE A WIFE.


HOW TIE KEEPER OF TIT MAN IN
MAINE CHOSE A WIFE.
The Funeral Baked Meats Set Forth the
Wedding Dinner, and SO Amos lsiee Had
New Companion in His LDuesune
Eyrie-Caiied II Good Days Work.
Petit Manan lighthouse, OF "Tit
Nan" as the natives call it, is one OF
those spidery-looking affairs which
rise from the water among some dan
gerous shoals of Winter Harbor, Me-,
and Is supported by four iron tubes
securely fastened into holes drilled
into the solid rock. About thirty feet
above high tide, but not entirely ont
ofreach Of the waves when gale Is
blowing, is a house built OF corfugat-
cd iron. Tho lower story 10 for stor-
age purposes. Here three months
provisions and stock Of fresh water
are always kept in case the light
keeper should be cut off from the
shore, and stock of oil sufficient to
keep the lamp burning all winter.
There is little machine shop, too,
where necessary repairs can be made
when necessary. Above these are the
living apartments, two rooms, about
20 feet by Ia in size. One Of them is
drawing room, sitting-room, library
and chamber combined; the other is
kitchen, dining-room, etc, etc, Out
side, ON all four sidos Of the building,
is a gallery, or piazza, where the
lightkeeper can sit in his leisure hours
and enjoy the changing scenery Of the
sea, or drop a hook over the railing
and catch fish for dinner or breakfast.
Above is the tower with an enor-
nous lamp, whose rays can be seen
for several miles. II revolves so
many times an hour and winks regu-
larly twice a minute al the mariners
that haunt this coast. During the
winter the lenses are often crusted
with salt from the spray that spatters
them.
A lonesome place is "'Tit Nan"
lighthouse, thirty mies from shore,
and the only means Of communication
a rowboGi There are no neighbora
any nearer and no visitors disturb the
solitude Of the lightkeeper except
once or twice year, when the inspec-
tor comes around or curious people
from pleasure yacht climb the iron
ladder from curiosity
Amos Rice has kept "'Tit Nan"
light for more than quarter of
century and his wife lived with him
all this time. Their children we~e
grown and married off or engaged in
employment elsewhere, SO that they
had nothing to trouble them and we're
able to put by the greater part of the
salary of $50 a month which the gov
ernment has paid Amos for protecting
commerce against disaster upon the
shoals.
A few weeks ago Mrs. Rice peace
fully terminated long and lonesome
life and went to Join the choir ip-
visible. Amos had to keep her body
four days before he could fulfil his
promise to bury her with her folks"
at Winter Harbor, for the sea was
high. 1t is no easy job for man un~
aided to remove body from tower
like that into rowboat that is toss
ing furiously upon the waves, but
Amos finally did it. The first quiet
morning he left his bereaved home
the very minute it was lawful to put
his light out, rowed thirty miles over
a rough sea, and upon his arrival at
Winter Harbor called up the sexton
and the minister and what friends
could be summoned, and after brief
aud impressive service the body of
Mrs. Rice was committed to the dust
aud her soul to the God who gave it.
After they came from the cemetery
ono OF the neighbors asked Amos and
the friends to have little refresh
ment. OF course they all accepted,
and among others likely" widow
whose husband had been dead two
years aud who was ''boardin' round
among her relatives for want of a
home and Income. Amos grief was
not greater than his sense OF loneli-
ness. and, finding a sympathetic
chord in the heart of the widow, he
proposed to her in the pres
enee of the whole company, and,
the parson being present, they were
Immediately married. The bride
hurried over TO her sisters to put up
her things, while Amos continued
to receive mingled condolences and
congratulations
1t was four o'clock in the afternoon
when he started back to his watery
eyrie with his bride with thirty miles
Of rowing before him. If any ships
were out that night they must have
wondered why, for the first time in a
quarter Of a century, the CLEANS of the
"'Tit Nan" were not visible for two
hours after sunset. Amos reached
home at last. after performing what
he considers good days work for u
man who is more than sixty. He
rowed sixty miles In dory, buried
one wife and married anothef, and, as
in the case OF the King Of Denmark,
the funeral baked meats set forth the
wedding dinner. William L. Curtis
IN Chicago Record