Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-11-28
LIFE IN LIGHTHOUSES.
Much Worse Than Prison, and Keepers
Lose Their Minds.

|
Lose Their Minds.
During the storms that rage inter-
mittently around our coasts in winter,
the landsman's mind turns in sympa-
thy toward those who in ship or life
boat are fighting the waves for dear
life. But how often does he give one
thought to the men who immure them
selves in the lighthouses that stud our
coast line?
Il would rather spend my life in a
penal settlement than be lighthouse
keeper" declared a gentleman to the
writer, after visit to the Bishop light
house, off the Cornish coast. "A con.
vict does see little of the world he
| lives in, but a lighthouse keeper sees
nothing but dreary expanse of wa
ter. l am not surprised that many Of
them should lose their mental bal
ance."
The visitor to the Bishop lighthouse
| did not over color the picture. 1t was
| only the other day that one read of the
Longships lighthouse, also off the coast
of Cornwall, having been completely
isolated for many weeks in conse-
quence of fearful storms. The keepers
had been reduced to smoking coffee,
hops and tea leaves, though, fortunate
ly, they had not wanted for food.
The keepers of the famous Eddy
stone lighthouse not infrequently find
themselves in a similar predicament
In a gale the waves that buffet them
selves against this wonderful monu-
ment to the engineering skill of the
country are of such stupendous magni-
tude that they rise to height of 200
feet, and sweep right over the Ian
tern. To those cooped up inside the
sound of these waves is like that of
battery of guns at close quarters. "At
such times the house shakes like a
tree with man on the top of it," was
the graphic description of one who
spent many years of life there.
The new Eddystone is the roomiest
and most comfortable of all our rock
lighthouses. A sectional view shows
the various compartments, commenc.
ing at the bottom with the water tank,
then the entrance, the two oil recepta-
cles, the store room, the crane, the liv-
ihg apartment, the low light, the bed
room and the service room. Formerly
only two keepers were employed in
the lighthouse, but a grim incident re-
suited in their number being increased.
One of the two men died. So fierce ran
the seas that the remaining keeper
could not get the body of his late COM
Jade to the shore. For a month the
tempestuous weather continued and for
a month the surviving keeper lived
alone in that solitary place with the
body as his only companion. He was
afraid to cast it into the waves for he
might be accused of murder.
Keepers of rock lighthouses do not
last long. The incessant pounding of
the waves against the building, the
loneliness, the want of fresh air and
exercise reduce the men to a state of
nervousness that is sometimes pitiful
to behold. They require fortnight's
leave every six weeks, but this liberal
allowance does little to improve their
physical state. A medical man whose
one of our lighthouses confesses that
there is no remedy for the ills pecu-
liar to the keepers except retirement.
The utter isolation of the silent SEN
tinels of our coast is we'll illustrated
by the case of the Bishop lighthouse
aforementioned, which stands right out
in the Atlantic. Not once in a year
&c,
ent to land his stores at the lighthouse
steps. They have to be hauled up by
means of windlass from above. A
visitor bold enough to visit the place
is admitted" in similar way He
places one foot in a moose at the end
or rope, which is thrown down to his
boat, and gripping the rope firmly
above his head he is drawn up to the
''set off" as the plinth round the light.
house is called Thence he climbs up
a perpendicular ladder to the door of
the lighthouse.
Superstition adds a terror to the life
of the men in this lighthouse, for the
first structure was washed away bodi-
ly, and the keepers believe that the
rock is haunted. A fear of a different
kind keeps the men of Muckle Flugga
lighthouse-the most northern point of
Scotland-on the tenterhooks of a ter
rible suspense. On three occasions the
huge black rock on which the light
house stands has been shaken by an
earthquake.
There is something comical, though
characteristic of the stiff-necked Scot
in a story which comes from a neigh
boring lighthouse, which is in charge
of two different families. They live
on desert island. From year end to
year end they never see a visitor, ex-
cept the man who brings their stores
Eighteen months ago the heads of the
two families quarreled and ever since
they have ceased to speak.
At the shore lighthouse of Ushinish
the keepers family have to travel 40
miles to kirk. 1t is no reflection on