Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-20

1T is my work." she says, land so 1 love
to do it,"
For weeks in winter Mrs Walker never
closes her eyes in sleep when night comes
Then it is that the windows inclosing The
light can be kept free from frost only by
constant cleansing. AT this time Mrs
Walker will not let Jake come up into the
little room where the light CLOVIS until
dawn. Then he brings her a cup of cof-
fee, and after she has drunk it she de-
scends the ladder and goes tc bed. That Is.
she generally does, but if the day is foggy
and a blanket of white hangs over the bay
so that the ships are lost to view, she looks
after the fog whistle, or, if that is out of
order, sets in motion the clock-like mech
anism that rings the fog bell. After that
she stays up until the fog lifts entirely or
the worst of 1t is over.
Twenty-One Years in a Lighthouse.
With the exception OF one year. Mrs.
Walker has spent all her time in America
in a lighthouse. 1t has been twenty-five
years since she landed on Sandy Hook with
her son, whose father had died in Germany
shortly before she set sail for this country
She had been working on the Hook only
few months when Jacob Walker, the assist
ant keeper of the Sandy Hook lighthouse.
met her and fell in love with her, and in
less than year after her arrival she was
taken to the lighthouse as Jacob Walkers
bride, her boy going along as Walkers
adopted son and taking his name.
There she helped her husband for four
years At the end of that period he was
transferred to Robbins Reef light, where
he remained until he died.
Mrs Walker believes that her husband
would be living still if it had been possible
to get "a doctor to him while he was ILL., But
because the bay was choked with floating,
grinding ice no one could reach the light
house, and so a heavy cold developed into
a fever and pneumonia; and one night
when a storm ragged and while the wife was
up with the light, cleaning the windows so
that death might not oVertake the ships,
that dark form stole into one of the little
circular bed rooms below while no one
watched.
After the funeral Rear Admiral Rogers
who was then a captain and inspector of
the third lighthouse district, found out that
Mrs. Walker wanted to be appointed keeper
of the lighthouse. Although it was, and
still is, against government regulations to
nut a woman in charge of a lighthouse out
at sea he interested himself in Mrs. Walk
ers behalf For three years the govern
ment refused to break rule that 1t had
made but in the meantime, While 1t hunted
for a man willing to go to the lonely post
Mrs Walker was left on Robbins Reef.
Twice the lighthouse board thought 1t mad
a man to take charge OF the llght put eacn
one. after he had gone down the bay and
viewed its isolated position, refused the
Job So finally the board, despairing or
ever securing man as keeper, ADOPTED
Captain Rogers suggestion and appointed
Mrs. Walker.
Her son Jake has been assistant keeper
for about ten years, and. although she has
been entitled to ten days vacation month
since that time, she has not taken advan-
tage of the regulation for a single day.
She has never been absent from the light
house for more than six eight hours at
stretch.
In all the years that she has been in
charge of the lighthouse Mrs. Walker has
rot received reprimand or had complaint
entered against her, despite the fact that
she has charge of a light which stands in
one of the worlds busiest harbors. Her
lighthouse has the reputation of being the
cleanest and best kept in the third district
Mrs. Walker is very modest about her
record. In her quaint, broken English she
says to those who compliment her:
You think it fine? l am glad. But l
like to work 1t keeps me contented and
happy. And why don't l take vacation
once In while and let Jake take care of
the light? Ach! 1 wouldn't know what to
do with a whole day ashore-and then, l
love the light"
Two things. however, Mrs. Walker does
leave to her assistant-going ashore for
supplies and rescuing rowboat fishermen.
Not nfrequently young Walker has to
lower his boat from the davits on the light
houses sea wall and pull out to boat
caught and being crushed in the ice, or cap
sized by a sudden squall or the wash of a
lrer- In effecting several of these rescues
he himself mas narrowly escaped DefnS
crushed by the ice that often piles up eight
and ten feet high about the lighthouse.
Perilous Trips for Supplies.
He has also had not a few perlous trips
to st. George for supplies. In good weather
the distance is covered in less than half an
hour but when the autumnal storms and
winter set dn Jake does well IL he can
make shore after two hours Of rowing.
Frequently he gets ashore but when he
starts to return he is forced to put back to
Staten Island and wait for the storm to
die down. He spent three hours the day
before last New Year day trying to reach
the lighthouse with a turkey and fxngs
but at last and only when he was half
frozen. he gave up the struggle, with the
result that the people on the Robbins reef
had no New Year dinner.
This rOwboat communication with the
mainland, and the only kind that there is.
is much interrupted at this season of year.
Last winter Jake did not get ashore more
than half dozen times. But there Is al
ways one day that he makes every effort to
get over to St George. That is the day be-
fore Christmas when his wife and their
three children-Emma, the eldest, four
years old; Katherine and Alberta, the baby
go to New York to see the Christmas
toys and buy gifts for one another and the
faithful woman left alone In the lighthouse.
This is one Of the two or three times
year that these three water babies get on
land, and the sights that they see make
their little eyes bulge with wonder and fur
with their gra ndmother, who, until her son
m a dva hod hAr kxwA