Amador ledger., 1908-01-24
LIGHTHOUSE KEEPERS
Weird VigiIs Of the Men In the
French Service.
TOLL THAT BREEDS MADNESS.
The Only Wonder Is That Any of
These Lonely Workers Escape In
sanity-Pitful Plight Of the Isolated
Knnner at -Four en- Einisterrc.


A French writer, telling of the life
of the lighthouse keepers along the
coast OF Brittany, thinks it strange
that any of them escape insanity.
The system of relief that prevails in
this country has no equivalent in the
French service, and, with short inter
walls. months apart, a French light
house keeper may spend forty years of
his life tending the lamps in one sta
ton. with a single companion and that
station may be on a rock out in the
channel or the bay of Biscay, which
boats can approach only in fine
weather.
As matter of fact, the men often
do become insane or at least develop
monomania. Sometimes it takes the
form Of hatred of each other.
In one case, at Terennec, one of two
men was found by a party who came
off from the shore in response to sig
nails lying dead in his bed with long
keen bladed knife through his heart.
His companions story was that he
had committed suicide after a long
period of melanchoia. There was no
proof to the contrary. but after exam
lining the wound the authorities doubt
ed the truth of the story.
On another occasion, where father
and son tended an isolated beacon to-
gether. the young man was seized with
an attack of acute mania. When the
time came to light up he planted him
self in front Of the stairway to the Ian
tern and refused to allow his father to
ascend.
The old man attacked his son and,
finding he could subdue him in no
other way, so that the lights on which
so many lives depended might be kim
died, strangled him to death. The next
day he signaled to the shore for help
and gave himself up to the police, tell
ing what lie had done.
Sickness and death are no strangers
in the lighthouses. There is ninety
nine times out of hundred no chance
of medical aid, and the well man pre-
scribes from the medicine chest for
the sick one as best he can. He also
does double duty until his partner re-
covers or relief comes.
There are not infrequent cases when
the survivor has to sew up his dead
comrade in a hammock and launch his
weighted body from the rocks into the
sea. Then come long nights of lonely
watching.
In winter time the lamps must be
fhn nla q
for fourteen to fifteen hours. The LAM
tern is unheated except for the glow
of the lamps up in its ceiling, and the
government allows the watcher no
chair lest he fall asleep.
1t is no wonder that weird fancles
come to the men. They hear voices
calling from the sea and see drowned
men and women looking up at them
from the breakers. One Of their hor-
rors is of the birds that beat against
the windows of the lantern at night,
attracted by the glare.
Just as is the case with American light
houses, the feathered armies that mi
and balconies of the beacons with their
wings and dash against the panes Of
the lantern, sometimes breaking the
glass with their beaks. AS their eyes
shine in the glare they seem to express
anger or blOodthirstiness to the men
within.
One of the most pitiful stories Of
lighthouse life is told of the keeper at
-Four en- Finisterre, who kept all alone
station on an isolated rock couple
of miles out from the shore, but so
surf beaten that only once a month
or so was a boat sent out to it with
supplies.
The cabin in which the keeper made
his home was on the shore opposite his
lighthouse, and the recreation he most
enjoyed was watching it through his
telescope. He could see the people go
in and out and the children playing in
front of it.
One day he saw something fluttering
from the door jamb. He was puzzled
Then 1t flashed on him that it was
Grape and that some one had died in
the house.
Was 1t his mother, he wondered, OF
his wife or one OF his brothers? He
counted the children later in the day,
and they were all right.
The wind blew, and the water ragged
No boat could come near him, and he
watched the crowd of sympathizing
friends come and so. Then he saw the
funeral
He recognized the cure at the head
Of the procession by his white surplice
and the altar boys walking beside him
Then came the coffin, carried by six
men.
AS the mourners walked after it he
strained and strained his eyes trying
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