The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-01-09
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-Pitiful Plight of the Isolated
Keeper at Four en- Finisterre.

=
\ French writer. telling Of the life
OF the lighthouse keepers along the
coast of Brittany, thinks il strange
that any of them escape insanity.
The system Of relief that prevails I'm
this country has no equivalent in rhe
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 he 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 1t takes the
form Of hatred Of each other
In one case at TERRENCE. one of two
men was found by party who came
of from the shore in response to sig
mails lying dead in his bed with a long
keen bladed knife through his heart.
His companions story was that he
had committed suicide after a long
period of melanCholia. 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
1T,
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 he 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 we'll 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
| tended and the Clockwork kept going
! for fourteen to fifteen hours. The Ian
! tern is unheated except for the glow
~>p 10 IN, nd no
! government allows the watcher no
| chair lest he fall asleep.
1t is no wonder that weird fancies
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
| CRATE at night beat against the walls
| 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
|
within.
One OF the most pitiful stories OF
lighthouse life is told Of the keeper al
Four en- Finisterre, who kept all alone
a station on an isolated rock couple
| of miles out from the shore, but Sc
surf beaten that only once a month
or SO was a boat sent out to it with
supplies.
The cabin in which the keeper mad,
his home was on the shore opposite his
lighthouse. and the recreation he mos
enjoyed was watching it through hi:
telescope. He could see the people &c
in and out and the children playing Fl
front of ii.
One day he saw something fiutterine
from the door jamb. He was puzzled
Then 1t flashed on him that it was
Grape and that some one had died II
the house.
Was it his mother, he wondered, o.
his wife or one Of his brothers? H.
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 h.
watched the crowd of sympathizins
friends come and so. Then he saw tn
| funeral.
He recognized the cure at the hea'
of the procession by his white surplic
and the altar boys walking beside him
Then came the coffin, carried by 81!
men.
AS the mourners walked after it b.
strained and strained his eyes tryinI
to identify each and thus determine
the missing one. But in vain. A
| walked with bowed head. The WON
ems faces were buried in their hand
kerchiefs; the men held their hats be
fore theirs. He could make out moth
| ing characteristic.
The men who eight days later riske,
| their lives to row out to him and brea'
| the news of his wife's death foun,
him a physical and mental wreck iron
sieepless anxiety. But he had kept tn
light burning faithfully all the time
The French lighthouse keepers re
ceive from 700 to $50 francs a year
| $40 TO $3.50. When they are wor,
out they retire on a pension of $3.50
uonth-Chicaco Record Herald