The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-11-01

Fire Island telegraph tower was rock
Ing and dancing in a December wind
of the Atlantic. which had turned, as
night came on. into gale. Except for
the chance respite of a January thaw.
Fire Island. last outpost of the United
States for outgoing vessels, first sight
Of home for the incoming, WOULD be I'M
III March a lost and isolated corner of
the world There would be no newspa-
pers. no letters; only the one telegraph
KEY 10 keep a score OF winter bound
people in touch with New York. that
antithesis OF their solitude whose lights,
on cloudy winter evenings. made a
blaze along the northwestern horizon.
In darkness. the tower appeared only
as splotch of light away up in the
air In the regular. sweeping flashes of
the revolving light it appeared as a
closed structure of painted steel, rising
ninety feet from the sand hill at its
base to the little room. all blazing win
dows. Of It's summit. Summer and win
ter the lights behind those windows
burn all night: and all night a man
with a telescope sits within, that New
York may know over its breakfast cof-
Zee how this liner has been sighted
bringing home the girls; how that
schooner is on Ere Island with cargoes
f0r the firm
His feet on the desk beside his tele-
graph key. a cushion behind him for
comfort. Woodford, the operator, sat
studying law. Presently an alarm clock
81 his elbow, OVERLAND with curious con-
trivances Of electric wires, gave a sharp
ring. He dropped his feet from the
desk. closed Pollock on Torts." kicked
shut the door of his fierce little stove
and crossed To one of the wooden
ehutes which kept the wind from his
long telescope. As he opened the lid
a race OF wind plunged in. singing his
lace with sand and spume blown from
the beach high as a swallow flies De-
Tending his cheeks with a handker-
chief, he trained his glass on that COR
aer OF the horizon from which incoming
vessels first show their lights, took a
long look, closed the chute Then he
peered through an Unfrosted corner of
the seward window and watched the
Atlantic as il became visible in the
heshes Of the revolving light. Because
u was December, and he had another
season on Fire Island to face. there
came over him again that terror of the
ocean and of loneliness which he had
iet all last winter-his first on Fire
island. His was an especial loneliness
'hat night, for Burke. his assistant. a
graduate surfman, who handled a tel
egraph key like Delaying pin. had
oeen called ashore with the last boat
70 The mainland. Burke's wife. who
elected To winter away from the island.
was sick. II the ice held hard. Burke
might be able 10 get back, when she
recovered. by a scooter" that queer
eraft which is half iceboat and half
NaIerooat and master OF both ice and
water. Until Burke's return, Wood
.ora' sleeping by snatches of an hour
anu depending on his alarm clock to
"aNe nun for observations. must keep
"@1ch all night and all day
me general manager had assigned
nun 10 Fire Island on his own applica-
0u. lie was studying law; he wanted
oe more than a telegraph operator
soine Gay He knew of this billet away
ut VI me ocean-little 20 do except 10
ep Nlglldnt-a solitude which would
uIlve him to study.
y Mo not been so hard the first sum-
ei' when the old operator was train
MN how 20 catch the topmast of
,eonilng vessels, 10 make out their
r Sc before the unskilled landsman
Th.u see even speck on the horizon.
hso-, ""N d summer motel down on the
n' picnic parties made their way
aus rom the mainland of SUNDAYS.
% although Woodford did not care
b-.,il, Tor the kind of people they
-, usnt and especially for the kind Of
H.. 'ney gave an air of company and
"e 70 the beach
p.einoer came and went. The hotel
r.. The excursions came no more
re sent his family over to Babylon
isi,.S me bay. and winter locked the
tbs. mere came storms. like the one
tf1,o was rocking the tower tonight.
o,,s,' When ii swayed as in an earth
kss. when II took all his manhood to
The nm UP there on his perch. And
reor1e was fun of strange whispering
ds,-,Vs and the night air alive with
s,, H., me winter colony there were the
MIL at the life-saving station a
and r1Ndy. the lighthouse people. he
tbra. re Among them all We're inst
can,a," omen. One was the wife of the
roi, lI at the station: a hard and he
tbro,,,,5l' Imam she. capable of swimming
ba,,s.e,, the breakers to rescue an ex-
fo- SurTman and OF slapping him
vyafa- looi when she had pumped the
head u out OF him. Captain Baxter. the
vith sllhouse keeper. was a widower
Once '~v grown, unmarried daughters
tu5a Nheh the first lodgings of soIf-
nIo0.os 0Ine over him. Woodford had
On ~ through sand and snow to ca1
7'b,,- Saxter girls Of an evening
tsth. we're little surprised Their
Vas his watch on-sat in the