The Bottineau courant., 1909-04-23
Tho Only Wonder Is That Any Of
These Lonely Workers Escape In.
sanity-PitifuI Plight Of tho Isolated
keeper at -Four an Einisterra.


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 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 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
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 we'll man pre-
scribes from the medicine chest for
the sick one rs 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 hammock and launch his
weighted body from the rocks into the
sea. Then come long nights of lonely
watching.
tended and the clockwork kept going
for fourteen to fifteen hours. The Ian
tern is Inheated except for the glow
of the lamps up in its ceiling, and the
government allows the watcher no
chair lest he fall asleep.
It 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
Ihine 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
a station on an isolated rock a couple
of miles out from the shore, but so
surf beaten that only once 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 ne most
enjoyed was watching it through his
telescope. He could see the people 90
in and out and the children playing in
front Of it.
One day he saw something futter1ng
from the door jamb. He was puzzled.
Then it flashed on him that it was
Grape and that some one had died in
the house.
Was it his mother, he wondered, or
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 go. 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
to identify each and thus determine
the missing one. But In vain. All
walked with bowed head. The wom-
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 risksd
their lives to row out to him and break
the news of his wife's death found
him physical and mental wreck from
sleepless anxiety. But he had kept the
light burning faithfully all the time.
The French lighthouse keepers re-
ceive from 700 to $50 francs a year
$40 to $780, When they are worn
$50 %I,o~, ,otiro ~, a mansion ~ 81 IN 4