Norwich bulletin., 1914-05-06

double blow by hammer operated by machinery. During two heavy logs m hours and thirty-ive minutes out of the twenty-four hours striking this bell by hand because the machinery had gone wrong and would not work She began at S:30 o'clock one morning. ceasely swinging the hammer and sound ing the double note of the bell. stopping not g. moment for rest or for sleep nor even for food until about o'clock the following morning One whole day and night doing the york that the rebell1ous machinery refused to dol The second day after this Mrs. Nichols stood beside the bell from darkness until daylight striking the signal with a hand hammer. But her report to the lighthouse service does not tell of her weary hours, sleepless, un- resting, famshed, during which the sig nals were sounded.
 A Modest Report
 It was all in the days work, and the files of the service show only this:
 T have the honor to report that the machinery of the fog signal, Gamewel No. B. was disabled July ?. 1906 at s:20 am. Telegrams were sent immediately to the lighthouse inspector and the light house engineer for assistance MT Burt came July 3, at 10 o'clock am, and made slight repairs. Meanwhile I had struck the bell by hand for twenty hours and thirty-five minutes. until the fog lftrd
 ''On the night of July 8. 19O6 the ma- chinery worked badly. striking irregu- Iarly. On the Fourth of July the machin- cry went to pieces, the great tension bar broke in two, and could not disconnect the hammer to strike by hand I stood all night on the platform outside and struck the bell with a nail hammer with all my might. The fog was dense with heavy mist, almost rain. The machinist from the office of the lighthouse engineer
 has. just replaced the tension bar Re- spectfully,
 JULIA E. NICHOLS, Keeper" In California is another woman Keeper of one of these beacons of the sea. Wbosa a mother preceded her, she. in turn, taking the place vacated by her husband on his death This is Mrs. Caroline Morse, keep CT of the Santa Barbara light station. Her father. Horace F. Williams was keener If fhe light from 1856 to 1865 Then her
 mother. Mrs Julia F. Williams, was an nointed and in the forty years durine
 which she tended the light she left the lighthouse only twice, according to the records of the service.
 Mrs. Williams lived in the Santa. Rar-
 hara lighthouse forty-nine years-ntne
 years with her husband and forty years
 with only her children. And every nirht of those forty years she climbed the iron steps leading up the inside of the tower to the great lantern, IFS feet above the srol,nd. and lighted and tended the lamp. Every one of those nights the lamp was trimmed at midnight or changed with ! her own hands for a fresh one, and every morning, as the sun gilded the mountain tops to the east. her hands extinguished the light and drew the cur l tain over. the lens.
 Only One Wreck.
 | In all those years the light never fail ed onee not even for an hour, and in al that time but one wreck occurred at the l point guarded by the giant eye in the l lighthouse tower. That was on beauti 1 full moonlight night in summer, when 3
 careless skipper allowed his vessel, the
 Pride of the Sea. to drift upon the rocks and reefs near the shore. When Mrs I Williams died, in 1905, her daughter Mrs. Caroline Morse, a widow, was ap- 1 pointed to succeed her.
 That the life stories of these heroines 1 of Uncle Sam's beacon lights are moi unmixed with pathos is shown by the 1 fact that almost all of the woman light l house keepers have succeeded husbands 1 who either lost their lives in the light | house service or who died while occupy l ing the post of keeper of some lighthouse An instance:
 l Commander Charles J. McDougal U $. N, in charge of the California light 1 house district, left the lighthouse tendel 1 Manzanita, anchored off the light station l at Cape Mendocino, in surf boat witf | eight members of his crew, for the pur 1 pose of inspecting the station and pay ] Ing off the keepers. Keepers of light