Show 2 look ache and jump after the next sea yelled our boatman A wae came swirling round the masonry hurled our small boat into the air and then went skimming off toward the shore a mile away the motor snorted disgustedly we were still on the launch hang it all shouted dwyer you fellows have got to catch that ladder between waves or we II 11 be here all day besides I 1 can t hold her off much longer he strained on his iron tipped boat hook above us rose ninety six feet of solid masonry straight up the side an iron ladder slippery w th moss and barnacles reached to a little eye ot a door the object of our desire where two men shouted in derision for the reporter brought up by the sea was very ill and longed for the steady floors of the lighthouse the artist who was a western man and knew naught of the sea placidly fished for perch and caught ins with a reel that was manifestly tended for nothing larger chaa another wave rounded ine light and this time the third man of the party an australian who was visiting the reporter caught the ladder and corn fenced the ascent followed by the other two to one who has an aversion to high places the getting up this ladder Is a fearful thing the door is forty feet from the water and seems but the alternative Is being tied in a chair and pulled up from above with the delightfully erratic motion of a derrick manned by men with little cold shivers running up and down his spine the reporter crawled through the door at the top of the ladder and the first thing he did on arriving in side was nearly to fall down a well into thirty eight feet of water this was the first or several surprises the well is actually there if it ever occurred to one to figure out how the men on minot s light get their water the guess probably did not include the possibility of a well but there it is it Is filled once a year by a water boat from boston and the statement of the keeper Is that the las bucket is always as fresh as the first the party was welcomed by keeper J E prates and his assistant kracoe G lopaus and were speedily abed into the mysteries of the light that guards one of the most dangerous ledges in the bay the lenses were the chief attraction and to reach them it was necessary to go up five stor eg through the lamp room the guard rooms the kitchen and the sleeping quarters of the crew and very interesting they proved to be the rooms are necessarily round of course and a spiral stairway runs up through the whole 1 gh corn at the lower floor efrom this point down the light Is solid granice blocks dovetailed together and built six feet thick around the bell after strict instructions to touch nothing and promises to behave the party a allowed one by one to feature of the establishment it was rather surprising to find that the little dot that flashes all night Is but a small part of the whole scheme of the lens one rather expected it to be very large because so bright the leas itself is a glass chamber about six or seven feet across that floats in mercury somewhere below and which revolves by clockwork clock worl around the lantern the glass is cut into prisms so that the whole lens looks as much like a washboard as anything although lery much larger the object of these prisms Is not to throw the light out but to reflect it back into the chamber on to the bulls eyes of the opposite side which throw the beam this lighthouse Is not now a fixed light as it was formerly but is revolving showing the number and so these bull 12 inches in diame up THE LIGHT THE bawrs ter are placed in the lens chamber just opposite the flame ot the lantern first a single one then an opaque spot then a group of four with opaque between and finally after another opaque a group ot three the result Is apparent the whole lens revola ing around the lantern shows these bull one by one in the range of the flame and from a given point at the effat t is the number after seconds of darkness while three quarters of a revolution is made there is a repetition of the number the lantern Is very ordinary in size and appearance except that it has three concentric wicks the reason was selected Is because it offers a simple combination and because there are as many numbered lights B about the lenses and lan tern as indeed evereth ng in the whole place is scrupulously clean ano neat the reporter climbed down from inside the lens chamber where it was particularly hot to find the australian and assistant keeper lopaus on th lower parapet where it was barly cool in interesting conversation on the matter of storms the reporter later asked assistant lopaus if he was in the light at the time of the great storm of and whether he was afraid the question was met with fine humor A lighthouse is no place for a man to get scared in because there s no chance to run he said besides we have had worse storms than that one wh that particular storm dian didn t kick up nearly as much of a sea as a good many we ve had since there have been waves during the past win ter that were higher although that time they splashed over the lantern so the people ashore say of course we know anything about it we did not know that it was a high tide and that it blew pretty hard so we shut up the blinds and let her rip well how about that storm in corn parison to the one that destroyed the old lighthouse on this ledge in 1851 f was it no I 1 don t think it was as bad the tide was higher but there gasn wasn t near the sea but it s not the sea that bothers us out here although she does shake some but it is the ice in winter that keeps us from going ashore two men out here for two weeks long for the two weeks ashore but when the ice conies one cannot get ashore for a month perhaps and is unpleasant the going down the light was f possible less pleasant than going up anxious to do the thing thorough ly it was the australian who suggest ed the chair and the descent was made in that manner one sits in the chair on the floor of the light just inside and with bach to the door he shuts eyes and communes with himself the rope passes through a block at the end of a davit that projects several feet from the side of the lighthouse therefore when he has shot out from the door and swung back and forth awhile he finds himself suspended forty feet above the water then comes the lowering process which must be ex perien ced to be appreciated and fenall at the end the hazardous process of getting from the cacir to the deck of the boat it is really a very interesting experience when the party was all down the boat under way and the artist had his arrangements working trawl ing tor who knows what the boat puffing came abreast of a dilapidated white painted lighthouse on the shore at scituate beach it was the old i scituate light home of the heroic bates girls who during the war of 1812 took a fife and drum and hit up yankee doodle to such good effect that they scared away an english mano war that was anchored off the point looking at the old tower long unused and thinking of things of the past a beam of light fell across the boat and turning one could see ml not s winking away through the night the sun had set and the work of the lighthouse had commenced watch ing the number flashing out sending its warning across the sea thoughts came of the old tower on the shore and of the strong hearts that lived there and the contrast of the old and the new even the artist folded up his rod as the boat drew into the bar bor |