Show THE FIRST lighthouses they were n ot alie ilace on lieutenant john AI ellacott U 8 N writes for st nicholas a paper on lighthouses entitled tho lights that guido in the night lieutenant elli cott says i when ships are sailing upon tho 1 tho lights of heaven are their guides even in the dark ages when tho compass aud sextant acro unknown instruments tho seemingly motionless pole star imag liko a beacon light iu the i northern heavens and the rising and of tho sun and stars distinguished the east from tho west when however ships come tho land the lights of beaven are not sufficiently safe to guide them bocks lie in their paths unseen in the night reefs and shoals spread under tho water while unsuspected currents sweep the frail craft all blindly upon these dangers nevertheless ships were sailed along dangerous coasts for centuries before a plain system of marking dangerous places was invented the early mar iners were bold and reckless rovers inore than half pirates who seldom owned a rood of tho coasts along which they sailed and could not have established lights and landmarks on them bad they cared to do so the rude beginning then of a system of lighthouses was when the merchants with whom the reckless mariners traded in those dark ages boalt beacons near abo harbor mouths to guide the ships into port by day and lighted fires for their guidance at night As such a harbor guide had to bo a sure landmark in the daytime and a light by night it soon took on a settled shape a tower on which could be built a alre and such a tower was usually built of stone this method of guiding the ports which they sought was esarco ly established before human wickedness used it as a means for their destruction of robbers or as they camo to be called wreckers would hide themselves somewhere near the sought by a richly laden vessel and after overpowering the fire keepers would extinguish the beacon fire on alio on which the was then they would light another firo near some treacherous reef the mariner sailing boldly toward the falso ligat would dash his vessel to destruction on tho reef whereupon the robber band would plunder the wreck and mako kofl with the booty |