The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 25, 1906, Page 15

THLE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY: CALL. WHERE ISOLATI DISTINCT-FROM DULLNESS O E IR OX ETAET L O ant we could not, if we » violence to the green things in planted earth. cottages have been huilt since ¢, Mr. Rankin said as we left tion; *“but that need not mean they for I've been at this one post e years. Before coming here 1 nt keeper over at East Broth- lsland Light, at the entrance to San Bay. Point the was established Point Bonita, station same year as cottage was a bit of a e " hous me on board ship the long ] wal. Journey round the Horn.” g tog If these cottages are not new they kept'as to have an ess, in'm jon, and the seemed not a little pleased as he 50 beautifs e of them oursel: attend the repa.. . care of this -bridge, too, we have to be mechanics and s and painters and reral handy men at 1 le time, I stly say I hav. any. yvet when we reached the cot- d pleasant Mrs. Rankin ushered its bright living room, I ob- ed that the busy keeper had found to put on canvas many of the sea bered from the days be- entered th& service, when as on a man-of-war he made ice with the wo:ld. nd_this pleasure and a difig have so filled the from the life actically com- of many is p! intervals i come dowr art that.in its and so quickly was it 1 that this man has found his ved th ssment mispl nts on onous indeec "hey are var! weather If and as vital even « not to sympathize e keepers of other stations more d than Fort Point, but I put it to Rankin to say ther the thre ¥ ge of the Mile ot f their close jarters very irksome. he very wall f their tower are washed by the every side. There is no space for e the smallest yard nor the tiniest f garden. n’'t walk about to be sure,” Rankin, “but there is hardly ear but small boat the rock and make the utes. And so con- it is, with storeroom and fresh water in the base, the landing platform on the lee side, umproom with pumps supplying cool- & water for the engines operating the signal, and the fine equipment Mile Rock were Five-Mile Rock or n-Mile Rock, the keepers might feel their confinement more, but there from a ne awest give gpace 1 s and a heavy he lling pos- them from the erosion € [ the sea “ expect a signal sta- of a fort to be graced w flowers, would No more @id T expect it, and yet thers e. between the engine room and the flower beds and a tiny grass narrow pavement lead.- spans the cut be- hill has the true vark spirit ts across this grass are guards not unlike the cro- of blessed memory are is always 80 much to do they probably wouldn’t think themselves so ,badly off even then.” Again 1 am referred to the content closely set to encourage the pedestrian to keep to the winding ribbon of cement. that is born of occupation and clearer So when we start for the bridge beyond than ever becomes the impossibility of stands the cottage of the keeper understanding any man without duly TTE EW HLIZE TeOCTE STHIITON MORE BESTRICT=S considering the work of his hand and brain I wondered timist would how this consider confirmed op- life in the sta- tion on St. Georges Reef. Nine miles out from Crescent City, the position seems lonely enough by that, but the northern climate—the reef s near the Oregon boundar and ‘the heavy weather that there prevails for much of the time renders it often inaccessible. Occasionally the inspector going up from this port has arrived off the sta- tion in a storm so rough as to make landing impossible, and, after waiting about for daws in the hope of calm weather, has been compelled to return to port. Besides, though the station is one of the finest in the world, having cost e R oZIT Zr GEIE ST TN three-quarters of a million, it is neces- sarily so bullt that there is no room for women, and the keeper with lis two assistants are appointed from the un- married applicants. They are snug enough, to be sure, each man with his own room. one above the THTY KX LG SHIE <~ COTTrIGES STHZZ O other and a clubroom.at the top, while a common housekeeping plan adds to their daily task—but ratuer hard lines we would call it, wouldn't we? Mr. Rankin sees in such a scheme of life a chance for the men to develop any spe- cial craft-that may aoveal tc them. and 2 points to the excellent cabinet work done by the present keeper as an example. He had ever a taste for carpentering, this keeper of St. Georges Reef, and in the hours that have been his own he has fashioned chests and tool cases and lock- ‘ers that are beautiful examples of cabi- netmaking. Whether the keepers themselves consii- er their post as philosophically as do those on the outside I cannot tell. Per- haps when a certain keeper of this station was anxious to pay a visit to his sweet- heart on the mainland and was prevented by storms and fog from so much as send- ing her a note for weeks at a time, he ralled with fervor against the reef, the station, himself for being there and the slow-moving department that would not at once transfer him. But when, as truly happened, he took advantage of a calm day to make the lit- tle journey and married the girl of his heart's desire, thereafter moving to Pig- eon Point light, where wives are not only provided for but welcomed, the memory of the difficulties impdsed by the other post was no clearer than the memory of its pleasures. All these things, and many others, we talked over as we stood on the porch of the cottage or walked over the small do- main, that is without an equal for charm of outlool Of the dangers there was little to say, according to Keeper Rankin, for though he has had his share of life-saving, that. like everything else, has been a part of the day's work—incidental. ““The department feels the importance of changing men from isolated posts,” sald he, “more than do the men themselv On the lightships the rule is that fi weeks of service shall be varled by two weeks' shore leave, but half the time the men have to be forced to go ashore. They * are so satisfied with the ship, they like the routina of their service so well, that the retief isn't welcomed.” Of Keeper Young he spoke, too, telling of the beauty he brought out in the rese; vation at Port Harford: how flow and shrubs and grass flourished under his care until that station became one of the most attractive in all the ¢ t. g He must have been unwilling to give it even to come to Alcatraz, I think, though he is commencing the same plan of decoration at the new post, and boxes and borders already attest the care of a lover of flower: So many of my ideas were dissipated on this day that 1 ng seemed difficult or tedious, and when I finally took my de- parture by the winding path that meets the PORZT™ FrREORD ZLGHZ road a little east of the fort it was with a feeling that even the keepers of Point Reyes light. seventeen miles from a lemon though they are, and though every trip from their cottage. to the tower means a climb of nearly 809 steps, are very favored and fortunate people. Afterward when I mentioned this conclusion to Captain Mayo, government inspector for this Twelfth District, he assured me it was quite correct and said that the keeper's wife, the one woman at the station, is entirely satisfied with the life there. Some of the younger men in the serv- ice, though pleased with the life ‘it af- fords, are vet restless because the rate of advancement is slow and the highest sal- ary to which they may attaln is less than they think they could earn in another way, So they busy themselves with corre- spondence courses in drawing or engineer- ing or any other craft that may be de- pended upon to open for them the door of the world's success. Of longer: experience, the older keepers do not think of change. Each one puts his heart into his work and “The heart lendeth grace to every art.” The keeper and three assistants who have charge of the Farallon Light and Fog Signal Station are only a part of the island colony, for the War Départment there maintaing & wireless telegraph piant ‘that were scormed with three operat one wnom 13 married, and thers mo A sta n estab e Weather Bure where two sually employed For a lohg ehool was regularly heild T = v fam ing - th miles Satugday and day spend the w returning to rncon isco But most of the dren grew away from school age and theteacher ceased her journeyings back and forth, so the single room, though still edWipped with blackboard, desks and seats, is no longer used, the two o ople who are now in t of their development lear eir mothers t hat prepare them for s the r on One of the most int the colony— tell you so—is Not the great ¢ America brougt many of us singing of “The Last Rose of new possibilities in t t tour of so to and the human voice Htttle beast of burden whos ears have been s 2 the ai Pacific, drawing provisions rding lit- tie tramway from r carrying like a Chilean pack ans of ofl from the storehcuse to the ligh This litt key has learned the whis- tle of th ug makes a fort » station. She recog- nizes it as prelimina to a. season of ex- tra hard work, and whe r the sound reaches her she escapes to one or another of the ed parts of the rocky island whe chaves as incgmspicu- ously as. pc until captured and brought back to Scores of in her ears betwee t! g, but she never makes a mistake. She has learned in the schoel of tribulation. The water supply of Farallon and other rocky points where dr! & might be con- tinued indefinitely without success must come by rainfall. A sloping stretch of land is smoothed and cemented, as shown in the foreground of the accompanying picture of Port Har- ford, and all the water falllng upon ft drains into a great cistern—or more than one—where it is stored for use in the dry season. In making its visits the Government tender carries always twe or three “libraries”—boxes containing soma tnree dozen books—and these are left with the keepers between trips, a mem- orandum record preventing confusion as to the pests that have had a given box. Stories of travel and adventure have first favor, if dog-eared leaves tell truly, while some are read only as a last re- sort from idle hours. And small wonder! “Sanford and Mer- ton" can never ha been a really pop- ular tale even in the days when mental anaemia passed for moral culture, and to find it included among present lit- erary offerings for rugged men—our keepers of the light—smacks of the ri- diculous. Of the same sort are many other stories. attenuvated as to incident but plethoric of language, the “goody- goody” books of a generation ago, which will be,sent on to generations still to come, for all the wear and tear they here receive. Just as the small those pieces of boy finally eats s ' Christmas candy in the flush of the first day’s richness of choice, 5o these volumes may be given .an occasional trial, but always with results as far rom profitable. Although In most of the stations that dot California’s long coast line women have an important share of the work there has been anly one to bear the official title of keeper. She is Mrs. Williams, who for more than forty years watched over the Santa Barbara light and who ranked, at the time of her resignation, last D cember, dean of th vice. Her husband, carpenter, built the light tower i as he served as keeper for six years, Mrs. Willlams has scarcely known another home. But for an unfortunate fall w suited in serious imjury she wou be at her duties, though years old, and even in her refirement she holds a splendid record—one that California proudly offers to the world. Of the other women of the ser and they feel themselves as cssentlally a part of it as their I ands many are swimmers and oarsmer daring skill, growing into a feariess ness of wind and wave that seems nothing less than foolhardy to their timid sisters of the land. When Mrs. Beeman, wife of the then keeper of the Farallon stath dared the voyage over thirty miies of troub sea in a sail-boat that seem a shell, in order to bring her alling son to & physician's care, busy San Francisco o may stopped long enough In its hurrving to marvel at her courage. They thought but little of it, accustomed to the water must have and the water's moods, but come, as she assured | tlonars, for her child's sake, though the waves had been twice as rough and the dis- tance twice as far. au The dispatches have scarcely ceased telling, of the fortit ot e wife of Keeper Patterson of Cape Beale light station, who for three days and nights, seventy-two hours, remained at the telegraph key and the telephone doing her utmost to keep an anxious world informed of the progress of the rescue work on the unfortunate Valencia. Relatives and friends of passengers on board on this last voyage the steam- er made did not know at what cost the hourly bulletins were sent and it did not oceur to Mrs. Pattersen that she was doing anything worthy of com- ment. Just as her husband, forgetting food and sleep, searched the shore for vie- tims of the wreck. considering it a matter of simple duty, so she did what she could, and not until days after- ward was her service known. Grace Darling, revered wherever tales of feminine courage are repeated, is only a type after all. We would learn of her oftén If her present day likeness did but regard themselves deserving of mentlon