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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 1907)
3 THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, JTTLT 7, 1907. - ' ' " - " ' ,: ' " . -- 1 IV PROUD OF HIS TRIGGER FINGER. Coeyrtrntsd, 190T. try Katherlne M. BirdaalL PICTUBES like the one above are frequently posed for by men who take no interest In the conditions of life among -wild birds or beasts other than to learn where they can be shot In the greatest numbers. Such men see few of the beauties of nature. Apparently they never are bothered by the fact that they have killed more same than they can eat. But if the In nocent animals that they destroy had teals, and these hunters were confront ed suddenly by these souls, they might find it hard work to ease their minds. How often we have seen in newspa pers photographs of scenes like the one herewith presented, showing some per son proud of the fact that he is sur rounded by a large quantity of game which he has killed. Here is a picture of supreme contentment and triumph. The hunter is prouder than was Napo leon when he was reviewing his army. Few occasions are ever so important to this overfed dyspeptic killer as when he is being photographed surrounded by the carcasses that have contributed to his day's fun. The torture he haa caused Is nothing to him, not to speak of the great loss of bird and animal life. The dogs sometimes look ashamed in such pictures, but the great hero is very proud of his trigger-finger and his splendid eye. He is at last a hero. It is a very strange part of our na ture, this desire to hold a killing bee. We soon would outgrow it, if we only studied the habits of harmless wild game. Then we would become aware of the pleasure thoy derive from ltfe. We are foolish enough to excuse our selves by saying, "Well, they don't en ?Joy life as we do, and so there's no harm in killing them." Such ignor ance! Untouched by the diseases that afflict the human race, the beautiful deer and wild birds lead a life so de lightful that almost any human being would be thrown into ecstasies over one brief week of such an existence, if not pursued "by men with guns. Could a hunter see a doe rear her fawn, observing day by day her moth erly care, and could he see the care bestowed and comfort taken by & pair of wild geese in rearing their little broods year by year, he would kill no more than was needed to satisfy hun ger. I" believe we are waking up to the enormity of the crime of killing inno cent game. I was present at a gun club dinner the other night, and the first speaker hit the nail on the head by saying that it was a strange sort of affair for him to attend, for he never had taken pleasure in trying to kill anything. And other speakers who had intended to tell of big hauls that they had made with the guns avoided the subject as a result of his example. A young doctor who sat near me said that after he had killed almost every thing that the law allowed him to, ex cept wild turkeys, he was invited to go to the South by a friend- who as sured him that he could give him some turkey shooting. After the doctor had shot two of the beautiful creatures, h spared sixteen that had been tricked, one at a time, into answering an imita tion of their own call. Instead of tak ing the lives of these birds of an al most extinct glossy species from the blind where he was hidden, the doctor photographed them, and somehow he enjoyed the camera work more than ha could have enjoyed using the gun. If you want to attend a dry affair, gt to a huntsmen's dinner in a generation; from now.' Our Beacon Lights Great Help to Navigation Story of American Lighthouses. Fowey Rocks and Tillamook. IN le;s than 200 years this country has marched from the position of haw ing no aids to navigation to being, in proportion to her coast line, the most perfectly protected country in the world. Historic and possibly first in order in difficulty of construction is Mlnot's Ledge, near Boston. On this lonely rock, awash with the tide at low water and covered at high water, a light house was erected in 1848. of iron piles, says the New York Sun. In 1861 the house was swept away and all in it at the time a keeper and two assistants lost their lives. In 1860 the last stone of the present struc ture was laid, completing one of the great stone lighthouses of the world. Work could be done only at low water. Blasting and - cutting a rock hardly big enough for the lighthouse Itself, constant interference from wind and sea, made the laying of every . fresh block of stone a new and un solved problei.i. Mlnot's Ledge lrght today, one of the loneliest lighthouses in existence. Is still a triumph, al though some other structure since erected have equalled' it In difficulty. Spectacle Reef, for instance, in Lake Huron,. was aa engineering problem the solution of which was watched by the engineers of the world. Even when in 1873 the structure, was completed everyone predicted that the terrible ice push of the Winter would sweep it away. But the man who built it. Gen eral O. M. Poe, had wrought with a cunning hand. The masonry courses were so fitted to gether and so strongly and securely bolt ed that a minimum calculation showed It to be even stronger than a shaft of solid Btone. The ice Is first crushed by im pact on an outer stone structure. Thus broken it grounds in the seven feet of water on the reef and protects the house from the force of other ice. Ten miles from the nearest land, and with ice and waves having a fetch of 170 miles to the southeast, It is In a pitifully Unprotected position. In 1874, when the keepers returned for a new season, they found ice piled 40 feet high around it. Fowey Rocks lighthouse, in Florida, was hardly less difficult in construction than Spectacle Reef. It Is a steel struc ture built on iron piles driven 10 feet into living coral rocks. It is at the extreme north point of the Florida Reefs. The work was so interrupted by stress of weather that at last a platform was built over the foundation piles 12 feet above the water, and a force of workmen left there for days At a, . Ume working .when they could get material, at other times waiting with what patience they could for the weather to allow the supply tugs to tow out new girders and plates for the work to continue. Perhaps one of the most spectacular lighthouse achievements of the service is tie light on Tillamook Rock. Or. This apparently impossible feat was accom plished under tremendous difficulties. Tillamook Rock is a small, abrupt rock formation one mile from the main land. The sides are so precipitous and so inhospitable - that even In calm weather the landing is exceedingly dangerous, so that on the first attempt to put a working party on the rock the foreman lost his life. The party did not land and it was difficult thereafter to g the skilled labor necessary; but at last in. 1879 nine men succeeded in landing with provisions ana tools. Building them selves a strong shelter, bolted to the rock, they set to work. Blasting "nad to be done to get the foundation, sup plies of stone and tools and apparatus had to be landed from ships, involving much difficult- engineering and many hairbreadth escapes, but after. 18 months of labor the structure was completed. Less spectacular but hardly less in Importance -to tl -mariner. are- Ihe les ser lights the post lights, which have made river navigation and particularly Mississippi River navigation possible at night, the buoys which mark the channels of rivers and harbors, the bell and whistling buoys which mark prom inently the places to avoid In fogs and mists, the fog horns, sirens, Daboll trumpets, which are an integral part of many lighthouse stations, and the day beacons or ranges by which navi gation is assisted. The service includes 42 steam tend ers, the business of which is sto place and to replace buoys, take them to buoy depots for painting and repairing, supply light stations with rations and coal, oil and apparatus and generally maintain the service. The lighthouses are supplemented by the lightships, of which there are now 49 in position and 11 in relief. These ves sels are in effect hut floating lighthouses, placed where lighthouses cannot be built, and guarding reefs -and shoals in much traveled water. The most famous and the most dreaded of these are the Dia mond Shoals, those terrible sandbanks off Cape Hktteras. Here, where it storms almost the year round, a ship is constantly maintained; a captain, a mate, two engineers and a crew of 14 men living for three months at a time, a life- cut off absolutely from communication of every kind, if one ex cepts an infrequent mail and the wireless station. What a blessing the naval es tablishment of a wireless station on these lightships l to the crew only one who, like the writer, has lived with them, can know. What safeguard the 'wireless is can be easily appreciated when it Is. stated that a wireless message brought a relief ship to the Nantucket Shoals ship just in time to rescue the crew, last year, before the ship, storm wrecked, went down be neath her men. Half an hour later, in deed five minutes later, some say, and another tragedy would have been addod to the list of marine disasters. It is of particular interest at this time to know that the Diamond Shoals Light ship may soon be a thing of the past Early this Spring the Department of Commerce and Labor was to decide final ly on the exact location for a Diamond Shoals lighthouse, which Congress has authorised Captain Eels of. Maine to build at his own expense. Built, maintained and satisfactory for five long years. Captain Eels will receive r75O.O0O for the work. The thing had been tried before; and ony failure resulted, the saw teeth of Hatteras and the gales of wind making a plaything of the heavi est structure ever towed out to form a foundation. Captain Eels has. a new plan, a new patent, apparently unlimited confidence and sufficient capital,., and work is al ready going forward on the construction of the caisson. When finished the cais son and its contents will weigh. ,O0O tons, concrete and iron, and when in the oourse of time" the Iron rusts away the solid concrete core will be left, a solid rock in the Atlantic, buried SO feet In the sand, and according to the engineer's calculation, capable of supporting a 150 foot tower in the heaviest gale that ever blew. If this experiment is a success, other lighthouses of similar -construction - ,wUl ttand where now the stanch and plucky but sometimes uncertain lightships are stationed. - Our modern lighthouses have the best towers of steel and of masonry that the engineering talent of the world can devise, lighted by oil lamps of the most approved pattern and with the light collected and transmitted by Freanel's wonderful lenticular appara tus. This lenticular cage is nothing more nor less than an arrangement of prisms and glass lenses to such an end that all the light tMm the lamp is col lected and sent out in one direction, parallel to the sea. But little Is lost up or down, and none to the rear if the lighthouse is on the coast; all the light is collected, reflected and refracted where it will do the most good. A word must be said about other 11 lumlnants than oil. Electricity has been tried and found wanting, because of the difficulty of keeping the light in the center of the focal point of these lens cages. The carbons bur uneven ly, or the feeding apparatus fails to work, the light drops an inch or so. and instead of the light being sent out parallel with the sea it is directed up ward, or perhaps downward. The oil lamp is steady, gives an enormous volume of light and is relia ble. In first order lights the wicks are circular and sometimes six in num ber, one inside the other, the light im possible to look at and the heat so great that under certain conditions a new glass chimney must b put on every ii minutes or so, before the old one quite melts and runs away. The United States provides its aids to navigation absolutely free to all. France and Spain do likewise. Other countries, especially Denmark and Bel gium and even England, exact a due from every vessel passing within sight of a light on their shores. Two Tourneys. Louisville Courier-Journal. (1507.) "Avaunt:" ' "Marry come up!" "Odds splutter my nails, have t-t thee!" -"On. gadaooks!" Queer English, eh? I907.) "Fa-a-ake!" "Soak de empire!" "Paste de bloomin' geezer in da slats!" . . "Cheese It: de ceps" Queer English, eh? Getting Roady. A few nights ago the choir of a local chapel was heard practicing a well known funeral hymn. and. being curi ous, a passer-by Inquired, as It was very late at night, why they were there. He was told that they were practic ing a nymn tor Mr. Blank's funeral. "When- dirt h ooW stranger, who knew the man Weil. io nis surprise the answer came: "Oh, he Is not dead yet, but, as Mr. Blank is very ill. the conductor thought we might practice it up a bit!" the
