Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1859-06-14
A Watch.

Say what people may in regard to the strides
arts and sciences are taking in these days-there
never was and there never will be, more won
derful instrument than the watch. Just con-
template it: tiny thing reposing in your pock-
ct, which, wherever your steps may take you,
will record the hour, the minute, yea, the very
moment! At once, the master and the servant
of him who carries it about him, it requires in
the first relation, that observance Unnatural rule
or law which governs everything in the universe,
from the highest to the lowest; while, ID the Sc
cond, it yields the obedience, coeya with all au-
thority, and essential to the same.
On the common ground of statistics, the his
tory of the watch is highly interesting one
Invented about the year $40, it remained Tor a.
ges the exclusive property of the rich just IN the
same way as books were the "divlne right OF
the exclusive classes, until the uprising OF demo-
cratic influences. Previously, it had been obllg-
ed to depend for the knowledge OF the hour, on
the sun, or the glass of sand. But the watch
once invented, its preceding recorders went
comparatively out of use, and Gas time progress
ed, and the watch became really popular) lived
only in few isolated cases, or in the memory OF
previous generations
Meanwhile, the watch had o prosperous Ca
reer. Kings and mobiles delighted in it, expend,,
ing vast sums of money on the procurement, ana
taxing the highest efforts of the artist to lend
finish to the wonderful instrument. That both
the watch. maker and the watch 0rndnaenter IN
the days by-gone were men of mark and llkeh'
hood, due evidence has been furnished US. One
example will suffice We find it in the golden
and richly, chased time piece of the unfortunate
Charles the First. 1t is not many years since
this was placed in our bands-its then proprietor
being London solicitor, named Ellis. But
what specimen of art and science it was!-
Nearly two hundred years old, the original works
yet remained unimpaired; the. tick, tick, tick
from within being as constant, and the lndica'
ton of the hands as accurate as they had been
at the moment the pulse OF the first possessor
stopped forever; and the outward cutting ofthe
cases showing as freshly as in the days ere the
name of Oliver Cromwell had been whispered in
the pnblic ear.
With respect to watches, it may be said, that
the often disputed axiom "Vor Popuh, oOr Del"
has received confirmation "strong as holy writ"
Go where you will, you will find everybody
anxious for the possession of watch. Let it
tick in the ear of savage, and he straightway
kneels to it as he would to deity; and when
assured that it is only matter, after all, he will
give all he has for its possession. Then to the
civilized man-who, among the denlzens OF the
crowded city does not covet watch . Ask the
rich man, the trader, his clerk, even the boy
who runs on errands and you need seek no fur
ther. Among the wealthy, how great the effort
to be master of watch, accurate and gorgeous?
among the laboring, how cheerfully is the strug'
gle maintained until tie coveted treasure is in
hand And when those fluctuations of fortune
visit us, which come sans cerenaonae to the best
of humanity, how poignant is the thought, that
for daily bread the old .,i familiar treasure, the
watch, must be parted with
In the list of things presented to worthy and
deserving men, the watch s noids MOI S the supreme
times thought of, but never to the extent the
watch is. 1t is because it is the desire of those
who give, to symbolic twin VI me merit and appre-
citation, lasting as time itself, and the common
appointed division and pulse; and when that
pulse is stopped, both man and watch are no
more.-NesO York lercwy.