The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1869-08-20

his pedestal, one of its arms would droI
of. The professor always said it was al
unforeseen accident, and apologized for it
But it was an unforeseen accident thai
used regularly to occur every evening, ane
get apologized for. And what was an
other singular thing, the worse the figure
was, and the more rickety he got, the
more clever people thought ihis perform
ance was.
Well, when the Mechanical Man was
screwed down on the pedestal for his per
Torrance, Signor Mosco would commence
with short lecture on the powers of the
lever, the screw, and the pulley, and the
spiral spring. He would then go and
wind up the machine, with the handle
like bed-wrench. 1t made great clat
ter, and took long while to wind, owing
to the power of the spring. When he had
done, the whole concern began to &c
"Cr-r-r-r-r," and kept on going so all the
time, whilst the people could see the
works going round through one side Of
the pedestal, which was of glass. The
professor would then strike sharply with
his wand, and pull cord that worked the
levers of the automatOn's head Wake
Francisco !" ses he; and Francisco, which
was the wooden figure, begins to move his
head very slow, first from right to left, then
from left to right. Then Signor Mosco
pulls another string, and Francisco opens
his eyes, very gradually, or quick, accord
ing as the string is pulled. Then it would
be: "Raise the right arm, and salute the
company" which the figure would do
rather stiff and jerky, but still he did it
That stiffness and jerkiness of the move
ments land they were all like that wa:
what people seemed disposed to grumblt
at. 1--WE want to see 'em little more
airy and graceful" the public ses. LA
dies and gentlemen" ses the Signor
"what can you expect from machinery p
which was very true. but to show
you the command 1 have over the automa
ton when at distance from it, will now
return to the stage, after simply pressing
a spring in the figures back, and sitting
before the index-board connected with thu
figure, l will enable you to put its abilities
to the test"
He sat at q small table in front of tn,
stage, where there was a board like ,
draught- board, but covered all over will
knobs. People were then to question tn,
automaton. The figure did numbers AM
counting, by slowly jerking up its RICH
hand as many times as was wanted
"Yes" and "No" he did with his head, b,
bending it for "Yes" and shaking it 70
mo-" and this way he would tell fortune
and ages quite equal to learned pig or al
educated pony. Indeed, there was no EN-
to the questions he could answer, and the
were very often right, which was a won
der for machinery. Francisco used t
finish up by whirling his arms roun
like the wooden sailors do on weather
cocks, and he would keep on I'll
the professor touched a button an
stopped the works, when his arms woul
remain sticking straight up, until strin
was pulled to let them down, and eve
then they would still keep on swingin
backwards and forwards for bit TheI
were some people wanted the automatic
to do more, but the Signor said it couldn
be done, not by machinery.
In due time, as we went round the pro-
inces, we come back again to the tow
where my father lived. 1 was again
going there at all told SignOr MosC
so; and didn't want him to show til
Mechanical Man there, as l told him the
weren't good judges of machinery in tn,
place But he wouldn't listen, and so til
automaton was done there the first nigh
We had got about halfway through his pc
Torrance, and the professor had gone on
the stage, whilst Francisco was answerin
questions. There is mostly crowd
people round the figure at such times, bl
tonight there was wiry old man pres
ing his way close up to the wooden etfig,
and looking into its eyes.
) "Now, sir, sciN you keep your hands O
, that figure, if you please,-do you hes
, me?" Signor Mosco ses.
"Mother!" the old man bawls out
his wife, taking no notice,-only laughin
fit to mother! come here, / te
ye,-Tm blowed if they haven't been an
made figure head of our Bill"
} Icouldn't see anything to laugh at, fl
it was two pound week and victuals oil
of my pocket, let alone the exposure
Chambers Journal