Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-09-17
The Sfrasburg Cathedral Clock
and Library,

From the Hartford Times.l
One of the most lamentable results oil
the siege of Strasburg, leaving out Of
view the loss of human life, is the injury
which the bombardment has inflicted
upon the noble cathedral and its won.
derful astronomical clock. The vast
cathedral, which, perhaps, more than
any other one thing, has made the name
of Strasburg celebrated, is one of the
finest Gothic buildings in Europe. 1t
was founded A. ID. 504. The choir was
built by Charlemagne; probably about
A. D. 500, though it was pot completed
until l439. The material OF which the
cathedral is built is brown stone, very
much resembling our Connecticut Port
land freestone, so extensively used in
Fifth avenue. 1t was obtained from a
quarry at Wassebonne, in the valley of
Couronne, few miles from Strasburg.
The architect of the existing edifce was
Erwin Won Steinbach, of Baden. John
Huells, of Cologne was the architect of
the peerless tower. Its spire is the loft
lest in the wogld, Its hight, 466 feet,
surpasses st. Peters, and Is about equal
to that of the Great Pyramid. The
greater part of the structure was de-
stroyed 6y lightning in 1907, and the re-
stored edi6ee was begun in l0l5 and
completed in 1889. The cathedral is in
every part richly decorated with scalp
lures; and the western front, rising to a
hight of 230 feet, is, or was. particularly
fine with its wealth Of statues oFna-
mental carvings and bas-reliefs. 1t has
circular window As feet in diameter.
The PFnssiaa heavy artillery has made,
it is said. a rain of part of the vast
building. -
The astronomical clock, the product
of German clockmaker, in about the
year 1850, is o marvel of ingenuity and
mechanical skill, and has no counter
part 1t performs not only tbs ordinary
service of clock, but exhibits the days,
and the months, and the years; the pro
cess of the seasons; the signs Of the
zodiac, and the names and movements
of the heavenly bodies. At each quar-
ter hour an angel comes out and strikes
one stroke on a bell; at every hour an
other angel comes and strikes twice: and
at u, meridian, figure Of Christ ap-
pears, accompanied by the twelve apos-
ties, all of whom move around a central
point and pass in, out Of sight, BY spoth-
er door, the stroke Of twelve being given,
and cock 6aps bis wings and crows
The clock is enormous Ia size, like every
thing else connected with the vast eathe-
dral, and is invisible from the outside
street.-the spectator passing through
the nave Of the cathedral 10 SEQ IT, 1T
has suffered from FIRE and violence be-
fore the present year, having been out
of repair and motionless since the Fevo-
luton of 1893 until the year 1872, when
il was repaired BY q matchmaker Of Bas
Rhin, and has been Ia operation since.
Ii is to be hoped that this ingenious piece
of mechanism has not been irreparably
injured By the present bombardment
The loss Of the StrasbuFg library-a
vast collection Of 100000 volumes, in
cluding many collections Of rare and
curious monhsh parchments-is total
and irreparable. II 0aH never be re-
placed by any collection hereafter made,
Ii was the slow result Of a thousand
years; and its destruction by fire, caused
by the Prnssisn bot shot, is like the
burning Of the AleKandian library in
this, that Of great number Of the WoFka
destroyed no duplicates can ever be OBJ
tained.