Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1870-09-28
The strasbourg Cathearaia Clock and
Library.

One of the most lamentable results or
the siege of Strasbourg, leaving out of
view the loss of human life, is the injury
which the bombardment has inflicted up
on the noble cathedral and its wonderful
astronomical clock. The vast cathedral,
which. perhaps. more than any other one
thing, has made the name Of Strasbourg
celebrated, is one of the finest Gothic
buildings in Europe. 1t was founded
CharIemagne probably about A. D. 800
though, it was not completed until 1899.
The material of which the cathedral is
built is brown stone. very much resem-
bling our Connecticut Portland freestone,
so extensively used in Fifth avenue. 1t
was obtained from quarry at Vase
bonnie, in the valley of Couronne, a few
miles from Strasbourg. The architect of
the existing editice was Erwin Won Stein
bach, of Baden. One John Huells, Of
Cologne, was the architect of the peer
less tower. lis spire is the loftiest in the
world. Its height, 466 feet, surpasses
st. Peters and is about equal to that of
the Great Pyramid. The greater part of
the entire structure was destroyed by
lightning 10 1907 and completed in 1889.
The cathedral is in every part richly
decorated with sculptures; and the west
ern front, rising to heigh: of $50 feet,
is, or was, particularly fine with its wealth
of statues, ornamental carvings. aud bas
reliefs. 1t has circular window As feet
in diameter. The Prussian heavy artill-
cry has made, it is said, ruin of part
of the vast building.
The astronomical clock, the product Of
q German clockmaker. in aboutlthe year
1850, is a marvel of ingenuity and
mechanical skill and has no counterpart.
1t performs not only the ordinary service
of clock, but exhibits the days, and the
months, and the years, The process Of the
seasons, the signs of the zodiac, and the
names aud movements Of the heavenly
bodies AT each quarter hour an angel
come out and strikes one stroke on bell.
at every hour another angel comes and
strikes twice, and at IL, meridian, fig
ure of Christ appears, accompanied by
the twelve apostles, all of whom move
around a central point and pass in, out
of sight, by another door, the stroke of
II being given, and cock flaps bis wings
and crows.
The clock is enormous 10 size, like ev-
erything else connected with the vast
cathedral and is invisible from the outside
street.-the spectator passing through the
nave of the cathedral to see it. 1t has
suffered from fire and violence before the
present year, having been out Of repair
and motiouless since the revolution of
1893, until the year 1s4l, when it was
repaired by matchmaker of Bias Rhin,
and has been in operation since. 1t is
to be hoped that this ingenious piecs of
mechanism has not been irreparably in
jured BY present bombardment by the
siege. ~
The loss of the Strasbourg library-a
vast collection of 100000 volumes, in
Guiding many collections of rare and cur.
ious moukish parchment-is total and
irrepsrable. 1t can never be replaced by
any collection hereafter made. 1t was
the slow result of thousand years; and
its destruction by fire, caused by the
Prussian hot shot, is like the burning of
the Alexandrian library in this: that of
a great number of works destroyed no
duplicates can ever be obtained.