Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-05-20

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to carpenter for seven years, during
his board and his clothes.
Already he had done almost the work
of man on the farm, being stout,
handy fellow, and in the course of two
or three years he did the work of a full
grown carpenter; nevertheless, he re-
ceived no wages except the necessaries
of life. Fortunately the carpenters
: family were human beings, and ne had
pleasant, friendly home during his ap-
premiership.
Even under the gentlest masters ap-
prentices, in old times, were kept most
strictly to their duty. They were lucky
if they got the whole of Thanksgiving
and the Fourth Of July for holidays.
Now, this apprentice, when he was
sixteen, was so homesick on a certain
occasion that he felt he must go and
see his mother, who lived near her old
home. twenty miles from where he was
working on job. He walked the dis
tance In the night, in order not to rob
bis master of any of the time due to
| him.
1t was q terrible nights work. He
was sorry he had undertaken it; but
having started he could not bear to give
it mp. Half the way was through the
woods, and every noise he heard he
thought was wild beast coming to kill
him, and even the piercing notes of the
whippoorwill made his hair stand on
end.
When he passed house the dogs
were after him in full cry, and he spent
the whole night in terror. Let us hope
the caresses of his mother compensated
him for this suffering.
The next year when his master had a
job thirty miles distant, he. frequently
walked the distance on hot summers
day, with his carpenters tools upon his
back.
At that time light vehicles, or any
kind of one-horse carriage, were rarely
kept in country places, and mechanics
generally had to trudge to their place of
work, carrying their tools with them.
So passed the first years OF his
apprenticeship.
All this time he was thinking of quite
another business-that OF clock
making-which had been developed
during his childhood near his fathers
house, by Eli Terry, the founder of the
Yankee wooden-clock manufacture.
This ingenious Mr.. Terry, with a
small saw and q jack knife, would cut
out the wheels and works for twenty
five clocks during the winter, and, when
the spring opened, he would sling three
or four of them across the back of a
horse, and keep going till he sold them,
for about twenty-five dollars apiece.
This was for the works only. When
a farmer had bought the machinery
of clock for twenty-five dollars, he
employ ed the village carpenter to make
case for it, which might cost ten or
fifteen dollars more.
1t was in this simple way that the
country was supplied with those tall
old-fashioned clocks, of which almost
every ancient farmhouse still contains
a specimen. The ciock-case was some.
times built into the house like q pillar,
and helped to support the upper story.
Some of them We're made by very clumsy
workmen, out of the commonest timber
just planed in the toughest way, and
c0ntalged wood enough for a pretty
good-sized organ.
The clock business had fascinated
Chauncey Jerome from his childhood,
and he longed to work at 1t. His guard
ian dissuaded him. So many clocks
were then making, he said, that In two
or three years the whole country would
he supplied, and then there would be
no more business for clock maker.
This was the general opinion. At a
training, one day, the boy overheard a
group talking Of Eli Terry's folly in
undertaking to make two hundred clocks
all at once.
"He'll never live long enough to finish
them, said one.
'If he should" said another, she
could not possibly sell so many. The
very idea is ridiculous.
The boy was not convinced by these
wise men of the East, ana he lived to
make and to sell two hundred thousand
clocks in one year
When his apprenticeship was little
more than half over, he told his master
hat if he would give him four months
in the winter OF each year, when busi-
ness was dull, he would buy his own
clothes.
His master consenting, he went to
Waterbury, Connecticut, and began to
HVIh hdhiHB ciOch uidlS, anu very soon
got an insight into the art and mystery
of clock making.
The clock makers of that city, who
carried round their clock movements
upon horses back, often found it
difficult to sell them in remote country
places, because there was no carpenter
near by competent to make case.
Two smart Yankees hired our appren-
tice to go with them TO the distant State
of New Jersey for the express purpose
of making cases for the clocks they
sold. On this journey he first saw the
city Of New York.
He was perfectly astonished at the
hustle and confusion. He stood on the
corner of Chatham and Pearl streets for
! more than au hour, wondering why SO
many people we're hurry ing about so in
every direction.
"What is going on?" said he, to
passer-by. whats the excitement
about?'
The man hurried on without noticing
him; which led him to conclude that
city people We're not very polite
The workmen were Just finishing the
interior OF the City Hall, and he was
greatly puzzled to understand how those
winding stone stairs could be fixed with
out any visible means Of support.
| In New Jersey he found another won
Ger. The people there kept Christmas