The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-11-29

Hlts llttb IS, 4 HAL bAittb SUIT VI ~ tAAot II
tai picture, and when one goes 70 see
the clock he goes to see the wonderful
pageant and does not think a thought
nor caresa rap about the rest oft. That
is, went there with that idea, and
stepped into the difnly lighted transcript
of the great cathedral where the clock
is aud found myself on the outskirts of
a large crowd 81 tourists of almost al
nationalities, who stood with uncovered
heads in the cool darkness of the place,
anxiously Waiting for the moment to
arrive when. high noon having struck,
they could see with their own eyes the
things which had caused them 30 much
wonderment when read from the pages
of book. 1t is rather an impressive
moment, that's fact One goes there
with his mindful of expectation, hardly
knowing what to look for; stands there
on the outskirts of an expectant crowd, I
hushed and silent save fornow and then
a shutting Of feet, as sometired pilgrim
changes. his positionste rest himself, a
suppressed whisper from some female
pilgrim who can t keep still any longer,
or haif-smothered sigh from some
tourist who wonders when it will begin;
stands there in the enshroudihg gloom
of the place, notsknowing at what in-s
slant the performance may begin and
catch him blinded with the darkness so
that he can see nothing of it; stands
there for long minutes, his eyes gradu-
ally becoming used to the gloom until
the indistinct outlines Of the dim shape
in front of him gradually resolve them
selves and he sees the famous clock in
all its particulars, his eager eyes
glancing hastily overland taking it all
in. But there isinothing very wonder
full about the outside Of the clock and
one feels al little disappointed at the
twelve or fifteen feet high and eight or
ten broad structure, its front adorned
with rather dim de aorations and cut up
with various hooks. crannies. pigeon
holes and galleries and with several
wooden figures five or six inches high
stuck around over it. At one side
stands a tower surmounted by the figure
of rooster" chanticleerp the guide
book calls him-and containing the
weights which give motive power to the
whole mechanism. On the front of the
main edifiee, some three or four feet
from the ground, are the .dials which in.
dictate the seconds, minutes, hours, days
of the week and mSnth and the move-
ments of the planets.
THE HOUR of TWELVE.
When the hour of noon comes there
is q preliminary whirr ofsmachinery set
in motion and a silvery-toned bell be-
gins to strike the four quarters of the
hour. At each stroke of the bell the
figure of an angel raises hammer held
| in his right hand and strikes a bell held
in the left. AT first glance one would
suppose the sounds came from the bell
the angel holds, but this turns out
to be an illusion, for one soon notices
that the angels hammer does not quite
touch his bellwhen he makes his stroke,
| and that the sound and the stroke do
not quite correspond in time. In short
the angels bell is a dummy bell and a
wooden dummy bell at that. This dis
covery sort of rouses ones suspicious,
| and he notices that the angels move
ments are stiff, hesitating and wood
eny,n so to speak, and do not at all rep
resent the movement 0fa human being,
unless it he a human being badly stiff
| ened by rheumatism. One comes to the
i conclusion that the angel is badly in
need of oiling. At the side of the an
gel is the figure of Genius, which, as
soon as the fourth stroke comes from
the bell, stiffiy and jerkily turns over an
hour-glass and resumes his FORMER i'm
movable position beside it. Higher UP
is the figure of Death represented by a
skeleton, and around this skeleton are
4 grouped figures representing Boyhood,
i Youth, Manhood and Old Age--the
four quarters of the hour. The skele-
ton has thigh-bone in his right hand,
and with this bon6-the head of 1.-THE
4 is supposed to strike the hours upon q
(. bell at his side, but he really doesn' lido
anything Of the kind. His bell is also 8
wooden one and bis bone does not reach
i the bell By an eighth of an inch wher
he aims those slow, hesitating, ierky
blows of his at 1T. Besides he gets {
little premature once in awhile anC
strikes his bell before the real one goes
off; at other times he is little behinC
hand and brings his bone down an in
slant after the real bell has sounded. j
would be superiiuous to say that tn,
skeleton not only needs greasing bu
also regulating.
THE SAVIOR AMI. his APOSTLES.
a While tlesskeleton il going through
( with his dumb show and pretending t
y strike the twelve strokes Of noon d doc
! ut the upper part Of the clock suadenI,
:. pops open ard q figure 81 the Savi0
9 hppesTs and 1sQyes y and ierkili
forward 4 lew incIis AZ M lei
: hand Of this figure door 5siR
n With a snap q I'D = 4 auFe Of QUO A.
4 Apostles appears. He sfrin .sis al
q few inches. stops as Il surprised to linl
himself Ia the presence Of 50 many pro
fame tourists, hesitates a single instlni
as If debating whether to retreat Or IN
1old face on the matter and go ahead
|, tse't--s a,ezsiEes on the latter course
!, 1ata az bother jerk forward and Al
~ co on steadily until opposits II
III .I 1ne ear1sere he makes fuil slon
molten lnattSg with snap which Polll
tlon OF water <i;Fing man. faces rs
generation of stess...,,,m a m new y
pressure, has also been ~, obeIsas'isI
count for earthquakes. BuF rec '8I
that earthquakes are simply tsFlss & IN
OF the gradual contraction Of the e.s2i|
that is going on all the while seems q
me ne both natural and logical, PROF