The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-08-12
REGULATING THE o


xAOw - OOIuuucICl8l ml96lOn8Ty was SOFA
by a Party of Rural Missourians.
"No, I'm not feeling very WELL" said
a drummer in the smoking car. '"The
fact is, I've been losing too much sleep
of late. What doingP Scheming. Yes,
I'll tell you what I'm scheming On
You know how it is in the country
towns, boys, where the fellows who loaf
around the hotels are always trying to
play jokes and sells on travelling men.
As a rule the travellers more than keep
ever with the boys, but of curse they
are caught up once in awhile. I was
never badly taken in but once. That
was last week, out in Northern Mis-
souri,. 1 pride myself on being a pretty
good pedestr an, and when the fellows
in the hotel Office got to talking about
fast walking, of urse / was inmyele-
ment. / made my brag as to what I
bad done and could do in the walking
line, and was surprised to hear n of
the fellows stand up and make fun of
me and insinuate that l was lying.
Why says this fellow, you can't walk
a mile in ten minutes, and I'll bet you
500 you can't Now, 1 have often
walked a mile in nine minutes, and as
this challenge looked like a picnic 1 &C
copied it, pulled out my money and
said 1 was ready to perform the feat.
too, greatly to my surprise, and then,
to avoid the possibility OF catches or
misunderstanding I insisted upon hav-
ing a written memorandum of our
agreement. This he accepted to, and
we agreed to post the money with the
landlord, that the time was to
be taken by the regulator clock
which stood in the hotel Office,
that no watch time taken by other
parties was to influence the referees de-
cision, and hat 1 was to walk to a GER
tain corner, which the county atlas
showed to be just a half mile away, and
return. The wagerer was to accom-
pany me with his horse, and for extra
precaution l stipulated that if there
should be any unusual obstruction in the
road, or any one should interfere with
me, the bet was to be of. I also tested
the clock for a few minutes by the sec.
ond-hand of my watch, and found that
it was all right, and engaged a friend Of
mine, another commercial traveller, to
see that the clock was not tempered
with. In fact, I suspected that they had
some scheme for beating me, and de.
termined that l would not let them dc
it. After all the arrangements were
made and the memorandum signed, ]
started on my walk. The way was clear
and l made good time. Every thing
seemed all right. According to my
watch I made the first half mile in 9
little more than four minutes, giving mt
a whole minute to spare. Imagine my
surprise on entering the hotel to have
my friend tell me that I had lost anC
inquire what the matter a Hooked
at the clock, and, SUR enough, l hat
been twelve minutes on the trip.
asked him if anybody had tempered witt
the clock, and he said: No, nobody ha!
been ear it Again I compared it fol
a few minutes with my watch, and i
was running right to the very fraction
of a second. This was a puzzler. TIT
money was paid over, and the town fel
lows had a jubilee with it. But I wa
just as certain as could be that they ha(
swindled me in some manner, and l de
termi ned to find out how. They hat
done their work very sleeklv, that mus
be admitted, but this only excited m,
curiosity the more.
That night, when everybody wa
asleep, I slipped downstairs ant
climbed up and made an examination
of the regulator clock on which I hat
lost my money. and toward which m.
suspicious had been directed. l had NJ
idea what the trouble was, and wen
about the Sc arch in a blind sort of way
I knew nothing about clocks, and tn
chances were hat l would be unable tx
discover the nature of the it'll
trick hat had been played on me
1 fumbled and fooled with the clocl
for ten or fifteen minutes, and wa
just about to give up the search il
despair when luck came my way. A
1 was climbing down from the chair OF
which 1 stood I noticed a piece of whit,
thread hanging on the wall. This strucl
me as being peculiar, and on following
it up I saw that it entered the clock
Tracing the other end, / found it in tn
clerks desk twelve or fifteen feet away
Then the whole scheme was obvious
The clerk and the local jeweler-he wa
the man l had bet with-had fixed u
a scheme to beat me or any other sucl
they could catch on the time a mile wa
walked in, the correct running of
pet watch, or any thing of that ma
ture. The jeweler had fixed things S
that pulling at that thread increases
the speed of the clock about o%ne-fourth
and this was the manner in which the
had beaten me in my race against time
I'm about sixty days I'll be back i
that town, and that accounts for m
losing so much sleep. I'm sitting u
late nights trying to hatch up a schem
to get even with them. Chicago Hen
aid.
Knowing Who to Kick.