The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-11-30

WHY ALL THE PAINTED CLOCKS POINT
TO EIGHTEEN MINUTES AFTER EIGHT.

The New York SIN says: A reader
of the ,S,t,s, who was also, as all San
re ders are, an observing man, recently
sent letter to this office asking why
il was that every clock and watch
maker who slung an imitation clock or
watch outside his shop as sign had the
hands painted on the face at exactly
eighteen minutes after eight o'clock.
This was poser TO every clock sell
or reporter asked. The signs came
to them that way they said. The ma
jority of them had never noticed the
curious coincidence. II asked where
they got their signs painted the reply
was they left the order with their
wholesale dealer and the signs came
along. That was all they knew about it.
Inquiries among the wholesalers in
Murry street and Maiden lane devel-
oped the curious fact that there is no
competitor in the tlade of painting
clock signs A man named Groot has
a practical monopoly of the Chicago
market and territory for hundreds of
miles around In Cincinnati w. III.
Smith does the business without COM
petition, and in this city, and for as
many miles around as New York COM
mands the clock trade w. L. Wash
burn enjoys lsborious but enviable
monopoly.
This state of affairs is brought about
by the wholesale clock and watch deal
ers themselves, who got used to patron
izing these three dealers many years
ago, and never got enough out of the
habit of it to give any other painter
the ghost of a show to succeed with an
opposition shop.
"But Father Washburn," said one
wholesale dealer, sis father of them all,
and of emblematic signs as well. He
was the first painter to make sign
emblematic of any business, and he
started in way back in SO. Why, the
big concerns that make metal signs
don't bother him at all. He gave his
ideas to the world to copy, and the
world got rich. The friends he made
back in the sos have stuck to him ever
since, and one branch of the business
has stuck so close that no competitor in
other branches of sign work ever thinks
of getting clock or watch sign to
make, and If by chance he did he'd
probably be so scared he'd probably
send the customer TO Father Wash
burn"
Mr.. Washburn was painting a clock
on big star when the reporter called.
He was an old man with happy face
aud white beard. There were clock
signs mapped out, half done, and fin
ished, hanging all around, and every
| blessed one of them had the hands
pointed at Is minutes after 8 o'clock.
''The reason all the dummy clock
hands point to that hour said Mr..
Washburn. sis because paint them all,
and l always paint that hour. When
l painted the first emblematic sign ever
painted as matter of business, back in
SO, it was clock. don't know how
| put the hands. All remember about
it is that it was for p. T. Barnum's old
concern on Courtlandt street, the
Jerome clock company, since gone up
the spout. l painted the hands any
way chose, up, down, crosswise, or
together, as my mood dictated, from
that time up to April Ia, 1865. That
night the news was flashed into the
city that Lincoln bad been shot in
Ford's theatre. l was working on
sign for Jeweler Adams, who used to
keep on Broadway, opposite Stewards
at the time. I was making great
clock to hang outside. Adams came
running in while / was at work. He
was strong Lincoln man. He said:
"'Polnt those hands at the hour Lin
coin was shot, that the deed may never
be forgotten.
a. painted the hands, therefore at
eighteen minutes after eight. The idea
struck me forcibly, and when l came
to look at the effect found 1t was the
most convenient arrangement, since it
displayed both the hands we'll, and left
the top half of the clock free to paint
in the name of the clock seller if
desired. So / threw all my stencils
away and made new ones fer that hour.
| have never varied from the system
since, and that's the reason all the
clock signs point as they do. The
Chicago any Cincinnati people, find,
are doing the same thing. They don't
know the story, but they probably were
won to my plan by the capability of
that particular arrangement for artis-
tic display in painting"