Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1889-01-17
ONE PUZZLE SOLVED.
Why All Painted Clocks Point to
Eighteen Minutes After Eight.


Areader of the New York Sun recent.
ly sent letter to that office asking WHY
1t was that every clock and watch maker
who slung an imitation clock or watch
outside his shop as sign had the hand,
painted on the face at exactly Is min
utes after o'clock. This was a poser
to every clock seller the reporter asked
The signs came to them that way, they
sad. The majority of them had never
noticed the curious coincidence. Il
asked where they got their signs paint
ed the reply was that they left the orde,
with their wholesale dealer and the sign
came along. That was all they knew
about it,
Inquiries among the wholesalers in
Murray street and Maiden lane develop
ed the curions fact that there ia no com.
petition in the trade of painting clock
signs. A man named Groot has prac
teal monopoly of the Chicago market
and the territory for hundreds Of miles
around. In Cincinnati w. H. Smith
does the business without competition,
and In this city, and for as many miles
around as New York commands the
clock trade, w. L. Washburn enjoys a
laborious but enviable monopoly.
This state of affairs is brought about
by the wholesale clock and watch deal
ers themselves, who got used to patron
lzing these three dealers many years
ago, and never got enough out of the
habit OF it to give any other painter the
ghost of show to succeed with an
opposition shop.
But Father Washburn," said one
wholesale dealer, sis father of them all.
and of emblematic signs as we'll. He
was the first painter to make sign en-
blematic OF any business, and he started
In way back in SO. Why the big con-
Germs that make metal signs don't bother
him at all. He gave his ideas to the
whole world to copy, and the world got
rich. The friends he made back in the
'5Os 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 a clock or watch sign to make,
and ii by chance he did, he'd probably
be so scared he'd send the customer to
Father Washburn."
Mr.. Washburn was painting a clock
on big star when the reporter called.
and white beard. There were clock
signs mapped out, half done, and finish
Ell, hanging all around, and every bless
ed 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, is because l paint them all
and | always paint that hour. When I
painted the first emblematic sign ever
painted as matter of business, way
back in '53 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 togeth-
er, as my mood dictated, from that time
up to April 18th, 1866. That night the
Jaws was flashed into the city that Lin
coin had been shot in Ford's Theatre.
was working on sign for Jeweler
Adams, who used to keep on Broadway,
opposite Stewards at the time. ( was
making a great clock to hang outside.
Adams came running in while was at
work. He was strong Line In man.
He said:
as Point those hands at the hour Lin
coin was shot, that the deed may never
he forgotten
painted the hands, therefore, at IS
minut' after 8. The idea struck me
forcibly and when / came to look at the
effect l found that it was the most con-
venient arrangement, since it displayed
both the hands well, and left the top
half of the clock free to paint in tho
name of the clock seller if desired. So
threw oil my stencils away and made
new ones for that hour. have never
varied from the system since, and that's
the reason all the clock signs point as
they do. The Chicago and Cincinnati
people 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 ar
tistic display in painting"