The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-09-25
A FAMILY RELIC.
The Old Clock Which licked on che Hours
of G,tfldhond

| of Childhood.
1t was quaint thing, the old clock
| that stood in the corner in the days
when our grandfather lived, when the
dear old grandmother ran the house in
the old style, the days when candles
were dipped" and snuffed with silver
shutters, when pewter mugs and spoons
and plates and platters were the fash.
| ionable fad, when the wool was carded
and reeled and spun and woven by
hand, when homespun-'fullc cloth, "
and rag carpets handmade were as
fashionable as the finest French broad
cloth and moquette of to-day.
Associations tender, romantic and
sacred gather about that old clock.
For half dozen generations and more
it stood in its appointed place, the one
household article of all the most cher
ished When the children were born
it recorded the hour, the minute of the
advent of each and all AS they grew
out of infancy into childhood and on
into manhood and womanhood it meas
ured the duration of each period and
noted the passing stages. When any
member of the family died the old
clock revealed the exact moment of the
dear ones departure. The noon hour,
and the midnight, the hour of sun rise
| and moon rise, of sun set and moon set
were each regularly announced by this
faithful old monitor. The time for
sleeping, for waking, for working,
week day and Sabbath, were each
properly and Systematically declared
by this patient old sentinel.
The sick were given their medicine
by this venerable timepiece; the well
were guided by it to pursue their al
lotted tasks. It stood there in the
corner prim and decorous, witness of
the old time counting, notifying the
lovers of the hour of meeting and the
hour of parting. The hours for church
and school, for weddings and funerals,
for going and coming, Christmas and
New Years eve, Thanksgiving and
Fourth of July we're each in their order
announced by the old timepiece.
1t kept tally as time wore on. 1t
licked off the days, and swung the
weeks into months, discharged the old
and ushered in the new year. Without
fatigue of any sort it fulfilled its hum
BILE mission; uncomplainingly and
cheerful, it registered the passing peri
DDS In the lives of all under the same
roof. In the long winter evenings,
when the fire blazed on the hearth, its
face shown with rudy glow, and in
the sunlight of the summer it cleaned
with glistening visage. There were no
wrinkles on its dear old face. Time,
that wrinkles all faces, left no trace or
mark of age on its face, it was as smooth
and unfurrowed when it had licked off
the last second, of the last minute, of
the last hour, of the last day, of
the last year of the centu-
~ as when, hundred years
before its pendulum first began to
swing. The vigor of youth was in its
face and form even in old age, and but
for the cracks in the varnish of its case,
and close scrutiny of the date of its
make on its side, its real age would
hardly have been suspected
What a precious thing it is that old
timepiece of our earliest childhood!
How the memory of it is interviewer
like strand of silver into the very
warp and wool of our life! How, in
thinking of it the past rises up before
us like a well remembered dream
whose outlines and details are as dis
tinct as if it were of a recent night!
What faces and figures and scenes and
events group themselves around the old
timepiece TO remind us of much else
that had been long forgotten! How out
of the deep shadow of the intervening
years that old timepieca brings back to
us with all the vividness of yesterday,
the part we played and the part they
played with US in that long ago; that long |
ago whose return we shall never really |
know, and whose repetition by the or
dainment of fate is impossible, even if |
it were desirable Atchison (Kan.)
Champion.