Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-15
A CLOCK ON A STRIKE
1T WAS WORSE THAN AN INTERNAL
= MACHINE IN EFFECT.

Matter with the Clock.
This is story about clock which
made great deal of trouble for twt
people and gave the same two people
very poor opinions Of each other. The
brother says that no woman in the world
save his sister could have had suct
amazing ignorat,ce about clocks in gen
eral, and this one in particular, while
his sister declares that only her brother
OF all men on ea:th would have allowed
little bit OF clock to make a fool Of
him before carload of strangers.
The trouble with the clock was that j,
wouldn't keep iine. Thore was ne
reason in the world why it wouldn't; il
just wouldn't, and that was all there
was to it. This was painful to the
young woman for several reasons. It is
only necessary to mention one; the
timepiece had been given to her by her
betrothed. He thought it was little
gem of clock, and that it would please
her. She agreed with him us to the
beauty Of the delicate little affair, and
was pleased fora time. Then she began
to get worried; then she got nervous,
and lastly alarmed. This was all Of
course because the thing would not go,
and, because she feared he might think
she had broken it, or, worse still, as she
herself confessed between time, that she
hadn't sense enough to make clock go,
while her irreverent and impertinent
brother suggested sweetly that he was
1zn1x fn l,i- hot ha,.
"face which had stopped a clock"
The family were in the country when
the clock was received, and when tho
time drew near for the arrival Of tho
betrothed clock giver affairs began to be
desperate. The young woman declared
that that clock had to go. The clock
simply wouldn't. She would wind it
up-it would always wind without the
slightest resistanco-but it would not
60. She shook it, she turned it upside
down, she coaxed it, size laid it on its
face and then on its back, and the hands
were still froze to the face Of the clock.
ALBERT" she said to her brother,
''you must take this clock over to town
and get it repaired. 1t must be repaired;
it must CO."
Now town was ten miles away, and
Albert did not see why any one should
make so much fuss over o clock, and
such little clock, too as that was But
when arguments and pleadings could
not move him he yielded t0ears, and,
chucking the timepiece under his arm,
he boarded the train apd started for
town. In the car he placed the clock on
the seat beside him and rested his hand
on it. Then more trouble began. That
clock began to strike. 1t went into the
striking business in calm, determined
way.
It struck right along, up grade and
down grade, around curves and on
straight tracks. The brother felt a
fainting around his heart. The people
in the car who had first been amused
began to be annoyed. The young mans
face got red; it got warm; his hair be-
came bathed with dampness, but he
clung to the clock like a Trojan. He
had an idea that he might be able to
hide it or smother it or close it, he
didn't know which, and so he kept his
hand tightly pressed on it.
And all the time that Internal ma
chine just "sawed wood" 1t had struck
q gait which it liked, and it kept it up
without break. 1t showed no signs of
getting tired or of running down. 1t
was striking along at 2:20 gait when
the train reached the town. 1t con-
tinued to strike when the brother made
his escape from the car. It went on
striking up the street until the brother
wanted tol throw it over fence and
then commit suicide. No burglar alarm
was ever more persevering than that
clock. No changing fire engine ever
made more noise and caused more ex-
citement. The clock was striking away
industriously and cheerfully when the
brother ran into jewellers shop and
threw the thing down on counter.
"For heavens sake stop it'll" he cried.
But it had stopped. There it lay on
the counter as dumb as an oyster and as
silent as tomb.
"Well, I'll be hanged" said the broth
er breathlessly. ''What's the matter
with it anyway he asked, looking at
it as If it were a dynamite cartridge.
| The jeweler picked it up.
~Look outr' cried the brother. "That
thing will start up again if you touch
it,"
But it didn't. 1t never made sound,
only in o minute came gentle and
rhythmic ticking.
"There's nothing the trouble with it,"
said the jeweler, setting the hands and
then examining the little internal ma
chine. "You see," he added with /. SYM
pathetic smile, ''this is repeating clock.
You can make it restrike the last hour
by touching this spring. You have been
winding up the repeating sounder, but
not the clock. And you must have held
your hand on the spring when you kept
it striking. It's all right now. All you
want to do is to wind the clock more and
the repeater less"
"Oh" said the brother with a gasp
and that was all.
Now the brother says that any woman
who doesn't know enough to wind
clock doesn't know enough 20 live. And
the sister says-well, every brother
knows what sisters can say.-New York
Tribune.
A New Rope.
The outside bearing surface Of ordi-
nary steel wire rope is often confined to
a single wire in each strand, causing ex-
cessive wear of the exposed wires. A
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