Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-07-05
BETTER THAN AN ALARM CLOCK.
A Device for Being Walked Up That Is
In Use Among Mexican Runners.

AZ So0 SAAAohS bAcAiNah nuhntrss
81 don't know what I'd do without my
alarm clock" yawned Simpkins at the
boarding house breakfast table. cts hard
to get any fun out of your evenings unless
you stay up until nearly midnight, and
that means O'Clock before you really get
to sleep. AS my employer insists on my
being behind the counter at a. NJ, that
means waking up at G. You can't get the
chambermaid to wake you every morning
without considerable outlay of tips, and
1t would take pretty muscular girl any
way to pound on my door hard enough and
long enough to wake me effectually. Now,
my alarm clock makes il simply impossi-
BILE for me to sleep, for it kicks up such an
awful row that have to jump out of bed
and stop it in sell defense before it gets
half through the performance" and Snmp-
kins smiled the fatuous smile of the man
who never discovers that he is nuisance
Eyes, we've all noticed that" said
stout commercial traveller, who, when he
was at home at all, did not get up gener
ally for full an hour after Simpkins did.
II could recommend to you an alarm clock
which would arouse you just as effectually
as the one you Lave now, and yet would
not wake up everybody else within quar-
ter of a mile of you. The last time l was
down in Mexico left the lines of railroad
and pushed out into the wilder parts of
the country, in the interests of my firm.
There met for the first time meof those
famous couriers, Indians, who carry mes
sages for hundreds of miles with much
greater celebrity than horses can do in that
mountainous country.
''These wiry and hardy fellows will run
all day without tiring apparently, but even
then they could not outrun horse on de-
cent road The way they get ahead of a
mounted courier IS by cutting off the cor
ners. Most of tie roads there either lead
up hill or down, and the hills are so steep
that the trail zigzags back and forth
across the face OF the mountains in a sue
cession of terraces. A horse must follow
the path; n foot runner saves many a
mile by scrambi ing from one terrace to
the other, aiding himself by trees roots or
stones if he is ascending and just letting
himself slide if he is coming down.
But | started to tell you about the
never failing alarm clocks which they
carry with them on long journeys. When
the courier's trip extends over three or
four days, as it frequently does he allows
himself two hours sleep out of every TWEEN
ty-four, and as he makes his bed on the
ground, just wherever he happens to stop,
tISIS ID HO Cil'tii OF anybody else
to rouse him from the heavy stupor which
naturally overcomes perfectly healthy
man who has been running steadily for
about twenty-five hours, eating occasion
ally while he runs.
Having selected his bed, he takes some
thick cord from his pouch, cuts off piece of
it of length which experience has taught
him to be about right, ties one end of the
cord, which is composed of carefully Sc
lected material prepared in a particular
way, to his toe, sets fire to the other end,
and falls asleep so quickly that you would
think he was constructed like one of those
mechanical dolls which close their eyes as
soon as they are laid down. He feels per-
fectly confident chat the cord or fuse will
burn slowly but surely up to his toe in two
hours or thereabouts, and he has no doubt
that when the twist of it which he put
around the toe is on fire it will wake him
effectually. New York Tribune