Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1892-12-07
A CLOCK ON A STRIKE.
TT WAS WORSE THAN AN INTERNAL
MACHINE IN EFFECT.

Queer Going Timepieee-What Was the
Matter with the Clock.
This is a story about a clock which
made great deal of trouble for two
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 such
amazing ignorance about clocks in gen
eral, and this one in particular, while
his sister declares that only her brother,
of all men on earth, would have allowed
a little bit of a clock to make fool of
him before carload of strangers.
The trouble with the clock was that 1t
wouldn't keep time. There was no
reason in the world why it wouldn't; 1t
lust wouldn't, and that was all there
was to it. This was painful to the
young woman for several reasons. 1t Is
only necessary to mention one; the
timepiece had been given to her by her
betrothed. He thought 1t W.s a little
gem of a clock, and that it would please
her. She agreed with him as to the
beauty Of the delicate little affair, and
was pleased for 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 a clock go,
while her irreverent and impertinent
brother suggested sweetly that he was
more likely to think that it was her
face which had stopped clock"
The family were in the country when
the clock was received, and when the
time drew near for the arrival of the
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 1t
up-it would always wind without the
slightest resistance-but it would not
90. She shook it, she turned it upside
down, she coaxed it, she laid 1t 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 a clock, and
such a little clock, too, as that was. But
when arguments and pleadings could
not move him he yielded to tears, and,
chucking the timepiece under his arm,
he boarded the train and 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
1t struck right along, up grade and
down grade, around curves and on
straight tracks. The brother felt 8
fainting around his heart. The people
in the car who had first been amused
began to be annoyed. The young mani
face got red; it got warm; his hair be
came bathed with dampness, but h
chung to the clock like Trojan. HI
had an idea that he might be able h
hide it or smother it or close it, h
, didn't know which, and so he kept hi
hand tightly pressed on it,
And all the time that Internal ma
chine Just Sawed wood" 1t had strucl
gait which it liked, and it kept it N
= without a break. It showed no signs o
= getting tired or of running down. l
was striking along at a 2:20 gait whel
the train reached the town. 1t con
, tinued TO strike when the brother mad
: his escape from the car. 1t went OF
I striking Up the street until the brothe
( wanted to throw it over a fence ant
I then commit suicide. No burglar alarm
was ever more persevering than tina
clock No changing fire engine eve
made more noise and caused more ex
citement. The clock was striking ava,
industriously and cheerfully when tn
brother ran into jewelers. shop AM
threw the thing down on counter.
/. "For heavens sake stop itP' he cried
But it had stopped. There it lay OF
. the counter as dumb as an oyster and a
I silent as tomb.
"Well, I'll be hanged, )" said the broth
= er breathlessly. whats the matte
5 with it anyway" he asked, looking a
. it as if it were dynamite cartridge
e The jeweler picked it up.
II Look outr' cried the brother. "Ths
/ thing will start up again if you touc
> it,"
But it didn't. 1t never made a SOUND
: only in a minute came a gentle an
;. rhythmic ticking.
A "There's nothing the trouble with it
r. said the jeweler, setting the hands an
d then examining the little internal mi
a chine. "You see," he added with a syn
d pathetic smile, "this is a repeating clocl
You can make it restrike the last hor
= by touching this spring. You have bee
!, winding up the repeating sounder, b'
!, not the clock. And you must have he
your hand on the spring when you kel
20 it striking. It's all right now. All yC
J. want to do is to wind the clock more ar
d the repeater less"
7, "Ohr' said the brother with a gasp