Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1893-01-26
AN lNEERNAL MACHINE.
story OF a Cioek That Might Have Shat
tered N Mans Mind

Story OF a Cloek That Might Have Shat
tered n Mans Mind.
This Is a story about n clock which
made a great deal of trouble FOR two
people, and gave the SAME two people
very poor opinion of each other. The
brother says that no woman save his
sister could have had such amazing ig-
norance about clocks in general, and
this one in particular, while the sister
declares that only her brother, of all
men on earth, would have allowed a
little bit of 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 shouldn't;
it just wouldn't, and that was all there
was to it. This was painful to tho
young woman for several reasons, 1t
is only necessary to mention onel The
timepiece had been given her by her
betrothed He thought II was little
gem of 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
1t, or, worse still, as she herself con-
fessed between that time, that she
hadn't sense enough to make clock
CO. while her irreverent and imperti-
nent brother suggested sweetly that he
was more likely to think that it was
her face (which had stopped n clodS. "
The family were in the country when
the clock was received, and when the
time drew near for the arrival of the
bethrothed clock.giver affairs began to
be desperate. The young woman de-
clhred that the clock had to 60 The
clock simply wouldn't. She would
wind it up-it would always wind
without the slightest resistance-but it
would not go. She shook it, she turned
1t upside down, she coaxed it, she laid
1t on its face and then on its back, and
the hands were still frozen 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 re-
paired; it must 60"
Now town was ten miles away, and
Albert did not see why anyone should
make so much fuss over a clock, and
such little clock, too, as that was.
But when arguments and pleadings
could not move him he yielded to tears,
and, chuckipg 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 be-
gan. That clock began to strike. IT
went into the striking business in a
calm, determined way. 1t struck right
along, up grade and down grade, around
curves and on straight tracks The
brother felt fainting around his heart.
The people in the car who had first
been amused began to be annoyed.
The young mans face got rcd; it got
WdIlu, nlo DCCdlhC pdbllOh WIN
dampness, but he chung to the clock
like 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 saw ed wood" 1t had struck
a gait which it liked, and it kept it up
without break. 1t showed no signs
of getting tired or running down. II
was stalking along at a 2:2O gait when
the train reached the town. 1t con.
tinued to strike when the brother made
his escape from the car. 1t went on
striking up the street until the brother
wanted to throw it over the fence and
then commit suicide. No burglar alarm
was ever more persevering than that
clock. No changing fire-engine had
ever made more noise and caused more
excitement. The clock was striking
away industriously and cheerfully
when the brother ran into a jewellers
shop and threw the thing down on a
| counter.
For Heavens sake stop itr' he cried
But it had stopped. There it lay or
counter, as dumb as an oyster and as
| silent as tomb.
"Well, I'll be hanged" said the
brother, breathlessly. whats the
matter with it, anyway" he asked
looking at it as if it were dynamite
cartridge.
The jeweler picked it up.
Look out" cried the brother "That
thing will start up again if you touch
it."
But it didn't. Itnever made sound
only in 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
machine.
'You see," he added, with sympa
thetic smile, "this is repeating clock
You can make it strike the last hour
by touching this spring. You have
been winding up the repeating sounder
and 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 clocl
more and the repeater less"
"Oh," said the brother with gasp
and that was all.
Now the brother says that any
woman that doesn't know enough t.
wind clock doesn't know enough t,
live. And the sister says-well, everl
brother knows what a sister can say