The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1893-01-27
A CLOCK ON A STRIKE.
IT WAS WORSE THAN AN INTERNAL
MACHINE IN EFFECT.

A Devoted Brother Has an interesting
and Exasperating Experience with .
Mates with the Caoek.
qh4s d . STORY ske1a . eioek Witch
saade great dead 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
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; ii
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
rimepiece 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 as to tho
beauty Of the delicate little affair, and
was pleased for q 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
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 60. The clock
simply wouldn't. She would wind it
,, up-it would always wind without the
slightest resistance-but it would not
20. She shook it, she turned it upside
down, she coaxed it, she laid it on its
face and then on its back, and the hands
were still froze to tho face Of the clock.
"Albert," she said to her brother,
"you must take this clock over to town
and get it repaired. It must be repaired;
1t must CO."
Now town was ten miles away, and
make so much fuss over clock. and
such 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 O calm, determined
| way.
1t 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 dainpness, but he
clung 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 s.sawed wood" It had struck
. gait which 1t liked, and it kept 1t up
without break. It showed no signs Of
! getting tired or of running down. 1t
was striking along at a $50 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
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.
element. The clock was striking away
industriously and cheerfully when the
brother ran into jewelers. shop and
threw the thing down on a counter.
= "For heavens sake stop itr'' he cried
But 1t lad stopped. There it lay or
the counter as dumb as an oyster and a.
silent as tomb.
"Well, I'll be hanged, said the broth.
or breathlessly. whats the matter
with it anyway he asked, looking al
it as If it were q dynamite cartridge.
line JeWe1SE plCkeu ~ up.
"Look out!' cried the brother. "Tha
thing will start up again if you toucl
it."
But it didn't. It never made a sound
only in q minute came a gentle and
rhythmic ticking.
"There's nothing the trouble with it,
said the jeweler, setting the hands ant
then examining the little Internal ma
chine. "You see," he added with a sym
pathetic smile, ''this is repeating clock
You can make it restrike the last hou
by touching this spring. You have bee1
winding up the repeating sounder, bu
not the clock. And you must have he'll
your hand on the spring when you KEEP
it striking. It's all right now. All yo1
want to do Is to wind the clock more an
the repeater less"
"Ohr' said the brother with gasp
and that was all.
Now the brother says that any woma'
who doesn't know enough to wind
clock doesn't know enough to live. An
the sister says-wen, every brothe
knows what sisters can say.-New Yor