The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-01-14
THE PRESENT sTRAsBURa CLOCK
Wound UP to Run From the Year 1910
Until the Year $685.
From the Philadelphia Telegraph

From the Philadelphia Telegraph.
For the third time the municipality of
Strasburg, Germany, decided in 1886 that
a new astronomical clock should be placed
in the framework of the old one. A
Strasburg matchmaker by the name of
Schwilgue was intrusted with the under
taking, and within four years he finished
the unique mechanism which stands to-
day to the wonder and amusement Of ma
tives. Not only does this clock keep the
time from day to day, but il runs from
year to year without the intervention, of
any clockmaker. Besides this ita. face
contains o disk indicating all the varia-
BILE holidays of the year. Easter and
80 on. 1t regulates itself in the leap
years. 1t gives the phases of the
moon, the eclipses, the equinoxes, and the
revolutions of all the planets OF the solar
system. The tineness OF the structure
can be understood when 1t is known that
OF the seven golden balls of different sizes
representing the planets, the nearest to
the sun, Mercury takes twenty-eight days
TO make the circuit Of its orbit, while
Saturn only can complete its course in
LA days. or nearly three years. The
entire mechanism, its maker calculated,
would run until the year 9999, II the brass
and other metal of which it is built do not
wear out in the meantime This wonder
place. where those who constantly wish
to view it well are scarcely able TO do so.
Its site is a wing which can be entered
either through the cathedral proper or "A
portal, which directly leads thither from
out doors
The time of greatest interest is at noon
each day, though there are little perfor-
mances at every quarter hour. Atnoon
is the time the Geek crows, and that is
what every one wants TO hear The in
terest never seems TO wane For an hour
before ~ O'Clock, day after day a crowd
gathers in this corner waiting for the
exhibition. This early arrival is partly
in order to get a good place and partly
because the clock keeps solar time, which
now is a half hour behind ordinary Stras-
burg time. Here are tourists, soldiers,
nuns, bridal couples, peasant women with
baskets, boys with bundles, who have
run I'm from the street to get another look
at the thing. Now IL Is only n half
hour until the performance; will the room
hold any more'
The beadles, like the street car conduc-
tors, are sure there is plenty Of room up
'front.'" or, rather, In this case, behind.
They wave the wands OF their majesty,
and back the people surge. Still more
are coming. The natives, who never
seem TO tire of the sight. and who
know better about the variance In the
times, and now dropping in - mothers
with babies, business men from around
the Corner, and everybody else. There is
not space TO sneeze. Now there'are only
five minutes until the rooster crows.
Maybe he will not crow to-day. Every
body is looking at the clock. In the very
center Of The big monument to the clock
makers ingenuity is a gallery.
Here stands Father Time representing
Death. He has about him on revolving
plane four hRures-Childhood a boy
Youth, young hunter; Manhood, fully
armed knight; Old Age, a gray-haired
man clothed in the skin of beast. Child
hood had struck the first quarter hour,
Youth the second, Manhood the third and
Old Age the other hours Of the day; but
now at noon it is Deaths own chance.
The four figures come out to view before
him, while, with grim hammer Of bone,
he sounds with twelve strokes the death
OF another day.
A little figure down near the face Of
the clock now has his turn, and, with a
little shake, reverses his hour glass.
Above all this is another gallery II be-
gins TO squeak. The machinery is in mo-
ton. In the middle is a figure Of Christ,
and around him are to pass the twelve