The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-03-15
The srRAsRuRe CLOCK.
Wound Up to Run from the Year 1910
Until the Year 5000.

Until the Year 5000.
For the third time the municipalit,
of Strasburg, Germany, decided in 1888
that a new astronomical clock SHOULD
be placed in the framework of the OLE
one. A Strasburg matchmaker by tn,
name of Schwilgue was intrusted will
the undertaking, and within four year
| he finished the unique mechanism
which stands to-day to the wonder ant
amusement of natives and visitors. No
only does this clock keep the time from
day to day, but it runs from year tt
year without the intervention of any
clockmaker. Besides this its face con
tains disk indicating all the variable
holidays of the year, Easter, and so on
1t regulates itself in the leap years. 1
gives the phases of the moon, tn,
eclipses, the equinoXes and the revo
buttons of all the planets of the
solar system. The fneness of the
structure can be understood wher
it is known that of the
seven golden balls of different size.
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 Lar days, or nearly three
years. The entire mechanism, its
maker calculated would run until the
year 5000, if the brass and other metal
of which it is built do not wear out in
the meantime. This wonderful con.
trivance is unfortunately in a darl,
place, where those who constantly wish
to view it well are scarcely able to dc
so. Its site is a wing, which can be en-.
tered either through the cathedral
proper or portal, which directly leads
thither from outdoors.
The time of greatest interest is at
noon each day, though there are little
performance at every quarter hour. AT
noon is the time the cock crows, and
that is what everyone wants to hear.
The interest never seems to wane.
For an hour before twelve o'clock, day
after day, a crowd gathers N this
corner waiting for the eXU..,. ,au. The
early arrival IS ,p"Hv in oder TO get
Il good place ... H.rt,.. nAcause the
clock keeps solar time, which now is a
half hour behind ordinary Strasburg
time. Here are tourists, soldiers, nuns,
bridal couples, peasant women with
baskets, boys with bundles, who have
run in from the street to get another
look at the thing. Now it is only a
half hour until the performance; will
the room hold any more?
The beadles, like the street-car con-
ductors, 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, are now drop
ping in-mothers with babies, business
men from around the corner, and
rybody else. There is no space to
sneeze. Now there are only five min
utes until the rooster crows. Maybe
he will not crow to-day. Everybody is
looking at the clock. In the very center
of the big monument to the clockmak-
er's ingenuity is a gallery.
Here stands Father Time represent
ing DEATH He has about him on a re-
volving plane four fgures-Childhood
a boy; Youth, a young hunter; Man
hood, a fully armed knight; Old Age, a
gray-haired man clothed in the skin of
a beast. Childhood 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 a 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. 1t
begins to squeak. The machinery is in
motion, In the middle is a figure of
Christ, and around Him are to
pass the twelve apostles. Out
they come, one by one. Each
stops an instant before the Saviour
turns face, bows, and receives the bless
ing from His outstretched hand. But
the rooster, where is he? There he still
is high up on a pedestal, beside
stained glass-window. Now he clucks.
Now his old metal-plated throat swells.
He flaps his wings and crows. Another
minute. Again he flaps his wings and
crows. And third time. Was there
ever such rooster as this? It is all
over. The beadles drive the people
out, shut up the cathedral, and go to
dinner.
The time of greatest interest comes
but once a year, in the night from the
31st of December to New Years day |
Then an immense crowd always assem-
Oles to watch the revolutions of the |
as it regulates itself ready |
sor the labors of the coming year.
Telegraph.
Some tadpoles recently born at the