The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-01-25
A PASSION FoR CLOCKS.
The Southern Negro Requires Some
thing Handsome in This Line.

thing Handsome in This Line.
over 100000 has passed through nv
hands already thfsvseason for that man
over there said the cashier of one of the
banks in an interior southern town.
i was about to ask who he was re-
sponded his companion, regarding with
interested eyes the prosperous looking per-
son across the street. What is his bust
ness? always see him strolling about in
the s, most ieisurely fashion"
The man referred to was we'll known as
the clock man, and his mode of con-
quoting business is unique and interest
ing ING he employs q large number of men.
cart and sends them out into the highways
and byways, through remote country lanes
and pine woods roads where the trace of
Mneels is SO dim as almost to be undis-
sernlble to sell clocks to the negroes and
such of the white backwoodsmen as can
be induced to buy them. These clocks are
ses14 NAT as being worth only about ST.
out are sold at from S12 10 $14 apiece. The
agents go around in April or May and sell
tnehl, taxing mortgage on a COW or an
OK, a wagon. hog, poultry of various
kinds, anything which can be sold and
converted INTO Hloney--even besteads bed
clothes, cups and suacers and mattresses
are accepted as security. and in the fail
the collectors follow and receive the paw
ments. One thing is noticeable-the man
VINO presents the claim for payment is
never the same who sold the clock the
previous spring. Thus any irreguJarities
IN the papers drawn up at the time of the
sale are unknown to him. he ONLY de-
mands what was agreed upon. Every ne
g[9 mouse: no matter II the only. other ar
tleles IN 1t are wooden bench or two.
a nlde-bottomed chair, cooking utensils
and the water pail, with the most mea ger
PROVISIONS for sleeping, boasts one of these
shody-looking time pieces on the rude
Shelf over the clumsy chimney place OF
commopest wood, shiny as long as new,
and ornamented with a little cheap gilt.
these clocks possess one delightful charm
IN the eyes, or rather ears, of their
oWners-they can strike They afford but
little knowledge as to the fight of time.
meaning of the letters on the bite face
OF their much-prized ornament or the
significance of the little slender hands
going around and round. The possessors
of these clocks can tell the time much
more accurately by the sun mark they
nave grown accustomed to notice on the
piece over the fireplace can strike every
hour with a loudness and an abandon
unrivaled by any clock in a more pre-
tentius case, and in doing this its mission
is fulfilled.
Il kin yere him strike cen de night"
said an old aunty in defense of her ex-
travagance when asking her landlord
assistance in paying the clock man. to
whom she had given a mortgage the pre-
vlous spring on the only feather bed and
all the quilts she possessed. Had not her
benetactor advanced her the money the
old woman would have seen her precious
and most necessary belongings traded
for a little cotton or corn to her neigh
bors, and would have nothing to comfort
her during the long cold nights of the ap-
preaching winter but the knowledge that
she possessed Just as fine and tall a clock
as anybody Of her acquaintance If the
clock, seller finds a rare instance where
the besieged heSitates about investing
and claims that he won't. make corn
get him out of debt, and doubts il he can
afford to give S14 for a useless ornament.
the shrewd persuader has but to suggest
that were any of the family taken sick
and a doctor summoned there would be
no time piece in the house by which to
administer the various powders and doses
to be given according to directions every
hour or two, and his task is an easy one.
The head of family can no longer hold
out against such an urgent reason and
a paper is quickly made out and signed,
name if he has learned to write it., in
which document he agrees to part with
some household article or domestic ami
when a certain day comes to pay for the
beautiful clock which now appears to him
an Indispensable article.
a COW which had ploWed the entire crop
of one small farmer and had at the same
time afforded milk as nourishment for
the family, was once sacrificed in order
TO possess this fashionable article of brio
a-brac, which would. apparently, remind
its possessods how long it was since they
had had milk to drink. Meanwhile, the
head of these various agents lives a life
of indolent ease-drives a fine team,
wears flashing diamonds on breast and
finger, and regards the world about him
with satisfaction and himself as a person
of consequence and distinction: Down on
Jehossee and other islands on the Carolina
coast, densely populated with negroes
who but seldom have communication with
the mainland. thousands of dollars have
been made from the sale of these ches2
but dear clocks. The land owners who
rent their acres to the victims of these
clock men feel resentment toward them
or their employers, for mani a Mound of
cotton or a busflel of corn Eoes to them
which should be devoted to- the payment
of the landlord VINO has provided them ali
and seen to it that tbsir families did did
not want for bread. Many family
the SOUND d. Fl wheels ,,es outside and the
an arrival, and upon Inquiry lea ,eiii tt oa
somewhat nnwsl CONS Fact that one of Of
tainnent for himself and horse for Tii t tha
night it being too far ito any town M b me
pitalily must be extended This b,iss,r rlos-
is somewhat new. but apparently si nlesf
successful Philadelphia, Times. must