The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-08-15
OLD WOODEN CLOCKS.
THEY WERE MADE ON HONOR. AND
SOME ARE TICKING YET.
fxks the wooden Nntmegs OF Kentucky,
TAsy Never Wore out-Their Stately Pre-
eisisn In Contrast With Modern Clocks.
Wheels Enough For Three.

1nsy never wore out-fneir steseiy fre-
eisisn In Contrast with Modern Clocks.
whsels Enough For Three.
A great many years ago the Connecticut
clook was made on honor" of cherry,
with maze of hard wood wheels that
won't with the sedate precision Of Puritan
lifs In this commonwealth, and 10 became
famous IA the land. The same Connecti-
out Yankee that took pocketful OF wood
On nntlnegs into Kentucky was agent also
for the wooden clock. Tho clock was bet
ter than tho nutmegs, of course-except to
eat Still tho nutmegs were good, too else
they'd never have fetched the price of the
real tropical kernels The clocks were
actually too good. Like the nutmegs they
never wore out. There are Connections
clocks still running in many happy Kon-
tucky home that went there at the time OF
the celebrated wooden nutmeg dispensa-
tion, and they are just about as good as
ever, SO 10 is said Some OF them were put
up with greas square, tall black box,
casket of time, with solid pendulum and
ball 8 feet long, that pounded along the
passing hour with ponderous solemnity,
tiaf-ing as often as once a second. The
play hide and seek In, and sometimes a
child got tangled up with the slicing pen
dulum, and then there was trouble.
When a Kentuckian bought an old fash
ioned nutmeg clock, he bought it for all
time. 1t faithfully ticked his life away,
and now, most likely, il marking time for
his grandson. There is story about an
inquisitive Kentuckian who, having q
good deal of spare time on hand and being
An q mood to kill it, took his great Con
necticut clock apart, and he was all ono
day doing 1t too. Then no spent a week
trying TO reconstruct it. Working 10 hours
q day--it was rainy woather--he put back
q good many of its more or less vital or
gans--all that ID seemed to him clock
really needed-and the end justified his
reasoning and forecast
''It went right on ticking fust class"
he said, and SO exuberantly had the Nut
meg genius builded and provided" that
he added, IT had wurks and wheels enough
left over from the job fur three other
clocks"
Clocks are not built that way in Con-
necticut today. Not all the Connecticut
clocks were disposed Of in Kentucky-far
from IL. They were sold in every state in
the Union, and so bright and farreaching
them that Ii was not easy TO sell any other
kind Of timepiece then. For about CEN
tury the Connections Yankee monopolized
tho business Of meddling with time, driv-
ing 1t to harness. The result was that the
stats sent It's wares into every quarter of
the land Remote and seqnestered hamlets
as well as populous cities were run accord
ing TO Connecticut time.
lhon came the frisky little brass clock,
manufactured and sold for a song, some
what livelier than locust with its rigaJig
voice, a trifie better than no clock at all
for q steady timekeeper. But it drove tho
scdate and solemn, cumhrous and sub
stantial old high and mighty wooden
clock out OF the trade, and for 30 years or
moro few, If any of them, have been
manufactured In Yankeeland. Hence n
dozen years ego the world took q wonder
fully great SHINE to tho old things. Ev-
erybody must have an old fashioned clock.
So scores of families who had bartered
away their ancient timeriece for lot Of
cheap plaster of paris bric-a-brac bought
1t back, IL possible, for big price or con-
trived 60 get somo other family's heir
loom. Then a race of dickerers In San
tiques" sprang up In New York and ooun-
try towns, who sent their agents every
where, securing the rural world In search
Of tho popular grandfethers' clocks. The
Connections hill towns yielded an aston
ishingly large crop of them, whose own
ers, as . rule, were bribed to part with
them In exchange for glittering bauble,
and so exhaustive was the search that one
may scour the whole commonwealth now
without finding half a score Of genuine
old wooden wheeled clocks for sale.
Thu eacr{,,lar a1e uvaa ac farca In Eap-
necticut citles as In New York and Bos-
ton and was not 90 be slaked by local old
clock fanciers until they had filed half
the angles OF their down stairs rooms with
the venerable, dark, polished mahogany
or cherry ferns of antique timepieces
ticking xpmipiscently I'm n hollow sound
Ing and purit4nical debate, and lowering
~ each other In frtgid moral austerity.
One gentleman Of Norwich, for In
stance. has no fewer than>fve clocks seven
feet tall ranged about his house, like SOL
emn and impressive looking sages Of tho
for1nal and decorous ancient New England
regime, and he paid great price for each
one Of them too, ftey form rtUcitrdfy
aweeopo gathering He must be light
hearted and jaupty, indeed even frivolous
who feels like joxing or affects small talk
IN the presence of these grim monitors,
hAmmering with slow, muilled blows at
the passing links of time, which challenge
one with tongue and dim gray visage 10
Join In mournful neditations on the In.
stant and ephemeral nature of earthly
copcerns.
These old clocks are going all tho time,
with no light and clipper step, however
rather with digniied, unhurried phee
Just before they are ready to strike the
hour one hears q loud. husky, rusty
b-r-r.tpG sound proceeding from the heart
Of their internal mechanism. Than, with
. great clicking and purring of mildewed
and dusty wheels, like the gentle effort OF
an old man clearing his throat, they pound
cut with metallic intonations their Oft re-
peated message Of time.
These aged timepiccos run well, how
ever, with much sweet oil and ministering
care and frequent winding, and the reason
is. ~ the Light fingered computers Of today
might as we'll be told that they were the
hsndiwork of men who knew the value Of
time and worked on honor No soft and
punky stufI, no second growth or half sea-