The herald., 1896-02-13
50 THAT HE Could SLEEP
Curious Experiment of M. Socra-
ties GriptOngs
BORN IN THE GREAT CITY
The Stiffness Of Storkyille Center Kept
Him Awake
BORN IN THE GREAT CITY
Ills Scheme to Secure Somnolcnce Worked to a
Charm, but the Neighbors Made
objection

81 met in Broadway this morning"
said Colonel Calliper, my old friend
Socrates Griptongs, who at one time lived
IN Storkvillo Center, VT, where he be-
came famous in n night. Mr.. Griptongs
was born and raised in this city, and he
had been accustomed always TO it's roar,
which was in fact music TO him, as it is
to many others.
Mr.. Griptongs had made fortune in
business and retired, and ho thought he
would like to movo into the country How
he came to pitch or Storkvillo Center
don't know, but don't SEQ how he could
have made IL better selection. He bought
q farm there, Just on the edge Of the town,
and settled down comfortably. But from
tho very first he suffered from insomnia,
which was Il very mysterious thing, for
he had good health and plenty Of money
and nothing to bother him, and he took
plenty of exercise and got tired enough
nights but somehow he couldn't sleep. He
wondered for long time why this could
be, but he couldn't imagine until one
night, when he was sitting out on tho
veranda, all OF a sudden he became con-
scious Of tho fact that the world was full
of Stiffness stiffness. He thought ho had
never heard so much silence in his life be-
fore, and he never had. He knew now
what was tho matter with him. He'd been
accustomed all his life to noise and lots
of it, and every fiber of his body had been
accustomed to yibrato in unison with it,
sleeping and waking, and here he was
with the conditions OF lifetime suddenly
and absolutely changed.
''What should he do? He liked the
place, and he liked the people; he didn't
want to move away, but Of course he had
to p1 r1ifY ilt1rs- -,fr hD ic
time was abundantly occupied and the
comparative quiet of tho noighborhood did
not disturb him. TIE trouble was about
the nights, and the question was What
should he do? He had ample means, and
what ho undertook to do was to sot up in
his new home some approximation to the
conditions that bad existed in the old. As
not infrequently happens, he somewhat
overdid it.
"Mr. Griptongs' farm comprised $50
and some acres extending along tho road
for upward OF iiyo-cighths Of mile
What ho sot ;sbout doing to begin with
was to pave tho street along tho whole
front Of his property with stone pavement
He went to Now York and bought lot Of
secondhand paving stones that had been
taken up to make way for AN improved
pavement. L don't know just how many
he bought, but q lot of 'em, several canal
boat loads, and he had 'em froightod up
to his place. 1t was late in the fall when
he bought tho blocks. [ remember that
his boats were the last boats through the
canal before tho close of navigation thai
season, and it was midwinter before he
had all the blocks on the ground. Then
he was delayed by strikes and bad weather
and one thing and another, SO that before
the work was finished it WAS spring, ana
the frost was coming out of tho ground,
and that pavement was probably the
toughest and most uneven piece OF stone
pavement in tho world. Tho roadway had
simply been graded up for the blocks and
tho stones laid down, and now the road
was all wenyy with knobs and hills and
valleys from end to end. But that was
just what Mr.. Griptongs wanted
''Ho had bought in New York seven
large iron L beams, three curved pieces OF
street railroad iron such as thoy lay around
corners, and fow pieces of angle iron and
little assorted lat Of iron bars to give va
riety and tone. and he had bought also one
of those trucks that consist OF four heavy
wheels, with a reach between, with the
crosspicces above tho axlos upon which
the loud rests, plated with iron to keep
thom from wearing.
NcliI HussliJ why Sou olO lOes't i'iiiSi4NN
and ready for use. Mr. Griptongs' house
stood about midway Of it, and tho idea
was to have that heavy load Of iron driven
up and down the road from ond to end,
past the house all night, beginning just
before Mr.. Griptongs went to bed and con-
tinuing until after getting up time i'll the
morning. They loaded the iron upon tho
truck, tho beams and bars and SO on,
with the curved plates sticking out at ono
side, like SO many gigantic sickles They
had good four horse team. Tho outfit
was down at one ond Of Mr.. Griptongs
piece of road, and the signal for starting
was to DO red lantern hung up on tho
middle post of Mr.. Griptongs' veranda.
''Well, that night, when Mr.. Griptor gs
was all ready to go to bed, he called down
to his hired man in the hall to hang out
the light. A minute later you could hear
the beams rattling quarter of a mile
down the road.
$ oh, now, said Mr.. Griptongs as he
got into bed, that sounds something like
itr and when the load went past he was
snoring loudly-the first sound sleep he
had had for months.
''Noise? Well, there never was any
thing like it in that OF any other part of
Vermont, and for hours the four horse
team kept it up, jolting the big truck
along, with the beams and bars bounding,
making music for the sleeping Griptongs
but spreading amazement and disnay
throughout the neighboring country.
About quarter past IL tho load upset.
The two nigh wheels of the truck hap
pened to drop down into depressions at the
same time, and the whole outfit toppled
over. Then you would have thought
there was all earthquake, and then every
thing was quiet, but the possibility of just
this thing happening had been foreseen,
aud there were 20 men on hand inside of a
minute, and they had the truck righted
up and reloaded and started again before
Mr. Griptongs woke up, and then they
kept it moving all the rest of the night.
I'm the morning, when Mr. Griptongs
did wake up, he found waiting for him q
delegation Of Storkville Center's most
prominent citizens. In fact, they had
been waiting for some timo. They had
come very early, but Mr., Griptongs' peo-
pie had refused to wake him up until he
had had his sleep out. The citizens wanted
to know what it was all about. Mr.. Grip
tongs was surprised and disturbed to find
that while he had slept soundly and de-
lightfully the noise that had been as music
to him had kept everybody else awake for
miles around. OF course this wouldn .
do, and Mr.. Griptongs told the assembled
+La f,1N