The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-01-31
SO HE COULD SLEEP.
THE CURIOUS EXPERIMENT OF Mr..
SOCRATES GRIPToNes.
He Was Born and brought Up In Now
York City. and the Stiffness at storkviue
Center Kept Him Awske-His scheme
Worked. but the Neiehbors Objected.

Center Kept Him Awake-His schem
Worked. but the Neighbors Objected
II met In Broadway this morning.
said Colonel Calliper, ''my old frient
Socrates Griptongs, who at one time lived
In storkville Center, VT, where he be
came famous In night. Mr.. Griptongl
was born and raised In this city and Ia
had been accustomed always TO It's roar
which was In fact, music to him, as it Il
70 many Others
| Mr. Griptongs had made a fortune IN
business and retired, and he thought h,
would like TO move into the country. How
he came TO pitch OF Storkville Center
| don't know, but ! don't see how he could
have made n better selection He bought
farm there, just on the edge OF the town,
and settled down comfortably. But from
the very first he suffered from insomnia,
which was a 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 a long time why this could
be, but he couldn't imagine until one
night, when he was sitting out on the
veranda, all Of a sudden he became con
c<Ac0o Va tbC AbCt llltb INC NOIlu was lull
OF stiffness. stiffness. He thought he had
never heard so much silence in his life be-
fore, and he never had. He knew now
what was the matter with him. He'd been
accustomed all his life to noise, and lots
of 1t, and every fiber of his body had been
accustomed to vibrate IN unison with 1t,
sleeping and waking, and here be was
with the conditions of a lifetime suddenly
and absolutely changed.
What should he do? He liked the
place, and he liked tho people; he didn't
want to move away, but Of course he had
got to sleep nights. During the day his
time was abundantly occupied and the
comparative quiet OF the neighborhood did
not disturb him. The trouble was about
the nights, and the question was, What
should he dor He had ample means and
what he undertook to do was 60 set up In
his new home some approximation to the
conditions that had existed in the old. As
not iDfrequently happens, he somewhat
overdid It.
"Mr Griptongs' farm comprised $40
and some acres, extending along the road
for upward Of five-eighths of a mile.
What he set about doing to begin with
was TO pave the street along the whole
front of his property with stone pavement
He went To New York and bought a lot OF
secondhand paving stones that had been
taken up to make way for an improved
pavement. i don't know just how many
he bought, but lot of EN-, several canal.
boat loads, and he had EN- freighted up
to his place. It was late In the fall when
he bought the blocks. remember that
his boats were the last boats-- tA-eash- the
canal before the close of navigation that
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 il was spring, and
the frost was coming out of the ground,
and that pavement was probably the
toughest and most uneven piece of stone
pavement In the world. The roadway had
simply been graded up for the blocks and
the stones laid down, and now the road
was all weavy with knobs and hills and
valleys from end to end. But that was
just what Mr.. Griptongs wanted
'He had bought in New York seven
large iron beams, three curved pieces OF
street railroad iron such as they lay around
corners, and few pieces of angle iron and
q little assorted lot of iron bars to give va
riety and tone and he had bought also one
VI tnorS tiuC0o tAiht COnclSb VI AOuE Hc1N1
wheels, with a reach between, with the
crosspieces above the axles, upon which
the load rests, plated with iron 20 keep
them from wearing.
We'll, finally they got the road finished
and ready for use. Mr.. Griptongs' house
stood about midway OF It, and the idea
was to have that heavy load of iron driven
up and down the road from end to end,
past the house all night, beginning just
before Mr. Griptongs went 10 bed and con-
tinuing until after getting up time In the
morning. They loaded the iron upon the
truck, the beams and bars and so on,
with the curved plates sticking out at one
side, like so many gigantic sickles. They
had a good four horse team. The outfit
was down at one end of Mr.. Griptongs
piece Of road, and the signal for starting
was to DO red lantern hung up on the
middle post Of Mr.. Griptongs' veranda.
"Well, that night, when Mr.. Griptongs
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 a 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.
''Noisey Well, there never was any
thing like IL In that or 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 dismay
throughout the nelghboring country
About a quarter past IL the load upset
The two nigh wheels OF the truck hap.
pencd to drop down into dopressions at the
same time, and the whole outfit toppled
over. Then you would have thought
there was an earthquake, and then every
thing was quiet but tho possibility OF just
this thing happening had been foresecn,
and there were 90 men on hand inside of
minute, and they had the truck righted
up and reloaded and started again before
Mr.. Griptongs woke up, and then they
kept 10 moving oil the rest OF the night
I'm the morning, when Mr. Griptongs
did wake up, he found waiting for him n
delegation Of Storkville Centcr's most
prominent citizens In fact, they had
been waiting for some time They had
come very early, but Mr., Griptongs' peo.
Pile had refused to wake him up until he
hhu nou MS slecpo OUT. Inc citlxens Wantcu
10 know what IL was all about. Mr. Grip
tongs was surprised and disturbed 90 find
that while he had slept soundly and do
lightfully the noise that had been rs music
to him had kept everybody else awake for
miles around. OF course this wouldn't
do, and Mr.. Griptongs told the assembled
citizens 50. I'm fact. the big truck never
rolled again.
s,Mr e.rinfnne~ st,sd A, Ctcrlvtfi. Cen,
tor little while longer, but he found that
he still couldn't sleep. Then he moved
back to New York. He lives here now