The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-02-20
SO HE COULD SLEEP.
THE CURIOUS EXPERIMENT OF Mr..
SOCRATES GRlPToNGS.

York City, and the Stiffness at Storlsviile
Center Kept Him Awake-His Scheme
Worked, but tho Neighbors Objected.
Il met in Broadway this morning, ("
said Colonel Calliper, "my old friond
Socrates Griptongs, who Mt ono time lived
IN Storkville Confer, VT, where no be-
camo famous In n night. Mr.. Griptongs
was born and raised in this city, and he
had been accustomed always to It's roar,
whioh>was, In fact, music to him, as 1t is
to many others. rs7si
Mr.. Griptongs had made fortune In
business and retired, and he thought he
would like to move into tho country. How
no came to pitch on Storkville Center I
don't know, but don't 500 how he could
have made u better selection. He bought
rarm there, just on tho edge of tho town,
ana settled down comfortably. But from
the very first he suffered from insomnia,
which was very mysterious thing, for
no 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 no couldn't sleep. He
wondered for long time why this could
be, but no couldn't imagine until one
night, when no was sitting out on tho
yerandn, oil Of n sudden he became con-
scious OF the fact that tho world was full
OF stiffness. stiffness. He thought no had
mover heard SO much silence III his life be-
fore, and no never had. Ho knew now
T. what was tho matter with him. He'd been
accustomed all his lifo to noise, and lots
of 1t, and every fiber Of his body had been
accustomed to vibrato in unison with it,
sleeping and waking, and hero he was
and absolutely changed
"What should ho doo Ho Iibod tho
place, and no liked tho people; he didn't
want to move away, but of course he hud
got to sleep nights. During the day his
ttno was abundantly occupied and tho
comparative quiet of tho noighborhood did
not disturb him. The trouble was about
tho nights, and the question was, What
should he dor He had ample means, and
what he undertook to do was to set up In
his now home some approximation to tho
conditions that had existed in tho old AS
not infrequently happens, ho somewhat
overtlid 1t.
''Mr. Griptongs' farm comprised 800
and some acres, extending along tho road
for upward of flve-cighths of q mile.
What he SGT about doing to begin with
was to pave tho street along tho whole
front of his property with stono pavement
He went to Now York and bought lot Of
secondhand paving stones that had been
taken up to mako way for an improved
pavement don't know Just how many
he bought, but q lot of 'cm, several canal
boat loads, and he had ON freightcd up
to his place 1T was lato in tho fall whom
no bought tho blocks. I remember that
his boats were the last boats through tho
canal before tho close of navigation that
season, and it was midwintcr before no
had oil tho blocks on tho ground. Then
bn 1p1pyp1 Inv tyit- nd hn1 how,
and ono thing and another, so that before
the work was finished it was spring, and
tho frost was coming out of tho ground,
and that pavement was probably tho
toughest and most uneven picco of stone
pavement in tho world. The roadway Ind
simply boon graded up for the blocks and
tho stones laid down, and now tho road
was all weavy with knobs and hills and
valleys from end to end. But that was
just what Mr.. Griptongs wanted.
'Ho had bought in New York soven
large iron beams, three curved pieces of
street railroad iron such as thoy lay around
corners, and Il few pieces of anglo iron and
little assorted lot OF iron bars to give va
riety and tono and he had bought also one
Of those trucks that consist of four heavy
wheels, with Il reach between, with tho
crosspieces above the axles, upon which
the load rests, plated with iron to keep
them from wearing.
well, finally thoy got the road finished
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 end to ond,
past the house all night, beginning just
before Mr.. Griptongs went to bed and con-
tinuing until after getting up time in tho
morning. They loaded tho iron upon tho
krttn f1s,V
with tho curved plates sticking out ut one
side, like so many gigantic sicklos They
had good four horse team. Tho outfit
was down Mt ono end of Mr.. Griptongs'
pioco of road, and tho signal for starting
was to BIO red lantern hung up on the
middle post of Mr.. Griptongs' veranda
"Woll, that night, when Mr.. Griptongs
was all ready to go to bed, he called down
to his hired man in tho hall to hang out
the light. minute later you could hear
tho beams rafting n quarter of O milo
down the road.
oh, now snid Mr.. Griptongs rs he
got into bed, that sounds something like
1t! and when the load won't past ho was
snoring loudly-the first sound sleep he
had had for months.
"Noise? Well, there never was any
thing like 1t in that or any other part of
Vermont, and for hours the four horse
team kept it up jolting the big truck
along, with tho beams and bars bounding,
making music for the sleeping Griptongs,
but spreading amazement and dismay
throughout the neighboring country.
About q quarter past II tho load upset.
The two nigh wheels Of tho truck hap
pened to drop down into depressions Mt the
same time, and tho whole outfit topplod
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 boon foreseen,
and there wcro 20 men on hand inside of q
minute, and they had the truck riphted