Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1903-08-06
FREAKS OF CLOCKS.
THE STRANGE WARNING CHiMED
FROM STRASSBURG CATHEDRAL,

Peculinrities of the Timepiece In the
British House of LOrds-The Mad
ness of Mechlin's Clock "When
Clocks Go Crazy. Things Go Daft"
that when clocks so crazy. things go
haft.'
At = a. IN. on Sept. 81. 1869, the
world famous clock in the great cathe-
dral at Strassburg commenced to chime
without rhyme or reason. 1t sounded
1870 peals. tl.en stopped, and after an
interval slowly began to toll as if for
IA great one dead.
The political atmosphere of Europe
at that time was Indicative of pro-
found peace. Nothing of danger or dis
grace could by any possibility be con-
ceived of as threatening Strassburg or
its inhabitants. Yet less than year
afterward the German armies had en-
circled the city with ring of steel and
fire. The German shells were falling
thickly in her streets and squares and
exploding even within the precincts
of the stately cathedral itself. And
precisely at 2 a. m. Sept. q, 1870, Gen
eral Uhrich signed the equalization
which was to deliver Strassburg into
the hands of the invaders.
In the house of lords is certain his
tOrical timepiece which is said to in
variably suffer from temporary aber-
ration whenever member Of the royal
family Of Britain passes away. The
popularity was first noticed when Will
liam ". died. Very early in the morn
ing the clock began to emit series Of
peculiar Eurgling noises, as though
gasping for breath, went suddenly
slow and finally stopped altogether
All efforts to start it failed, and on the
evening of the day of the funeral it
restarted of it's own accord. nor did it
give any further trouble whatever for
many years afterward.
1t has over and over again been no.
ticed that clocks, especially those sit
uated in the turrets Of high buildings
having unusually deep foundations, are
liable to go wrong in sympathy with
seismic disturbances happening in dis
On Nov. l, 1855, for instance, fully
half the timepieces in Edinburgh were
affected. Many stopped altogether.
Others went slow or fast or started
striking wrongly. In this the supersti-
tious saw some calamity impending.
and it was not until news arrived Of
the great Lisbon earthquake that the
o1,p Il:
cred, by comparing times and dates,
that the first shock must have Travelled
from Fee in Morocco to Cape Wrath
in less than eight seconds.
A curious cOincident was then recall
ed. On the evening Of April 7, exactly
five years previously, several thou
sands Of persons, particularly those Of
rank and fortune, had camped out in
Hyde park and had thus passed the
hours from dusk till daylight.
This was to avoid an earthquake
shock which had been predicted for
the early morning of the Sth by an al
legged "madman." The threatened
quake, however. failed to materialize.
and the scared ones got heartily laugh
eu al LOT lllelT pains. NeNertneleSS, 1t
was noted at the time that several of
the public and private clocks of the
metropolis stopped at precisely the
same moment on the morning in ques-
ton, and this fact at once took on a
new and sinister significance.
"Was it possible" people began to
ask, that the SO called 'madman' was
not so very mad after all and that
London had providentially escaped
what might possibly have been hid
eOus and unparalleled catastrophe?'
The so called madness of Mech
Inns clock constitutes one of the most
mysterious incidents of the Napoleonic
wars. 1t happened in 1906. Two
years previously the Corsican usurper
had RACED Il portion of the city to the
ground, and the place had also suffered
severely in other ways. But the mag
nificent cathedral had been spared, and
then, as now, it's massive tower rising
four square to a height of more than
300 feet and bearing four dials, each
e. ~ = 49,