Los Angeles herald., 1907-05-19

NEW YORK, May 12.-"No need Of
VI watches any more-not in this
CITY, Walk up Broadway a few
Special Correspondence of The Herald
blocks at any point and you can see
all kinds of clocks There are tower
clocks, jewelers. clocks and clocks and
clocks put up solely for advertising pur-
poses; but they all announce the time,
and that's about all you can demand of
a clock" The speaker was merely one
of a small army of merchants and
pleasure seekers who set their watches
by the tower clocks or regulate their
movements by these public timepieces.
Any day at the noon hour small
crowd stands on lower Broadway and
watches a certain gilded ball topping
the tower of the Western Union build
ing. A stranger joins the throng and
excitedly asks: What is it? 1 can't
see anything!" But few minutes later
watches are whisked out of pockets
and the throng stands as though timing
the movement of the sun or watching
for the appearance of day comet.
Then, while the stranger looks, the
gilded ball trembles and down it drops
from the top of the pole. A smile of
satisfaction marks the faces of some
as they gaze at their watches, and on
others there is an expression of anX-
iety. 1t is the noon hour, officially an
nounced from Washington, and the
dropping of the time ball is a cause of
daily joy or sorrow to those who have
found their watches good or bad time
keepers. One might read by the express
sion on the face whether or not the
man in the multitude had a good watch.
Overlooking this scene stands a lonely
church with tower clock, which for
many decades has kept the time, and
in the days when pocket timepieces
were luXuries it served a purpose which
today is less significant. Yet few mod
ern timepieces could withstand the
storms of decades and record the hours
so accurately as does this ancient
tower clock. Few of the multitudes
who daily watch the falling of the time
ball on lower Broadway stop to consider
the old clock in st. Pauls tower. Yet
it would be worth their while-worth it
for number of reasons, chief of which
is comparison between the old and
new methods of clock building. New
York has a number of ancient tower
clocks of unusual Importance as relics
of period when OR forefathers count
ed time by hours and days, instead of
by minutes and seconds, as we of today
do. These tower clocks were the best
specimens of the builders art of
century ago, and while clumsy and
somewhat awkward they have kept
good time throughout New Yorks
eventful history and development.
Naturally, more attention is directed to
old Trinity, in lower Broadway. as one
of the most interesting of downtown
churches, and Trinity's chimes daily
break into the noise and rush of the
street traffic at regular quarter-hour
intervals, as If to warn the seeking,
toiling masses of money makers that,
'after all, man is mortal and his day
of flesh is short"
Fewer Big Heads
Big heads are to be reduced. This
is neither a political nor theatrical
note; it relates simply to women's man
ner of hairdressing. The coiffure of
the past season, with it's curls and
puffs and pompadour, topped with a
bird of paradise, is to pass, or at least
a less obtrusive sister will reign in it's
place. The Marcel wave is "out" and