The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1914-05-01
What the Clock
Said
A Medieval Romance
BY F. A. mitchell


In the year 1870 a holiday was pro-
claimed in the town Of Strassburg. The
occasion for rejoicing was the setting
up of a clock in q tower built for the
purpose, where all citizens could see 1t
and note the time Of day. This wal
the second clock Of which we have any
account, the first having been placed
six years before in a tower in the pal
ace of Charles v. of France. There
were no pendulums to these primitive
clocks, the regulators being 1ywheels.
But since the fywheel was resisted by
the air it acted imperfectly, as any
one may see by watching a windmill
which turns as fast or as slowly as the
current that move it.
Nevertheless the goodpeople of Strass-
burg, who had been always obliged to
regulate their movements by the sun.
which rose very early in summer and
late in winter, were delighted at now
having something that would divide
the day for them, telling them what
time to go to work in the morning,
when to have meals and when to go
to bed. The day the clock was put
into the tower they Toasted from morn
ing till night, and when the hands
pointed to the hour of 8, though it was
the month of June and still daylight,
all said their prayers and went to bed
for the first time in their lives know
ing that they had turned in at a proper
hour.
From this time forward everything
was regulated by the clock. Before 1t
was set up the mayor of the town had
been the ruler, but now his authority
was superseded by the clock. With its
1ywheel influenced by the currents Of
air that whistled through the tower it
reeled along like a drunken man try
ing to get home, sometimes getting the
people up an hour or more ahead of
time in the morning or putting them
to bed in the middle of the afternoon.
But. though knowledge often creeps.
still it moves. The people Of Strassburg,
having made a beginning by setting up
4 timepiece, SOC found a way to make
it serviceable in other respects than by
dividing the day. The mayor ordered
that the clock be the calendar by which
all public matters be regulated. II
Franz Gotlieb promised to pay Carl
Stengel a sum of money in thirty days
4 meant that when the hour hand Of
the clock had made the circle of ito
face thirty times the money would be
due. If Hans Bunker drank too much
beer and was sentenced for making an
unnecessary noise to ten days impris-
onment it meant that the short hand
on the clock must rotate ten times be-
fore Hans would be free again.
There lived in Strassburg at this time
q maiden named Gretchen Borchert.
whom everybody loved for her amiable
disposition, her beauty and her piety.
Gretchen loved Josef Brett, a young
carpenter, roofer, mason. well digger
in short, one who did anything re-
| quired in, ON or about the homes Of the
people of the town. Unfortunately for
Gretchen, another girl, Anna Huber,
also loved Josef, and, finding that
Gretchen was the winner in the matter
Of Josef's affections. she resorted to 4
devilish means of putting her rival out
Of the way. Anna went before the
Judge of the court and sw0re that
| Gretchen was q witch. The accuser
named several persons whom Gretchen
had bewitched. She swore that she
had herself seen Gretchen standing
over a well swallowing crooked pins
and carrying water in q sieve.
Gretchen was brought before the
court for trial. Every M of the per-
sons named by Anna as having been
bewitched by Gretchen was found to
be a dangerous lunatic. Several wit
nesses testified that they had seen
| Gretchen riding owe their houses on a
broomstick, and a little girl Of "
| declared that she had seen the culprit
sweeping cobwebs from the sky. All
this testimony was admitted except
that Of the last witness, whom the
Judge considered too young to testify.
However, there was quite enough with
out this to warrant the condemning of
Gretchen as q witch, and the judge
sentenced her to be burned at the
stake. In order that she might have
time to cast out the devil that was In
her before going to her long home, the
day Of her execution was fixed at two
weeks from her sentence.
Josef, strange to say, was not in the
least Influenced by all this overwhelm-
ing evidence to believe that his sweet
| heart was a witch. Indeed, he was
sure that she was the same lovely girl
she had always been. And he knew,
Anna having tried her best to make
him love her. that she had accused her
rival of witchcraft, hoping that with
| Gretchen removed Josef could be o
Those were superstitious times, as
may be inferred from the trial and con-
demnation of this innocent girl. Josef
turned to something more powerful
than himself to saw his sweetheart.
As has been said. the clock had super
seeded the mayor and all others in au-
th0rity in Strassburg. so the clock being