Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1879 — A Wonderful Clock. [ARTICLE]

A Wonderful Clock.

The Ohio State Journal describes a clock which has just been finished in Columbus, as the result of eight years’ toil. It is five feet wide and ten high, and has “three times more dial indications and more moving embellishments than any clock on earth.” The two sides represent the two great periods in American history, the War of the Revolution and the War of the Rebellion. Independence Hall is shown, with its cracked bell in the old belfry, and an old man to ring it. The hours are struck by the Goddess of Liberty, and Justice balancing her scales. There is also a reproduction of all the figures shown in the famous Strasburg clock. Historic scenes are enacted on a stage. At the first quarter hour a locomotive appears, as the emblem of our progress in industry. At the second, the bell is tolled in Independence Hall, and Washington walks majestically across the scene. At the third, the apostles bow to the figure of Christ, Peter denies his Lord, and the cock crows. A skeleton hastens along, bearing a green scarf on his shoulders with the words “time flies,” and an infant emerges from an opening door with a rattle-box in its hand. Just before the full hour arrives a phonograph makes music to herald its coming. At midday emancipation is acted. Lincoln, proclamation in hand, moves toward a slave bound to an auction block, while the slave turns to look at his deliverer, his shackles fall and his hands are raised as in a prayer of thanksgiving.