Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1890 — Strassburg’s Wonderful Clock. [ARTICLE]

Strassburg’s Wonderful Clock.

' A statistician estimates that the Humber of passengers carried each day on all the railroads in the world averages six and a half million. Sara BERNHARDR’has dresses enough to fill forty-eight large trunks. If Sara should get lost in them it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find her. A Michigan man to cure himself of the opium habit smoked cloves until he is a confirmed clove-smoker. There is but one downward step left for him to take and that is to contract the cigarette habit. In Paris the simplest form of embalmingcosts usually 800 francs, but should an autopsy have been performed or death occurring through other than natural causes, a much heavier sum •would be incurred, rising in some cases to as much as 5,000 francs. A gigantic pendulum has been suspended from the center of the second platform of the Eiffel Tower. It consists of a bronze wire 380 feet long, with a steel globe weighing about 198 pounds at the end. Its object is to exhibit the rotation of the earth by the Foucault method. A monument is to bs erected by the State of Minnesota to commemorate the battles and incidents of the Sioux Indian war of 1862, and especially as they relate to the town" of New Ulm. The burning of the town and the massacre of the whites are to be shown in two elaborate has reliefs. Copies of the “poems” of the Sweet Singer of Michigan are so scarce that one of them is worth its weight in gold. Why doesn't Ella Wheeler Wilcox buy up all her editions, publish her verses in one book, and sit down like a real-estate buyer to await the fortune that would be certain to come ? There is a growing tendency among chemists to regard the elements as varying arrangements produced at successive stages in the process of cooling—of one original form of atom. Evidence in favor of the hypothesis is claimed in the fact that some elements seem not to have formed in the sun, while yet more are absent from still hotter stars. A Frenchman has taken advantage of the big neckties which nien are wearing and has constructed a camera which fits perfectly into them. The pin forms the nozzle of the machine, and a tube runs down under the waistcoat and is buttoned just under the lower pocket. The camera can be exposed by this application and by pressing the tube an instantaneous photograph can be taken. A company has been formed under the supervision and control of the governpient for the irrigation of the steppes in South Russia. It proposes to dig canals and to lead water to lands belonging to the government, to various rural constituencies, and,to private persons. Several government engineers have been detailed for the services of the company, which will begin work in the Crimea. The national flag will be saved from ■ignoble uses hereafter. According to the new law passed by Congress, any person who shall use the national flag, ■either by printing, painting, or affixing •on it any advertisement for public display or private gain, will be held to be guilty of a misdemeanor, for which the the United States courts may mulct him SSO or send him to jail for a period of thirty days. The number of immigrants arriving in the United States during the nine months ending September 30, 1890, exclusive of those from the British North American Possessions and Mexico, and comprising about 99 per cent of the total immigration, as compared with the arrivals of the corresponding period of 1889, was (1889 ) 339,080 and (1890) 381,399—a gain of 42,319 in 1890. And still there is room for a few more good immigrants.

The authorities of the Government of Taurida, Russia, have issued an order that women bathing in free waters shall wear bathing suits. The women of Y&lteen protest against this order with an energy and unailimity worthy of a better cause; they are preparing a petition to the general government urging the repeal of the order and declaring that the curative powers of the water have no effect upon those that bathe in clothes. The official report that the new State of Washington has in six counties 213,000 acres of developed coal lands within a radius of forty miles of tidewater will do much towards determining the character of the State as a manufacturing center. It is by no Means probable that these figures repnaent a moiety of the coal-producing area of the State, and further encouraging developments in the near future may be anticipated. A sensational preacher died some yean ago, says the Rocky Mountain Jfews. Often in the excitement of his preaching he would work himself up to such a degree that he would occasion•lly shed tears, which had a great effect apon his congregation. After his death hia sermons were examined by Jhic executors, and it was frequently

■foundin some of his most exciting sermons that he had inclosed in brackets the words, “Cry here.”

If the waiters are in earnest in determination not to have their employers ■count in tips as a part of their wages, they can easily arrange the whole matter by making it a rule of their association that no member shall receive a fee. Of course when this is once understood the men are put upon a perfectly definite and satisfactory footing with their employers, and the public will not be likely to be incensed at the move. It might be considered, moreover, that the waiters, by refusing to receive gratuities, put themselves upon a self-respecting plane, and consequently one respected by others. It is idle for the waiters to to be treated like independent artisans while they extend a catch-penny hand to the tipgiver. Manifestly their only course is either to give up tips and be contented with a fixed and adequate wage, or keep on as they are. They are likely, however, to fail in an attempt to get both.

Far through all the civilized world stretches the fame of Strassburg’s wonderful clock. This clock, which is the second one of its kind put up in Strassburg, was built in 1842, the first one, built in 1573, having fallen into decay. It stands in the south transept of Strassburg Cathedral, and is fifty feet in height by thirty in width. It contains some of the mechanism of the old clock, but is not an exact copy of it.

Tourists crowd the transept, in order to see the automaton procession, at the hour of noon. As the clock strikes twelve the cock flaps his wings and, with apparent effort, gives a feeble, hoarse (it must be confessed), ridiculous crow. Then the procession begins. The apostles are waiting at the door to the left of the upper platform, one by one they cross the stage, pause before the figure of Christ, bow' in a jerky fashion, receive the blessing of the uplifted hand, and pass out at the other side of the platform. The second effort of the cock takes place ere the procession is half over, the third when the last apostle has disappeared from view. The central figure on the lower platform holds the bells in balance. Automatic figures appear every fifteen minutes, and cross the stage to strike the hour. A youth is seen at the quarter, a man at the half-hour, while the figure of time with his scythe strikes the full hour.

The clock also tells the times and seasons of ecclesiastical events, sc far as they are associated with astro nomical phenomena, the phases of the moon, and the equation of time. There is also a celestial circle, or orrery, that shows the motions of the heavenly bodies.