Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1883 — Thirteen O’clock. [ARTICLE]

Thirteen O’clock.

We believe it was Poe who wrote a droll burlesque about the sleepy Dutch village of “Wonderwhattimeitis,” in which he described the whimsical consternation of the inhabitants when one day the clock in the church steeple struck “dirteen.” There is one real example of thirteen o’clock time in England, but the extra number was an economical contrivance, not an accident—though it might almost be called a joke to answer a too.easy excuse for idleless: The Duke of Bridgewater observed that though the men employed by him dropped work promptly as the bell rang, when he was not by, they were not nearly so punctual in resuming work, some straggling in many minutes after time. He asked to know the reason, and the men’s excuse was, that though they could hear the bell when it struck twelve, they could not so readily hear it when it struck one. On this the Duke had the mechanism of the clock altered so as to make it strike thirteen at one o’clock, which it continues to do until this day. Thirteen hours in a half day nAy not happen, but two Sundays in a single week may occur, as navigators have found.