Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1891 — Genius Couldn’t Be Bought. [ARTICLE]

Genius Couldn’t Be Bought.

Urban Mahrer, a German mechanic and scholar, who died in Pittsburg on April 19 at the age of almost 80 years, was a genius of more-than ordinary interest. When he- eame to Pittsburg over a half century ago, he built with his own hands-the house in which he died. He never worked for profit, but had his house filled with all manner of useful devices and ornamental things. Ijhe machinery and tools, of his own making, included everything from stone-cutters’ coarse implements to those of watchmakers’. There are . twenty-seven clocks in-the several rooms of his house, from the tiny time-keeper over his bed to the ponderous nine-footer in the hall, and every one of them is all his handiwork. Therq is a glob© clock which he made for the Alle gheny observatory, fixing the price at syoo and then refused to sell at all, saying his genius couldn’t be bought. His last work was a model in brass of the proposed mammoth bridge to be built across North river, New York.

Nearly 1,000 laborers at the World’s Fair grounds are very bitter against McArthur Bros., who, they sdy, have abused and bamboozled them from the start A general strike may take place any day.