CLOCKS THAT WERE GOOD AS PLAYS
By the end of two weeks, school with its games and its bells for
recitation had become a thing of the past and Christopher felt as much
at home in his father's shop as if his name was inscribed upon its
payroll.
Nevertheless, despite the lapse of time, no trace either of the missing
gems or of the two diamond robbers had been secured. Both Mr. Burton and
Mr. Norcross were beginning to be discouraged, and feared the culprits
would never be captured; even Christopher's hope of seeing his adventure
brought to a favorable climax was fading. As for poor Hollings, he was
another man altogether and it seemed as if he would never be able to
hold his head up again. A part of the value of the gems was, to be sure,
covered by burglar insurance, and therefore the loss to the firm would
not be great; rather it was the disgrace of the episode that bowed the
salesman to the ground. He was an old and trusted employee who took the
matter so hard that within the fortnight he aged visibly and his hair
actually seemed to whiten. Christopher pitied him and so did everybody
else, and by and by public sentiment was almost more concerned with his
unhappiness than with the tragedy that caused it.
"Dad doesn't harbor any grudge against you, Mr. Hollings!" repeated the
lad for the twentieth time, in a hope of consoling the unfortunate
clerk. "Neither does Mr. Norcross. I heard him tell my father so."
"That isn't the point, sonny," his listener responded dejectedly. "Of
course it's kind of them not to blame me. They'd be well within their
rights were they to turn me off. What bothers me is that I should let
such a thing happen."
"You couldn't help it."
"I know--I know. It doesn't seem as if I could," the man answered,
shaking his head. "But I ought to have helped it--somehow."
That was Hollings' constant lament.
Round and round in a circle went he and Christopher, the lad constantly
trying to brighten and encourage, and the clerk as invariably bringing
up with this same doleful plaint. He was not to be comforted.
In the meantime Christopher, along with offering optimistic and repeated
assertions that the diamonds would surely be found, was gleaning a
surprising amount of information as he flitted about the store. He
learned not only of clocks but interesting bits concerning the value and
cutting of gems, the repairing of jewelry; the patterns of silverware,
strange facts about pearls.
Since he was free to browse wherever he chose, he found no monotony in
his environment. Furthermore he gradually sifted out the men who had
made something of their calling and attached himself to them because
they invariably proved to be the most interesting. Those who merely
sold what they had to sell and received the money he classed as bores
and thereafter avoided.
It was amazing how many more of the latter there were than the former.
The man possessing a broad knowledge of the wares he handled was rare.
Several clerks, for example, were behind the gem counters but the boy
soon discovered that when they wished an expert opinion they with one
accord turned to a stumpy little fellow with a bald head who appeared to
know every stone in the showcase by heart and knew just what country it
came from; whether it was well cut; if it was perfect or marred by
flaws; whether it was a tinge off the desired color, and numerous other
facts concerning it. Christopher had not dreamed there was so much to
know about precious stones, let alone all the wealth of romance
connected with them as Mr. Rhinehart had stored up.
He could tell you where were the largest diamonds, rubies, and emeralds
in the world; who owned them, and what they were worth; could give the
history of many of the finest pearls and celebrated necklaces made from
them; and at his tongue's end were stories regarding various gems as
thrilling and delightful as any Arabian Night's tales. He it was who
also had not only read about but had actually seen many of the crown
jewels of the world and knew where celebrated collections of cameos,
jade, and quaint Egyptian ornaments were exhibited. Indeed he seemed to
have read and studied omnivorously and not a week passed that he did not
add to his store of learning some interesting romance of a pair of old
Sheffield candlesticks or a royal ruby.
In fact Mr. Rhinehart was not just a man; he was a walking story-book,
and, like McPhearson, a thoroughly delightful companion. Oh, he did not
consider his job a humdrum one, it was easy to see that. He had lifted
the traffic of jeweled ornaments, by means of which he earned his daily
bread, out of the class of mere salesmanship.
"You never get tired of your work, do you, Mr. Rhinehart?" commented
Christopher, when on a day trade was light, he stood listening to the
alluring adventure of a string of black pearls.
"Tired of it? Why should I?"
"But lots of the men do," was the naive observation. "They come in
yawning in the morning, and seem bored to death at having to do the same
old thing."
Mr. Rhinehart smiled.
"Work is what you make of it. A job can be interesting and carry you far
beyond its narrow limitations or it can sink into becoming a daily
grind. It's all as you see it. You get out of it just about what you put
in."
"I begin to think you do," agreed Christopher. "I'm sure Mr. McPhearson,
who repairs clocks upstairs, gets a hundred times more fun out of them
than do the other men."
"McPhearson, the old Scotchman, you mean? A fine old chap, isn't he? So
you have picked him out already! Well, you have chosen well, for there
is almost nothing about clocks that he doesn't know," asserted Mr.
Rhinehart with enthusiasm.
"I had no idea there was so much to know about them," confided the boy.
"All I ever thought about a clock was to look and see whether it was
right or not, and blame it if it wasn't. Now I've begun to believe it is
pretty wonderful when it is."
"It is pretty wonderful," Mr. Rhinehart agreed. "The trouble with us is
that we live in an age of wonders and have come to accept with
complacency the fruit of the many brains that have given us myriads of
perfect mechanisms. Almost every convenience and luxury about us was
produced by toil and patient experiment. Clocks, for example, were very
long in becoming the fine, reliable products they now are, as no doubt
you have already learned. When their first makers got them to go at all
the feat seemed so remarkable that the fact they did not keep good time
was entirely lost sight of. But just you let _our_ clocks or watches
vary a minute or two a week, and we are quite out of humor with them,
never taking into consideration how we jolt them about and subject them
to heat, cold, and irregular winding. Where can you find any other piece
of machinery that will run as long or as faithfully with so little care?
"A drop or two of oil, a cleaning now and then, and on they go without
whimper or complaint, always ticking cheerfully. And the only thanks
they ever receive is to be scolded at when they fail to any small
degree." Mr. Rhinehart paused, then added drily, "Did any of us human
machines do our work as well, we should have earned the right to
belabor them. As it is I consider we stand on rather delicate ground
when we berate either a clock or a watch--especially an old one."
"Mr. McPhearson is fixing now a bracket clock made about 1720."
"He is? That means it has ticked and ticked over two hundred years,
doesn't it! Neither your machinery nor mine will last that long. Think
of the changes a veteran like that has outlived. It would be
interesting, wouldn't it, if it could recount its history and tell us
where it has been all that long time? A clock that survives for such a
stretch of years is lucky, for it must have changed hands many times and
traveled far from its birthplace. Moreover, fashion is fickle and owners
are seldom loyal enough to respect what is shabby and old. In
consequence many a clock has been sentenced to the attic or cellar,
there to lie idle and rust out its life. That is the reason a genuine
antique clock made by one of the fine makers is so valuable, and why so
many of them have disappeared. There are types that are scarce as hen's
teeth. Their owners, carried away by more modern designs, could not get
them to the junkman fast enough."
Christopher would have laughed at Mr. Rhinehart's indignation had it not
been so genuine.
"Oh, I won't pretend some of the more recent products may not be better
than some of those of the past. Nevertheless an old clock, every part of
which was carefully fashioned by the hand of an intelligent maker in
deliberate, painstaking manner, is a far finer product than most of
those turned out by poor machinery. For you know--or will learn--that
there are clocks _and clocks_. Many firms make them but all do not
excel. Therefore I would counsel those who own the old aristocrats
produced by skilled makers to hold on to them, even if they venerate
neither their history nor their age. They may discard a treasure they
cannot equal or replace. On the face of it, it stands to reason that any
mechanism which will run two centuries or more was turned out by a
workman who knew what he was about."
"That's what Mr. McPhearson thinks," said Christopher, rising. "Clocks
are almost people to him."
"Are you going, sonny?"
"Yes, I guess I'll quit bothering you and bother Mr. McPhearson for a
while. Dad said I mustn't make too long calls on people."
Moving off, the lad called the elevator and ascended to the fourth floor
where he found his friend, the Scotchman, in the lowest of spirits.
"Well, she's gone!" exclaimed he mournfully. "I couldn't in conscience
keep her here any longer when she was running so well."
"The bracket clock, you mean?"
"I do. I sent Hammond with her. He should have brains enough to land her
at home without jouncing the life out of her; and he ought to be able to
put her in place and make sure she is ticking even. If not, I shall have
to go up where she lives and make sure for myself."
"You don't often leave the shop, do you?"
"Oh, sometimes. I haven't lately because it hasn't happened to be
necessary. Moreover, I have had a good deal to do right here. The fall
is my season for trotting about. After houses have been closed all
summer and owners have neglected their clocks, I have to go round and
start them again. What a barbarous custom it is to let clocks run down
and stand idle for months! Why, if asked to do so, we can always send
reliable men into houses to wind the clocks and keep them regulated. It
costs only a trifle and pays in the end, if people were only aware of
it. A clock neither wants nor needs a rest. On the contrary it is never
so happy as when it is ticking. The woman who stopped her clock nights
so it should not be wearing out the works did it no kindness."
A peal of appreciative laughter came from Christopher.
McPhearson reached for a small traveling clock and unscrewed the back of
it.
"Humph!" sniffed he. "Solid with dirt! I'll wager it hasn't been cleaned
for years. Still, it is expected to go all the same. If its owner had
half that amount of dust in his eye he would be off to an oculist as
fast as ever his feet would carry him. Such creatures do not deserve to
have clocks. They should have lived when there weren't any."
"Back in the thirteenth century, you mean?" queried Christopher, not
unwilling to display his knowledge.
"Oh, they were just beginning to get them by that time," McPhearson
objected instantly. "By the fourteenth century there were clocks that
really began to be clocks. In 1326, for example, the Abbott of St.
Albans made a marvelous clock which not only showed the course of the
sun and moon but the ebb and flow of the tide. In the meantime more big
clocks began to be put up on the church towers. But remember, none of
these could boast any nice degree of accuracy; it was many, many years
later before the secrets of correct time-keeping were mastered.
Nevertheless every little while a leap forward would be made, and one of
these jumps came about 1340 when Peter Lightfoot, a monk, made for
Glastonbury Abbey a clock with an escapement and regulator for securing
equitable motion."
Christopher, passing over the latter facts, seized upon the former.
"Another monk!" cried he.
The Scotchman nodded.
"I told you it was the monks who packed their time the fullest and paid
the greatest heed to the hours in those days."
The boy did not answer immediately and when he did it was to venture
politely:
"I suppose _equitable motion_ was a fine thing."
McPhearson peeped at him over the top of his glasses.
"Have you any idea, laddie, what it was?" he interrogated.
"Not the remotest," came frankly from Christopher.
They both laughed.
"Well, what I am talking about is our dead beat escapement."
"And what might that be?"
McPhearson became thoughtful.
"Well, there are various methods of reaching the desired result, the
chief aim of which is that at the end of each swing of the pendulum the
escape teeth shall be made to stop until the pendulum starts to swing
back again. This can be achieved by beveling both tooth and pallet until
the teeth, instead of recoiling by the downward motion of the pallet,
shall slip by and give the pallet a jolt onward, thereby keeping it in
motion. Look here, and I'll show you what I mean. Even this small clock
has an escapement that works after that plan."
The boy rose and peered into the mysterious works of the clock.
"Oh, I see now," he exclaimed. "That would help to make the beat more
even, wouldn't it, and insure better time? And now what about Peter
Lightfoot's clock? Of course it isn't in existence now?"
"That clock had quite a history, son," was the old man's reply. "When
the Reformation came and there was danger of its being destroyed, it was
moved to Wells Cathedral, and there a part, at least, of the original
structure still remains. In 1835, however, its works were found to be
pretty well worn out (scant wonder, too) and therefore new works were
put in and the dial was repaired. Evidently, long before, the clock had
had at its base some revolving horseman which probably delighted the
people of that time who were always pleased by automatic figures and
scenes in pantomime. Many ancient clocks reflected this childish taste
by having attached to them all sorts of figures representing the hours,
days of the week, or feasts of the Church. Probably one reason for this
was that as the education of the populace was too meager to give them
much knowledge of numerals, and as they had but little business of
importance to transact, they were far less interested in the time than
in the dumb show gone through with by the little carved dolls.
Furthermore, having no calendars, these figures served the purpose of
telling them what day it was and reminding them of the church holidays.
This explains why so many of the early clockmakers devoted such a degree
of energy and skill to fashioning all sorts of pantomimes to be enacted
by miniature figures at certain hours.
"There was the Exeter clock, for instance, which Jacob Lovelace took
thirty-four years to make, and which had thirteen different mechanisms.
It did no end of ingenious things. Figures passed in procession at the
arrival of the hour; tiny bell ringers rang miniature chimes. In fact,
so many things went on that to see it was almost as good as a play. No
wonder that when Jacob Lovelace died in 1716 it was called his
masterpiece."
"Wasn't there some sort of wonderful clock at Venice?" Christopher asked
timidly.
"Yes, indeed! There was a very celebrated seventeenth century clock
there, with a blue and gold dial which had above it bronze figures that
struck the hour on a bell. Moreover, when the noon of Ascension Day
came, the people were reminded of this holy feast by seeing the Magi
issue forth from a little door and how before the Virgin, who held in
her arms the Christ Child. Every noontime for two weeks this scene was
enacted, to the vast delight of a simple, childish people. This is the
reason why most clocks of the period had only an hour hand and stressed
events of the calendar rather than pointing the flight of the minutes."
"It seems funny to think of clocks without minute hands, doesn't it?"
Christopher mused.
"Not so funny when you consider what life was at that time and how
poorly equipped the public was in arithmetic. Many of them knew nothing
of hours or quarter hours. But when the chimes in the village church
played a different tune each day of the week--a tune they knew--they
soon came to understand, for example, that the Blue Bells of Scotland
meant Tuesday, and that Annie Laurie, perhaps, meant Thursday."
"You do get horribly mixed on the days of the week when you have no
calendar and nothing especial to do," asserted Christopher quickly. "I
remember once when I was in the Maine woods with dad, we both got so
confused we hadn't a notion what day it was."
"Ah, then you have some understanding of the dilemma of your long-ago
ancestors," smiled McPhearson, "and can comprehend why they were so
thankful to have the cathedral clock set them right. Noblemen who owned
outlying castles would send their servants to the village square, not
only to find out the hour but to learn of the sun, moon, stars, and the
religious feasts and fasts. For, you see, the majority of the clocks
were put up by the clergy for the purpose not only of regulating their
own monastic life, but to prod worshipers to remember the masses and
prescribed feasts of the abbeys.
"Later on when clocks and watches came into more general use, and the
making of them was done by artisans instead of monks, time-keeping
passed out of the hands of the Church (just as the printing of books did
later on) and into the hands of guild members and manufacturers. It was
when this change became effective that the character of clocks shifted
very materially. The religious figures disappeared together with the
elaborate pantomimes that accompanied them, and the clockmakers directed
their energies to making the clock primarily a time-telling agency.
However, all that was not accomplished in a minute, and when you go
abroad, as you will some day, and see some of the quaint old clocks with
their procession of Biblical figures, just remember how it was they
happened to be made, and what interesting curiosities they are."
"I'm afraid by the time I ever get to Europe there won't be any such
clocks to be seen," sighed Christopher.
"Oh, yes, there will! You will see, for example, the great clock of
Straasburg. Not, to be sure, the original one, for that was made in
1352; neither will you view its successor put up in the latter part of
the sixteenth century. Both of those have long since disappeared. Still
the third one, which succeeded them and is now well on to a hundred
years old, is wonderful enough to excite your admiration. It was
inaugurated October 2, 1842, and is one of the marvels of the Old World.
Certainly it incidentally provides the people with all they could ask in
the way of information and entertainment. On a level with the ground is
a globe telling of the stars visible to the naked eye--their rising,
setting, and passage over the meridian. Behind this is a calendar
indicating the year, month, and day, together with all ecclesiastical
feasts and holidays. Above these two is a gallery where allegorical
figures passing from left to right symbolize the days of the week.
"Apollo, drawn in his chariot by prancing horses, typifies Sunday;
Monday we have Diana with her stag. Tuesday comes Mars, Wednesday
Mercury, Thursday Jupiter, Friday we have the goddess Venus, and
Saturday Saturn."
"Some clock!" gasped Christopher.
"Oh, that isn't half of it," protested McPhearson, "although it sounds
amazing enough; there is yet more. Above all these gods and goddesses is
a clock dial showing ordinary time; a contrivance that gives the
movements of the planets; and a globe indicating the phases of the moon.
Nor have we reached the end of the marvels yet. Still higher up are
figures to symbolize childhood, youth, manhood, and old age, each of
which strikes one of the quarter hours. Beside the ordinary clock dial
you will see a moving figure that strikes with its scepter the first
note of each quarter hour, while at the same time a figure opposite it
turns an hourglass to mark the complete passing of the hour."
"Gee!"
"Oh, don't imagine you are through with this marvelous clock yet. There
is in addition a grim statuette of death which is to remind man of his
frailty and the shortness of his days; this strikes each hour with a
bone. It is at the very top that we get the touch of more modern
Christianity in a procession of the twelve apostles, who at noon pass
before a figure of Christ, bowing at his feet, while he makes the sign
of the cross in response, and it is at this instant that the tragic
denial of Peter is portrayed by a cock, which from its perch on one of
the turrets, flaps its wings and crows three times."
"Why, it would almost be worth a trip to Europe to see such a wonder!"
burst out Christopher.
"Almost. You could also see the clock at Berne while you were about
it--a clever mechanism made by the Swiss in 1527. Berne, as you
doubtless know, if you have faithfully studied your geography, took its
name from the word _baeren_, meaning bears; and you know, too, how it
came about that the Swiss selected that name for it. In all the shops
you will find large and small bears for sale, all carved from wood and
converted to every imaginable purpose."
"And the clock--has it bears too?"
"It certainly has. Three minutes before the hour a cock gives warning of
the time by crowing and flapping its carved wings. Then out comes a
procession of bears that march solemnly round a bearded Father Time,
whereupon the cock crows again, and a jester, hammer in hand, strikes a
bell. At the sound the bearded old man raises his sceptre, opens his
mouth, and turns an hourglass. And at each stroke of the bell a bear
nods his head. All this done, the cock crows again and the fantastic
pantomime is finished.
"You therefore can see how it came about that when the nobles and the
rich began to wish to have clocks of their own, in order to save the
trouble of sending their servants to the public square to find out all
the big clocks had to tell, clockmakers felt they must give them at
least some of the things to which they had become accustomed, and
therefore made clocks showing the sun, moon, stars, or tides, or those
that would play tunes on miniature chimes of six or eight bells. It was
all a relic of the past. Possibly, too, clockmakers were curious to see
what they could do in more limited space. Be this as it may, musical
clocks died hard. The old bracket clock we have just sent home, you will
recall, played seven different tunes. Purchasers liked the notion of
having music to mark the hours. Later on, however, when they became
better educated, the frivolous little tinkling jigs and dances gave
place to a more dignified and sonorous striking of a single rich-toned
bell, or a group of such bells, and resulted in the Westminster chimes
or others not unlike them."
"The little tunes were mighty jolly though," observed Christopher, with
evident regret.
"Very jolly indeed. Nevertheless one tired of them sooner than of the
graver notes. I think I told you how, when Richard Parsons' clock made
its first appearance here in the shop, everybody within hearing distance
dropped his work and came running to listen to its music. The men were
eager as children. For days they watched the time so to be sure not to
miss nine, twelve, and three o'clock. Then the novelty wore off, and the
audience gradually diminished."
"I should never be tired of listening," Christopher announced.
"Nor I. Perhaps, though, that is because the quaintness of the themes
appeals to us more than does the tone of the bells themselves, for their
cadence is, you must admit, a bit thin and suggestive of a music box."
"Maybe. But I like music boxes."
"In that case, Richard Parsons' music cannot fail to please you. Who
knows but you may be owning one of these bracket clocks of your own some
day? You better begin to save up your pennies."
"It would take too many, I'm afraid."
"I grant that it would take quite a few."