THE STRASBURG CLOCK.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1556, 15 June 1885, Page 2

THE STRASBURG CLOCK.

This afternoon the model of the Apost ilio Btrasburg Clock, one of the m'-st wonderful pieces of mechanism we have ever seen, was exhibited at the Town Hall. The model is alleged to be the work of Ulric Goldschmit, a native of Wissemburg, who was apprenticed to a watchmaker of Strasharg named Maybautn The ancient city of Strssburg possesses two great points of interest t<> the traveller—the famous Cathedral and the marvellous clock. Proudly does she preserve the one, eagerly yet carefully repairing the ravages of time, and jealously does she guard the other. Since the time whan her inhabitants put out the eyes of the maker of the clock, in the fourteenth century, lest he should construct another, down to the present day, at the close of the nineteenth, they have looked with jealous eye, or threatened with condign punishment all who attempted to investigate its mysteries, or imitate its wonderful . movements. However, Ulric succeeded I in solving the mystery, anti after his daily labor he retired to his lonely chamber, and there commenced the darling work of his life. allowing himself the barest necessities, he devoted the remainder of his canty resources to the purchase of nacerials ; for six years he struggled on, moyed up by the hope of final success. Dn the day the model was completed Ulric’s secret was discovered and he was arrested, and the model was seized by the city and placed with portions of the old clock in the Frauenhaus. Next day he was arraigned, and sentenced to be banished from the city, never to return to it again. He departed to his native town of | Wissemburg, with tearful eyes and breaking heart; but there be found no rest. He thought of the labor of long weary years, and he determiued, come wbat may, to regain the model rudely snatched from him in the very moment when, in the fall glow [of honest | pride he had contemplated the achievement of his wonderful undertaking. Surmounting the most formidable diffi cultiea ha succeeded in regaining possession of bis treasure and escape t with it to London, but shortly after his arrival in the Metropolis be fell ill and died. The present proprietor of the model, being in London at the time, succeeded in purchasing this marvellous monument of patience, ingenuity and devotion to sienoe. The mechanical marvels of the famous clock must make the subject of a future issue.