WHO STOPPED THE CLOCK ?

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 2, 4 January 1869, Page 3

WHO STOPPED THE CLOCK ?

to the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. ' Sir — Such was the general -wail on Thursday night, December 31st. Each one looked and listened for the dealth cry of the dying year, the soft requiem over the past'; arid since we cannot yet possess those silvery chimes, which in dear old England, so eloquently speak on the last midnight of the year, why should we be deprived- of this small effort at resemblance — this strikiug of the clock between ■the old and the new year, marking the boundary of time ? One voice remarked, 'it was (lenyiog the old year Christian burial ! How many missed it ! The loving watqher by "the cradle side — the humble worshipper in many asacred fane— the circle "round the domestic hearth holding their breath, listening for the church to give the signal "for them to rush out in to the moonlight and break out into loving wishes aud 'embraces — the solitary one, opening her lattice ere ihe retires to rest, to catch the well 'dnown sigual— the busy one, over books or accounts, closes the volumes for a moment, to shut out this world aud to give 'one moltierft St least to sentiment, if not to 'something higher and better — the light foot in the dance waiting to commence a Hvelieu measure to welcome in the 'new born year —all missed it, and in one general disappointment, exclaimed in varied voices, 'Who stopped the clock?' And what had we for a substitute ? The noisy occupant of the hotel or billiard-room bursting fbfth into the street ; the shouting of -the thoughtless lads-; the clashing 'of discordant instruments and the monotonous ""hurrah ! hurrah !' But the soft 'tribute of the church bell touched by the 'hand of the clock, almost the only sound which was audible to the whole city, was denied us, and wider and wider grew the regret, as each citizen met, and more ''general, 'Who stopped the clock !' I am, &c, Inquirer.