A VERY CURIOUS CLOCK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1665, 26 November 1887, Page 3

A VERY CURIOUS CLOCK.

Tou have all heard of the wonderful clock at Strasburg, and the ingenious mechanism by which its heavenly bodies more in their orbits, the bells ring out the day and the hour, and the procession of angels and apostles come and go. There is also a smaller clock with a number of similar curious contrivances at Lyons, in France, and, indeed, it seems as if the mechanicians of the sixteeth and seventeenth centuries were never tired of exercising their inventive wits over clocks, so many strange and ingenious contrivances in the way of timepieces are still found in the older cities of Europe. But for an amusing clock, a laughter-provoking clock, a kind of negro minstrel of a clock, one made by a man named Dross something like a century ago, certainly takes the palm. When it was completed the proud inventor carried it to the palace of the King of Spain. His Majesty was pleased to examine the clock, and when set up ready for exhibition it was found to consist of a dial, beside which sat a negro, a shepherd, with a basket of apples by his side. When the hour struck the negro drew his bow and played six tunes on a violin, after which the dog, endowed with a taste for music, rose and caressed him. " Should it please your majesty to touch one of the apples in the shepherd's basket?" suggested the clockmaker. The king put out his hand to take an apple. Determined to protect his master's property the dog flew at the royal hand, biting and barking, until a '*really truly" dog in the room took up the strain and began to bark too. The king laughed heartily, and so, I think, would we have done had we been there to see.

THE MODERN AMERICAN GHRL. The modern girl hardly knows what ah wants, whether it it the higher education, an tethetio wardrobe, lore or game j she doea not always lit at home and submit to the diotation of her elderi, but teaches these tarns elder* what is best for them; she plays tenuis and progreisive euchre, and flirts and doe* Kentington work, and reads Herbert Bpeneer, and very often writes j she dabbles in mnsio and talks theosophy, and if there are more things in hearen and in earth than are dreamed of in her philosophy one questions what they ean be. Withal she is as restless at the wind ; she doss not lore the quiet of home j she lives on excitement; she goes to Europe, to the springs, to the mountains, the theatres, the receptions, if she can get there j to the modiste ; she can always fall back upon olothei at a diversion ; and when everything else fails she has the nervous prostration and a trained nurse. In fact, the chief trouble with the modern girl, be the rich or poor, is that she either does too muoh, keeps her nerves on the ttrain, and by and by goes to the other extreme, and does literally nothing but oonsume drugs, talk of her ills and consult the Ohrittian scientists, or she has no real interests, wastes her time in shallow purtuits, become* pe>sim>stio and dytpeptio, disiatiified with herself and all the world, cries, and questions whether life iB worth living, and feels espesially blue on holidays. The remedy for all this is, perhapi an objeofc in life : thoie who are well and unselfishly occupied do not question if life is worth living; they know it isj and whether they are buty in the shoe t aotory, behind the eount?r, at the fireside, in the dining room, so long as they are busy, and not shirking or reaching forward for something more oonjjenial, and neglecting present duty, their minds are at rest and uninvaded by dtspondency.