Nasby in Exile / or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel

by David Ross Locke

PIG MARKET, STRASBURG.

THE WONDERFUL CLOCK.

Next to the cathedral itself, which demands a great deal of study, the great astronomical clock attracts the most attention. It was constructed during the years 1838-42, by a Strasburg clockmaker named Schwilgue, and is a wonderful piece of mechanism. The exterior, handsomely decorated with exquisite carvings and paintings, shows a perpetual calendar, with the feasts that vary, according to their connection with Easter or Advent Sunday. The dial, which is thirty feet in circumference, is subject to a revolution in three hundred and sixty-five or three hundred and sixty-six days, and indicates the suppression of the circular bi-sextile days. There is also a complete planetarium, representing the mean tropical revolutions of each of the planets visible to the naked eye, the phases of the moon, and the eclipses of the sun and moon calculated forever.

Then with the same mechanism a number of figures are made to go through certain motions at stated intervals. At noon the twelve apostles appear before the Savior, who raises his hands to bless them, during which time a cock flaps his wings, and crows three times. A figure of Death stands in the midst of figures representing the four ages, childhood striking the first quarter of the hour, youth the second, manhood the third, and old age the last. Just before each quarter is struck, one of the two genii seated above this perpetual calendar strikes a note of warning. When the hour is struck by Death, the second of these genii turns over the hour glass he holds in his hand. It is a wonderful piece of mechanism.

As with everything else of public interest around this section, where in olden times imagination ran riot, this clock has its legend. It is said that, long ages ago, a mechanic of Strasburg labored and studied for years for the accomplishment of some purpose that he kept secret from all his neighbors. Even his only child, a lovely girl who was sought in marriage by a prospective mayor of the city, and by a handsome young clockmaker, was not allowed to enter the room where this mysterious work was being carried on.

In the course of time the elder suitor was made mayor, and then proposed for the hand of the beautiful girl, who, loving the young man, refused him. Soon after this, the old mechanic showed to the astonished citizens of Strasburg, who up to this time had ridiculed him as an insane person, the wonderful clock he had constructed. He at once became very popular, much to the disgust of the mayor who had been rejected by his daughter.

The clockmaker’s fame spread all over the country, and the citizens of Basel, a neighboring city, attempted to buy the wonderful piece of mechanism. But the corporation of Strasburg would not part with it, and caused a chapel to be built in the cathedral for its reception. Then the citizens of Basel offered a large sum of money if the master would construct them a similar clock, and he accepted their offer.

This would never do. The wonderful clock was the principal glory of Strasburg, and people were coming from all parts of the then civilized world to see it. If Basel should have a clock like it or superior to it, it would divide the trade as well as the glory, and Strasburg, instead of standing alone as the possessor of such a piece of mechanism, would have a rival. Should Basel get a clock, the citizen thereof would cock his hat upon one side of his head and say, to a Strasburger, “You needn’t put on airs about your old clock, with its twelve apostles, and all that. We see your twelve apostles and go you a Judas Iscariot better. You have a rooster it is true, we admit that, but we have one with all the latest improvements. He flaps his wings better than yours, and his crow is three times as loud. Come over to Basel and see a really good clock.”

To prevent this the City Council of Strasburg, at the suggestion of the mayor who had never got over being rejected by the clock-maker’s daughter, determined to put out the old gentleman’s eyes, which they rightly judged would prevent him from making any more clocks, and Strasburg would still have the glory of owning the most wonderful one in the world. This was assented to and the poor man was asked if there was anything he wanted before the sentence was executed. He asked to have the terrible operation performed in front of his noble work. When taken before it, he gazed at it fondly, and secretly slipped out of place two or three important springs. Just as the torture was completed the works in the clock began to whirr, it struck thirteen times and then ceased to work. The glory of Strasburg was destroyed. The artisan lost his sight, the city its clock, the mayor his love—in short, it was a dead loss all around, as it always is when fair dealing is departed from.

ST. THOMAS.