For The Children

Harpcr'8 Toung People. In tho Kensington Museum at London is shown au ancient clock that was made in 1325 by a monk for Glastonbury Abboy. It is going still. For more than live centuries it has been keeping timp It told the hours long before Uolumbus carne to America, and when a few painted savages wandered oTer the sites of New York and Brooklyn. It was going when Henry Hudson first sailed into New York harbor. It still measures time, wLiilc steam and olectncity are nioving all around it. But when itwas lirst made the venerable clock was as much an object of wonder as a steam-engine or an electnoal machine. Only kings and monesteries could purchase a clock. There were only a few in all Europe. It was thought at first that these wondertul machines whre the inventions of sorcerers and magicians. Thero are two kinds of clocks- spring clocks, in which the wheels are movetl by power from ihe uncoiling of a coiled spring, and pendulum clocks, which are moved by the gradual falling of a weight. the falling being regulaied by the swinging of a pendulum, When a pendulum is set swinging it makes each swing backward and íorward in just the same tine until it stops, no matter whether it is over a longor short space, lts swing is over a longer space at first than towards tne last, wnen il i auuuu to stop, but it goes faster, so that the time of the swing is always equal. This is called the "isouhronism" (equal time, trom Greek, isos, equal, and chronos, time) of the pendulum. But the real inventora of clocks wero probably the Arabs. These children of the dësert soon beeame as fond of inveDtion as the people of Connecticut or New York. Bagdad and Cordova, their fine cities, were famous for their wonderful machines. Our ignorant ancestors thought the Arabs gained their rare learuing from a compact with satan. The clock was one of those inventions, and it appeared in Europe about the twelfth century. At first it was used only in monasteries to direct the monks in their prayers. But very soon clocks were set up on sonie high tower or steeple in the European cities. In èfew York we have the City Hall :lock, cloeks at court-houses and on nany churches. But in the cities oí 3arly Europe there was no way of telling the hour except by the sun and the stars. When the lirst elocks were set np they were thought to be the most wonderful of inventions. The first public clock was raised on a tower at Padua, in Italy. A famous stnking clock was placedon a tower at Bologna in 1356, From Italy the invention was carried to France and Germany, and in 1364 Paris for the first time possessed a public clock. lt was set vip on a tower of the King's palace, and was built by Germán workmen. No one in France, it is said, could make a clouk. Town elocks and church elocks are made to move by trains of wheels in much the same way, but the wheels are very large and strong, and the weights and pendulums very heavy. It is very hard work to wind up a church clock, and it needs a strong man to do it. In winciing up me uiuuü. ju kuc i,.yi vx Trinity Church, New York.the crank or haadle has to be turned round 850 times. Mauy vvonderf ui clocks have been made, in some of vvhieh the machinery moved flo-ures of men and animáis in a very curious vvay. At Heidelberg, in Germany, was formerly a town clock which, whenever it struck the hour. caused the figure of an old man to pull off his hat, while a cock crowed and elapped his wings, and soldiers fought with one another. The clock was destroyed by the French when they id Heidelburg m 169a. About tlie year 1500, clocks, which liad been too expensive to be used even in many cides, are found in private tiouses, but still only the very wealthy sould purchase one. Watches seem to have been made about this lime, but were also very expensive. It is hard for us to conceive of a city without its public clocks, but in the year 1500 not many large town possessed one. ïhree centuries and a half have made a wouderful change. The clock has become one of the commonest articles of furniture. American factories turn out millions of them annually. They are found at all prices, from the cheapest to the most costly. In the ycar 1483 the revenues of the city of Auxerre werc thought too small to purchase the costly inveution, and the people asked the king's perinission to "T 1 OÖO n ii i ii rT nn rtliilr mor Duy one. in 1000 i nuuucu iun. mj be bought for half a dollar, and every village has its public time-keeper. It seems strange that we should owc our clocksandwatches to the dark-skinned and half-savage Arabs. But it shows us that all races and nations have been useful to each other. Once the Arabs were very intelligent and powerful; but they have become indolent and barbar - ous. They probably buy their clocks and watehes, if they use them, in the European cities. Who has a more wise and faithful little dog than this one, told about in a western newspaper? A woman left her babv, eighteen months old, on the floor of the front room playing with its "toys and a little terrier dog that is its constant companion. The mother was away just three minutes, but when she came back and oponed the door her infant's head, arms and shoulders vvere hanging beyond the stone sill of an open window, and near it, with its feet on a chair, stood the little dog, holding on to the child's dress with iill liis might. The child, unconscious of any danger, was crowins: at some object in the yard, while the dog, holding on the dress, ooked a ínute appeal for haste and ïelp. In an instant she was by her jaby's side, and the danger was passed. When the dog had been relieved of the jurden he praneed around the mother and child with a delight that was almost f rantic. Do you think the mother would sell that dog?' A cat out in Nevada has found out wbat almost every boy and girl knows byexperience - tbat bees sting, and that tbe sting hurts. The cat was playing around a hive. She had never bofore becn where there were any bees, and she probably thought that tñey were no more harmful than flies. At any rate. she struek at the bees as they passed in and out of the hive, and íinally knocked one of the busy little insects down. The victim of the cat's playful paw buzzed so excited'y that it was joiued by all the other bees, and together they made a sudden attack. The cat rolled herself into a ball, rested on her back, anc tried to fight with her claws; but though she eould scratch liercely enough, she could make no impression on the angrv little warriors with wings. So it soon name about that tabby got the worst of it. Her mistress heard cries of distress, pitifnl ïnews and shrieks of pain; but she dared not g:o to help her pet. At last pussy gatliereü all her courage up and ran, as a swallovv sidras the water to a place of safety. When she got under the house, the boes withdrcw and returned to making honey while the sun shone. As for the poor cat, sho never goes within a hundred feet of the hive any more. Once ivas enough. Somebody has been looking to flnd where the cats name of puss comes froni, and tells Harper's Young People this about it: A great many years ago, the peoplo of Egypt, who have many idols, worshipped the cat. Thev thought lier eyes ohanged, just as the moon changos, which is somotimes f uil, and soinetinies only a Httle bright crescent or half moon, as we say. Did you ever noticeyour pussy's eyes to see how they change? So these people made an idol with the cat's head, and named it Pasht, the samo name they gave to the moon ; for the word means the face of the moon. That word has been change.d to pas or pus, and has come at last to be puss, the name which almost every one gives to the cat. Puss and pussy cat are pet names for kitty everywhere. Who ever thought of it as given to her thousands of years ago, and that then people bowed down and prayed to her?