Los Angeles Star, Volume VIII, Number 24, 23 October 1858 — Wi'tnt Clock. [ARTICLE]

Wi'tnt Clock.

Ilenry C. Wright, iu a Utter to the Liberator, thus describes the great clock iu tho Cathedral of Strasburg:— "The prints and military hire retired, and I ain now Bitting in a chair lac ng the gigantic clock, from the buttom to the lop not leu than 100 leel and about, thirty Kct wide and lilteea leet deep. Around me aie nmi y stfangela, Waiting to nee the working of thin clock as it strikes the hour of noon, livery eye is upon the clock. It now wants live miuutes of twelve. The clock has struck, and the people are gone, except a lew whom the sexton, 01 head man. with a wand and sword is conducting round the building. The clock has struck in this way : the dial is some 20 feet hom the lloor, on each side of which in n cherub, or little boy with a small mallet, and over the dal is a small bell. The cherub on the left strikes the llrst quarter, that on on the right the sccond q<inrVer. Sonw tt'ty ov-r tho dUI, in a.large niche, is a huge tl-uro of Tim-, a bell iu his left, a sythe in h s right hr ml. In front stands a figure of u young man with a mallei, who strikes Mic the third quarter, cu the bell in the hand of 1 'iiie. and then turns and glides, with a slow step, round behind Time ; cornea out an old man, with a mallet, and places himself in front of him. As the hour of twelve comes, the old man raises his mall. t. and deliberately strikes iwdve times on the bell, that echoes through the building, ami is heard 1 1> tound the region ol the church. Tho old n.a" glides slowly behind Father Time, nnd the young maffcoinea on readily to peiform his part, as the lime comes round again. Soon as the old man has struck twelve nnd disappeared, another set ol machinery is put in motion tome twenty leel higher still. It is thus: there is a high ctoss, with the image ol Christ on it. The instant twelve has struck,.one ol the apostles walks out from behind, conies in fro. t, lurus, facing the cross, bows, and walks on mound to his place. As he does so, another comes out in Iront. turns, bows, ai d passes in. So twelve apostles,Uguresns largo as I Me, walk round, bow and pass on. As the last appears, an enormous cock, perched on the pinnacle of theclock, slowly flaps its wings, stretches forth its neck, and crows three times, so loud as to be heard outside the church to some distance, and so naturally as to be mistaken lor u real cock. Then all is silent us dealh. No wonder this clock is the admiration of Europe. It was made iu 1571, and has performed these mechanical wonders ever since, except about filiy ye .is, when it stood out ol repair.

Thk Cablb.—The following brief but comprehensive description of the Submarine Cable, will be rend with interest at this liuie .-—The central conducting wire is a strand made up of seven wires of the purest copper, of the jjiiHge known us No. 22. The 8 rand itself is about the sixteenth ol an inch in diameter, and is funned of oi.a straifjlitly drawn wire, with six others twisteel round it ; this if- accom lished by the central wire btingdragged from a drum, thioughuhoie in a horizontal table, while the table itself revolved rapidly under the impulse of steam, carrying near its circumference six reels or drums, encbarnud with copper wire. Every drum revolvts upon its own horizoutul axis, and so delivers its wire an it turns. The twisted foim of conducting wire was first adopted for the rope laid across the St. Lawrence in 185U, and was employed with a view to the reduction to the lowest possible amount of the chuuc" of continuity beln* destroyed in the circuit. It is improbable in the highest degree that a fracture could be accidentally produced at precisi ly th ■ same spot in more than one of the wires of this twisted strand. All the seven wires might bt# broken at d.Herein parts of 'lie siruud, even some hundred of times, and yet its c pucity for the transmission of the electric current not, be uestro) ed or reduced in any inconvenient degree. Thecopper used iu the formation of these wires is assayed from time to time during the inam.fasture, to insure absolute homogeneity in,d purity, lhe stiand itself, when subjected to strain will stretch twenty per ctiit, of its length without giving way, mid, indeed without huving its eiectricity conducting power much modified or iinp.iiredi

Commissioned. — Govt !•«;c r Welter lias appointed Edward At. Gaidner Conimissoner oI !>••« ils, to rtside at Nantucket, Massachusetts, and I. 11. 11. Woodward to the Baine.eflice, to reside at Austin, 'lexas. The following oflicera have been couimiHstoned : Joseph G. Baldwin, lor the unexpired urirt of Hugh U. Murray, di ceased ; A. U. Muony. Slate Comptroller ; I), li. Idea, County Judge of Nevada I I). W. McCv mb. County Judge <•! Kl.inuib ; A I), Boren, County Judge ol San Bernardino: 10. 11, Vaudiear, Couuiy Judge ol Placer; 12 I'aiker, County Judge ol Calaveras ; M, W.Goid.m, County Judge vt Amador; 11. Tcmplcton. County Judge ol San Ma.'en ; i{. T. M.ller, County Judge of riuity ;T. M. Pawlit.g, couuiy clerk ol Am..dor ; I'. A. Forrester, county cleik ol San Lui> Obispo; J. M. Green wade. e> unly clerk of San lie i.ardluo} S. M. Bishop, county clerk ol Tehama ; John IJarb'son, county clerk oI Plumas ; Henry Gooding, couuiy clerk ot Placer; and Charles K. Cook, county clerk ol San Diego Sa- unieulo Union,

A Seb Saw.—"Brudder Pete, did you see him nee de a lore you saw him mnv it ?" Ptte—"Du uninterlectual hlup'iitlity of some niggers is perfectly incredulous; why, I seed bild saw it afore I saw him see, its a cousequiiitial ensuiancedal he saw he saw he sawed it afore be saw he seed il ; but he couldn't help seein' he saw it aloie he saw be saved it; lor el be haw de sawin' afoie he snw de seein' orde sawiir, consqninchilly he mu>t;» sawed it alore he seed il. w h cli in ebsurdedly—dare fore, I must a se. d it alore I saw it; fjuoi/iJf/ rat demons!randum."

There are graves no time can close. Praise lo generous minds is the g®rm and the aliment to emuiatloD. Worldly joy is a sunflower. \\b : ch shuts when the gleam of prosperity is over. Honor, innocence, happiness, time, and money lo6t, are never regained. One may have a bad opinion of'him whobasflo good opinion of any one. When does mortification ensue? Wh.nyou pop the question and are answered no. What two places' names in France will describe the 1 manage of a parent who refuses to give his daughter in inarriuge? Uebaut, Havre. An editor whose subscribers complained that he did not give them Hewn enough, told them to rend the Bible, which would doubtless be news to most of them. SniTf'K Catechism.—P<dagogOe: Wha was Goliath 'I Boy: The inuekle giant whom David slew wiUi a sling and a Btaui-. Pedagogue: Wha wits David? Boy : The son of Jeene. Pedagogue : Wha was Jesse t Boy : The flower o' Dumbluue. PitKcocrocs.—A little friend of ours was recently axked the question—' Who made you?" Placmg his band a tew inches from th. floor, he answered, "God made iu much, and I grew the rest alone/" () Church and Lecture goers, very p>rtoixnl indeed is the following ooupiet. Does ii uiuuo you read 1 r : — "Some go io eIoRP their eye*. And Home to eye (heir el»tlt«»." pgr He that never acknowledge* himself to have If en wrong, probably will never be right ; the best v.'onfeiwioiwwerr vr tw u nut by the worst. Out by the bett ol meu.— Ultaiutr,