ore
machines, every one of which can produce from four thousand to ten
thousand screws a day. This gives you some idea of the proportionate
increase in watch parts. For in a big country like this we have to make
lots of watches to supply those constantly clamoring for them. Long ago
a watch was either a toy or a luxury; but now every person you meet
carries one. The price is such that he can afford to. But more than
this, a watch is absolutely indispensable in our present manner of
living. From morning to night we rush to crowd into our twenty-four
hours everything we can possibly crowd in; and in order to do this we
must keep careful track of the minutes and hours. Hence the demand for
watches has multiplied almost beyond belief and there are now a great
many watch factories."

"What are some of them?"

"I'll mention a few as nearly in the order of their founding as I can,"
McPhearson answered:

"The E. Howard Company of Boston, organized 1850.

"American Waltham Watch Company, Waltham, Massachusetts, 1859.

"Elgin National Watch Company, Elgin, Illinois, 1870.

"Rockford Watch Company, Rockford, Illinois, 1874.

"U. S. Watch Company, Waltham, Massachusetts, 1883.

"Hamilton Watch Company, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1892.

"These are some of the oldest and best known firms."

Christopher thought a moment.

"Of course I've heard of some of them," remarked he. "The Hamilton
everybody knows. It is advertised in almost every magazine."

"The Hamilton watch came into being under interesting and, I may say,
tragic circumstances. One day a bad railroad accident happened out near
Cleveland, Ohio, and when the calamity was investigated evidence proved
that neither of the engineers on the unlucky trains that collided was
really to blame. The trouble was that their watches did not agree. There
was a difference of four minutes between them. Both timepieces were good
ones that never before had led their owners astray; but on this fatal
day they were responsible not only for the deaths of two blameless
engineers but also a number of mail clerks. It is strange, isn't it,
that the public must always experience a terrible lesson before it wakes
up to safeguarding human life? Let us have a fire in which many persons
perish, and we begin to move heaven and earth to inspect buildings and
install fire escapes; or let a lot of people die from shipwreck and we
cannot buy life belts fast enough. But we always wait until _after_ th