ifferent from the bright, pretty timepieces of to-day, which go
ticking away, as if running a race with time, was the clock of the olden
days, as it stood, solemn and dark, in its accustomed corner, from which
the strength of two men was necessary to move it, sending the sound of
its slow, steady strokes into all parts of the house. And in the night,
when all within was still, how its deep beats throbbed in the dark hall
louder and sterner even than in the day. There was something eminently
respectable about an old clock of this kind, and it would have been
audacity unheard of for any member of the family to doubt its
reliability. Set once a year, it was expected to retain its steady-going
habits for the rest of the twelvemonth. You dared not charge it with
being slow; and as for being too fast, why, the very idea was absurd.
There was sure to be some white-capped, silver-haired old lady, whose
long years had been counted by the venerable pendulum with unerring
precision, ready to defend the cause of the clock, to vouch for its
accuracy, and to plead its cause so well and so skillfully, that you
were ready to hide your face in shame at the thought of having even
suspected the veracity of so venerable and so honored an institution.

Truth to say, however, these old clocks, to the masses of the people of
this country, were objects of admiration, and nothing more; for their
exceeding high price placed them beyond the reach of all save the
wealthier classes. A good clock cost from seventy-five to one hundred
and fifty dollars, and the most indifferent article in the market could
not be obtained for less than twenty-five dollars. At the opening of the
present century, the demand for them was so small that but three hundred
and fifty clocks were made in the State of Connecticut, which was then,
as at present, the one most largely engaged in this branch of American
industry. To-day the annual manufacture of Connecticut is about six
hundred thousand clocks of all kinds, which command a wholesale price of
from fifty cents upward, the greater number bringing the maker less than
five dollars. Thus the reader will see that, while the business of the
clock-maker has prospered so extraordinarily, valuable timepieces have
been brought within the reach of even the poorest.

The man to whom the country is indebted for this wonderful and
beneficial increase is CHAUNCEY JEROME, who was born at Canaan,
Connecticut, in 1793. His father was