OCR Text |
Show THE SPARROW AND THE CLOCK. A Straugo Story Told at tho Paris Polytechnic Poly-technic School. A French paper tells the followinff strange stfiry of a sparrow und the clock at the Polytechnic hchool of Paris: In 1819 the Swedish scientist, Ber-zeliu.s, Ber-zeliu.s, during his stay in Paris, went to tlie school to make some experiments experi-ments in physics and chemistry before the pupils. To show the necessity of air in the respiration of animals he placed a sparrow under the receiver of the air pump and created a vacuum. At the moment when the bird was about to die for want of oxygen, the cry of "Mercy! Mercy!" echoed from all sides of the amphitheater. Ilerzelius acquiesced in the decision of his humane hu-mane audience and released the bird, which tlew at once out of the hall. After that day a strange thing happened hap-pened and kept on happening. Every Wednesday and Sunday, at the moment when the great hand of the clock was within one minute of ten, and would in sixty seconds mark the fatal hour of leaving the playground and entering school, an obstacle seemed to stop it, and the astonished doorkeeper noticed that this last minute had an inconceivable inconceiv-able length. The fact was noted again and again, and a watch was set to discover the cause. Then it was ascertained that the happy delay was caused by a sparrow spar-row which, at the precise second, had lighted on the hand of the clock. Of course it was Uerzelius' sparrowt Now comes the sad and unnecessary part of the story. Tho doorkeeper one , day covered the hands with some sticky substance, caught the grateful bird and put it to death. The school gave it a superb funeral and it was buried in a corner of the great court. That day the clock, which had evidently evident-ly been a party to the conspiracy, received re-ceived the name of Ilerzelius. |