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Show THE TIME O'DAY. One Man in Fifty Carries the Cor- rect Time. (Chicago Record-Herald.) One man in every fifty1 has the exact time o' day. That is the conclusion reached from an hour's study of the hundreds of persons who consult the chronometer in the window of a well-known well-known optician. Iji this instance the fortunate being was a railroad man. That was. settled by personal inquiry after debate between the clerks in the shop and the man who was matching. "Do you mind teling me what is your occupation? My friends in ihe shop and myself have a wager on the result." re-sult." the man was courteously told. "Fngineer on the Michigan Central, if that's what you're after," was the response, uttered incisively and with a quick glance from steady gray eyes which have gained keenness from yenrs of "seeing things as they are, not as they might be." as he. put it in the friendly chat which ensued. Men of many types pause for a moment mo-ment there by the window. And if one stops there are certain to be more who havo a sudden, irresistible desire to "sco what time it truly is." Here is a truck driver, who comes in a Geiman hurry to deliver four big boxes at the other end of the loon. He has no timepiee-e, but he. gazes stolidly at the face, looks again to be ure, whistles, walks heavily to the curb, and with doubt and indecision in h:s face clambers into his wason. Here comes the prominent actor, thoroughly groomed, and with an tin-lighted tin-lighted cigar between his thin lips. De liberately he makes the comparison between the semall thin watch he withdraws with-draws from his too coat pocket and the busi.iess-like crude-looking instrument instru-ment in the window. "Ha! M-m-m-m!" comes in foggy tones from his chest. "I'm three minutes slow. Well, well!" Anil he proceeds to resulate his expensive ex-pensive Swiss movement. " An even hundred persons were under observation. All men. That. is, all but one. She was of the robin variety, and was dressed to the part in a dark red dress. topDed with a long brown coat. She hopned to the window, gave a sidelong side-long glance, looked at the absurd little pendant that hung dangling from her coat, screwed the hands around, gave a chirking like nod and, smiling, rustled away. All day and all the night this game of "Rich man. por man, beggar man, thief," goes on. "The bus- hour." said the manager, "is from 7 to S in the morning. Actual count one morning in the spring showed that 2,500 persons in one hour stopped to see the time. Before the new building on the corner necessitated a new navement ihe snot iiist outside the window was worn to paper thinness by the thousands of hurrving feet.'' Laughing, he gave this warning: "If it is very cold, don't you wager the chronometer is right to the second. For twenty-five years I've nursed it, and I must say this: Th weather weather makes it capricious, and it varies a second or a fraction of that time once in a while. Then I give it a dose of 'Washington,' and it 'cannot tell a lie, - not for a little while, at least." Just then a foolish hnrje that got in the way of a live wire across the street dropped dead to the pavement, and the game was ended. Chicago Record-Herald. |