Document text
"Thourht of
Francis Donovan
Thomaston —Nov. 21 138
another story about the Cr erion club since the last time
I saw you. I'm not going to givd you some/of the details,but I'll tell you
the most important facts and let you piece it together. Ie used to have
a man here in town was always trying to nrcmote stock deals.
-11Ilm not saying they weren't onest,but it's 1iy that he was misled
on scme of them. One of his p s was a gold -we stock issue that he
tried to peddle.
"He wanted to inter,st the men in wn who had money,naturally,so he
the Criterion club
asked for permission to bring this ining expert to twist to give a
talk on the mine and a demonstr ion of the value of the deposit. You
ta couldn't pull anything like hat today because people are wise to all
those old gags -and even the members of the club were too skeptical to
put faith in it.
"Some of the boys Apt together and agreed to have some fun with the
promoter. The local an brOught his guest to town in the afternoonwith.
all his paraphernalia,including the mine deposits,and they visited the
club and left thsi stuff in a loOker there. After they went out,some of
the members opened the lockervand took out the sand that had the gold
deposit in it,and substituted ordinary soil.
11The 1ig dxmoxatmatt demonstration took place that night,and iXxxxxx
icxxxtlYjxpixxladxx fx of course the mining expert couldn't find enough
gold in his dirt to fill a tooth.
"And the lxxi lads that Itxxctxtkx pulled the stunt kept egging him on,
saying: X 'There's a speck there!,' and 'That's that shining there?' and
s o mix on. Mad? They were madder than hell,the both of them."
15u65
krt Botsford:
"I been talking to Frank Hayxxx Hoyt about that old bell. Frank's been
to see Gibbo (one of the company superintendents) and Gibbs is going to
speak:to the higher-ups about it --thinks probably we can save it from going
to scrap after all.
"Frank says if we can ,get things started about makin' a monument
out of it,he'll do the castin' and engravin' and all for nothirel'. That'll
be his contribution to the gond workohe
"You was down to the tower clock department last eek,was you? Did they
show you the old bell? It's over in the old build that's right. I can
remember climbinl up in the tower to lof)k at it w en I.was a kid --that that's
our Liberty Bell,you might say.
"Yaxtutx "You find the record of that tOwer clock? You should havelif
t twas in the book. I can remember workinl ,On that shipment,packinl it in boxes,
and I know they sent it over the mountains on llamas,don't let them teltlx
tell you it was mules.
"They made one once that waa/shipped to some foreign country and the
boat sank,Ifore it ever got there.
again,but of course it was i ured.
"I guess I forgot to tell you about the one they made or the rich
old fellow somewherea d n on Long Island. You!k see that one on Wo,-)druff's
bxxx barn,that small on Well,this one was just like it,made it for this
rich, old man,and he it it on his stable,where it would always be in sight
7
whenever anyone wa ted to know the time
"Well gtxmx/Sir,one time his damisktarkx daughter had to catch a train
somewhere
sfeittittilnk--itzWas very important ,wherever it was ,and she was all packed and
everything,ready to govand she looked at the clock on the bqrn,and it
said quIrter to nine. So,she thinks,I've got plenty of time,and she sits
down and begins to read a book. She looked at it a little while later and
They had to make the whole thing over
-3
she jumped pretty near out of her skin,because it still said quarter to
nine. The long band short of it was she missed her train --the clock had
sto-p4d. She called her old man,and he got hopnin' mad. He went out to
look t the clock and he found that a whole bunch of pigeons had roosted
t here and that's what stopped it. That did he do but run back into the
house and get a shotgun and blaze a way at those birds.
"I can see that darn d,,ia1 kkaxwagxitxemutxlmakx yet,the way it came
back. It was full of gun hot holes --a hell of a mess.
"Old man Gordon as in charge of the tower clock department,then,a
good man on tower clo ks. Yamx That one up on the cturch up in Plymouth
that's made of wood. xialieleafiCitEVINKAXUNKX He fixed that up when it
went on the bum. I
"What did ylimaxx you say? I didn't t
shop they used to h4ve at the Sailor's
t hat one,but I knew
11,?out the old clock
one? Yes,I forgot it,slipped up on
about it. I just forgot it
that's all. Mktx The Blakeslee
family. M Yeg,I knelw all about it.
1
"I told you p,bout all slut the othersotnyway,you'll find I didn't miss
many of them. And say,I got something here,hasn't got anything to do with
clocks,but I want tr show it to you. It's over ei74tY yea rs old." ix (Brings
out an apple in reMtarkable state of preservation.) "Yessir,over eighty years
old. It's stuffed with cloves. Used to be the fashion to stuff 'em and keep
'em Come up again, if' Lean help you out on anything.
The appended clipping from the Thomaston Express is another Ikkmatmatiax
illustration of the
name of s
carried the trgirmeir
spite of the mx s
throughout of modern
it is doubtful if it ever again wIltxxsamitxtitaxextexatisx will reac
extensive proportions it attained in years past.
!ramifications of the imimmtimv businesq which has
ewd old Seth Thomas
all over the world. In
reamlining of the industry and the introduction tkmallghoum
methods of manufacture, ma distributiop,and promotion,
h the