FOR WANT OF A CLOCK

V.I.A. MEETING - 1894

Bar Harbor Record
July 18, 1894

FOR WANT OF A CLOCK

(Note- much of this article was unreadable, however one section was, which I have titled For Want Of a clock).

Mr. L.B. Deasy made a short address which was enthusiastically received.
After describing certain earlier abortive attempts to organize similar societies in Bar Harbor, Mr. Deasy said;
"A few years later this association was organized;  and while it has not accomplished great things, it has been faithful over a few things.  It has not revolutionized society, but it has pointed the way to certain improvements and has led the way.  It at least can prove its existence without the production of its records.  It has accomplished everything that it has undertaken except one;  it has not been able to find a location for the town clock.  For the benefit of those present who may not be familiar with the history of the town clock movement and of this society's connection with it, i beg leave to say a few words on that subject.
Years ago a sum of money, a thousand dollars, was given to this Association to be expended in the purchase of a town clock.  The Association added from its own funds another thousand to secure a place to put it in.  In the years that have flown since that time the society through its committee has been engaged in frantic but futile efforts to secure a location for that clock.  but the experience of our committees and the zeal of new, have been alike unavailing, 'Like the skeleton at the feast that warning time piece has never ceased'  to trouble this society.  The funds were invested temporarily in the bonds of an electric railroad, and a clock maker was consulted;  but as years rolled on the railroad went into the hands of a receiver, and the clock maker into the hands of an under taker and the problem is still unsolved.

This clock has had several very narrow escapes;  it came near being used to adorn that picturesque ruin that was once a popular hotel;  at one time the chairman of the committee in desperation proposed to stick it up in the middle of the road;  the project that met with the greatest favor was to build a tower for it on the Congregational Church in the place of the architectural calamity that now surmounts that otherwise beautiful building.
It is measurably true of this problem as was said of Jarndycc vs. Jarndycc, that old people have died out of it and young maidens have married into it, and I am almost moved to say now, that heaven and earth shall pass away but the town clock question will not pass away.
However, a possible solution presents itself.  At the last annual town meeting a movement was made in the direction of building a new town hall;  not that such a town hall is needed;  with the Bijou Theater on Main Street and the beautiful new Opera House on Wayman Lane, Bar Harbor needs no other public buildings.  This movement in favor of a town hall may have been simply to provide a place for the town clock.  A committee was appointed to secure a lot and plan for a hall subject to the approval of the town.  That committee has attended to its duties and about the first of August, a town meeting will be held to see if the town will raise money for construction.
If the society wishes to solve the clock question it should do what it can to forward the building of a hall, with a tower within which the clock may repose and be at rest.