Soft verges are no uncommon cause of clocks stopping, and those who travel to repair clocks generally overlook this trouble. A clock with a soft verge will run but a short time, because the teeth will dent into the face of the verge and cause a roughness that will certainly stop it. The way to ascertain this, is to try a file on the end of the verge; if you can file it it is soft; they are intended to be so hard that a file will not cut them. They can be hardened without taking off the brass ears or crutch wires, if you are careful in heating them; but the roughness on the faces caused by the teeth must be taken out in finishing. They must be polished nicely, and the polish lines should run parallel with the verge: this may not seem to some necessary, but if the polished lines run crosswise you can hear it rub distinctly and it would cause it to stop. It is very common to hear a clock make a creaking noise, and this leads inexperienced persons to think it has become dry inside. This is not so, and you will always find it to be caused by the loop of the crutch wire where it touches the rod; apply a little oil and it will cure it. Some think that a clock must be cleaned and oiled often, but if the foregoing directions are carefully pursued it is not necessary. I could show the reader several thirty-four hour brass clocks of my first and second years' manufacture (about twenty-two years since) which have been taken apart and cleaned but once--perhaps some of them twice. I have been told that they run as well as they did the first year. Now these are the directions which I should lay down for you to save your money, and your clocks from untimely wearing out. If you see any signs of their stopping--such as a faint beat, or if on a very cold night they stop, take the dial off, and the verge from the pin, wipe the pin that the verge hangs on, the hole in the ears of the verge, and the pieces that act on the wheel; also the loop of the verge wire where it connects with the rod, and the rod itself where the loop acts. Previous to taking off the verge, oil all the pivots in front; let the clock be wound up about half way, then take off the verge, and let it run down as rapidly as it will, in order to work out the gummy oil: then wipe off the black oil that has worked out and it is not necessary to add any more to the pivots. Then oil the parts as above described connected with the verge and be very sparing of the oil, for too little is better than too much. I never use any but watch oil. You may think that the other oils are good because you have tried them; but I venture to say that all the good they effected was temporary and after a short time the clock was more gummed up than it was before. Watch oil is made from the porpoise' jaw, and I have not seen anything to equal it. You may say why not oil the back pivots? They do not need it as often as the front ones, because they are not so much exposed, and hence, they do not catch the dust