Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-02-17

"oh unuertAke W say now trutniuiJ opi0eiO,
how the good people of Florence were recently
set all agong, bewildered and terrified by mar
velous case of bell ringing, which walked the
echoes in one of the narrow streets of that old
city. The theatre of the excitement was six
story dwelling in the Borg 'Ogni Santi, which
is long avenue of high, narrow houses.
Domenichino Zucharoli, worthy mender of
brass lamps, occupied the ground floor Of the
building. Alongside the shop door of the lamp
mender is another door, and at the side Of that
door is row of FIVE iron knobs, numbered ac-
cordingly, each of which communicates by an
iron wire, in the usual way, with a bell in the
corresponding apartment above. On the 10th
November, as the worthy Dominichino was
about closing his shop for the night, the stiffness
of the evening was broken by the tinkle of u
bell Presently went another bell-tinkle, tin
kle tinkle-this time violently, and voice
shouted, =" CHIEF" (who is ltO No answer
but the two bells began to ring furiously. The
lampmaker put out his head to see what was the
nittbvtl. 4NO OHC Wuo dG tu6 uOOl, DAu UliC DClln
continued to ring more windows were thrown
up, more voices shouted, 60 Chic this time
angrily, as Of heads of families disturbed while
taking the evening meal Presently all the five
bells rang together, all the windows opened, and
from each one came ''Chi-e? " with some
choice Florentine ejaculation, which would not
look pretty in print, all the while Domenick
standing at the door, wondering what it meant.
" There's nobody says he at last The people
began to stop in the street to ask what was the
fuss. The occupants of the upper stories came
down in rage to know who was ringing their
BELLS and itching to punch their heads. No
body shouted the crowd delighted. No one
was near the door The crowd grew larger,
the bells continued to ring louder and louder,
and men rushed up stairs and down stairs to
The police were sent for, but the bells kept on,
elang, clang, all together. The police (there
were two Of them) at first concluded to arrest
everybody, but as u survey Of Everybody"
showed there were several hundred of them,
they gave up the idea, and one of them guard
ed the door and the five iron knobs, while the
other went to summon the police captain. The
captain arrived with ten men, stationed one in
each room, cleared the street in front of the
house, and declared, in u loud voice, his inten-
tion of at once seizng the rascal who was caus-
ing all this row. But no rascal is to be found
the bells ring on merrily, and the captain rushes
about fenzied. Meanwhile time flies on, twelve
o o'cock strikes, and instantly the bells stop
The people set up great shout, and expect to
see the rascal marched out, bound hand and
foot, but not bit of it. The captain came to
the door with dogged look on his face, order
ed the crowd to disperse, and marched off with
| his men.
The rest Of the night passed of quietly. The
next morning, as the tardy Domenick was re-
moving the shutters to his shop window, the
clock in the church near by struck seven,--
Santa Madonna - shouted he, and. let the
shutter fall with bang There are these
cursed bells again " and sure enough, tipkle,
tinkle they began, one after the other. till all
five were ringing in gleeful chorus. This time
there was no looking out of the windows; but
all the inmates came rushing out white with ter
ror They vowed that the bells now rang with
out moving. Soon larger crowd than ever
gathered. The police captain and his men were
again on hand, but as impotent as ever to ferret
out the mysterious bell ringer, but the priests
were sent for, the citizens by this time becom-
ing convinced that the devil was at the bottom
OF the rumpus and lot of holy fathers came
up to the house with candles and incense, and
holy water enough to drown dozen devils -
they entered and besprinklcd it from top to
bottom; burned pounds of frankincense and
myrrh, and dozens of candles. and did every
thing that priests could do, to exercise the fend;
the crowd outside all the while on their knees
in fearful expectation. But the bells, instead Of
stopping, rang louder than ever. and moreover
took to swinging again as if they enjoyed the
ceremony So the priests went out and were
received with jeers by the crowd for their want
of success. The ringing continued till midday
and then ceased. At seven clock in the evening
; it recommended and continued till midnight
: The whole of Florence was ia Il tumult ladies
went in carriages to hear the bells ring, the
civic authorities, the sayans, eminent engineers
and every one who could offer reason for tho
phenomena went by request to witness it, bui
they could not explain She cause. The police
cut ull the wires, turned out the inhabitants o.
: all the adjacent houses, and guarded every mock
and Granny. Finally tho Arch Duke Charles
(second son of the Sovereign Of the realm) who
is studying chemistry, and therefore expected to
be intimately acquainted with everything in
connection with bell-ringing, arrived at the
scene Of action, accompanied by his Profes
sor. " Now, said the crowd, ''we'll see il
they dare ring in the presence of II Royal High
ness" Ring they pealed out such a carlton
as no living bells ever did before they swung
; under his royal aud imperial nose, and the Arcf
Duke Charles, accompanied by his Professor,
left, as the priests and the police, the civic a
/; thorities and the wise men of the universltis =
had done before him. On the fourth day, thu
excitement became SO great that the Grant
Duke ordered the bells to he carried off bodily
and SO the matter ended But though tw,
weeks had elapsed, not the slightest explanation
0 had been obtained. The house remains vacant
a and probably will continue SO for years
Mother" Here, Tommy, is some nice caster
oil, with orange in It," Doctor Now re
, , member don give it all to Tommy leave som'
! for me-" Tommy-(who has been there)-
u g Doctors u nice man, ma give it all to th'