The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-07-26

1fT
! BELLs.-Rhetorician tell us q great deal
of the harmony of sound and sense
TO mortals less highly endowed sound. often
seems more closely allied with nonsense.
For example, Mr.. A. lives near o church
whose bell weighs many hundred pounu
The church has two night services every
week perhaps three. Mr.. A. schlld n,ago
to sleep before the hour of service, but, being
unwell. sleeps restlessly, and wakes IN q
fright whenever there is g noise IN tne
street. Suddenly, every pound OF metal IN
the bell-nay its every atom--beglns to Vi,
brate under the ponderous hammer what
| mother in Philadelphia does not know the
result upon ssbaby'' y? Mrs. A., whose
ewes fiji with tears MS she tells us the story,
knows that her acknowledgement, sensitive
little one went to Heaven from horrld con-
wilson that is chargeable to the neighboring
ehurch-bell. Or, suppose Mr.. A: to live
noor the Statc-house, and his child to be
five or six years old, but of nervous constr
tution. At every signal from the telegraph
oncrator below the bell over independence
Hall riyes forth the most deafening din, TO
inform Philadelphia that frame shed some
where ,cas on fire. That the hour Is /. a.
NJ. does not relieve the ringer OF the neces-
sitv of making al the usual noise, ana the
child near by must cry and sob TIL the
! clamor ceases, and then, perhaps, lie awake
for several hours. Who has not seen the
effect of this torture carried into later life
and down to the grave!
IF We consider how many churches, po-
l;ce stations, engine houses, manufactures,
and school buildings have bells, and then
~ Of RI
old. sick. and morbidly nervous people, per-
sons Frustrated by fever, whose only cure is
q perfect quiet" and the many other VIC
tins of the ills Of flesh, we surely nave, IN
population of 100000, cases enough to
make good our argument, and that, TOO, II
we take almost any day or the vicinity Oh
any bell.
But this nuisance goes further. 1t is the
source of many worries, also, as well as
actual injuries. A student deep in puz-
zlc with whose solution he hopes to en-
lirhten the world, or writer under the full
insniration SO necessary to successful work,
has crept into his den, safe, he thinks,
from the noise outside. Poor fool !! Aparade
comes along the street, and a church " over
the wayn has lent its chimes to the pa
raiders. The proper ringer is busy, and the
bells arc janged and Jared together, there
fore. by an inexperienced person, till the
moor student or writer shuts his books,
puts away his papers, and goes where
he cannot hear ''that bell" His OPP
portumity is gone, to return when! Or,
tired out with night-work, he sinks
into bed at | or 2 o'clock. For one hour he
losses. two or three he sleeps "by snatches, !"
and inst as his true rest begins, the bell Of
church not ten doors off peals through the
air. 1t is o'clock, and this bell must say
50. though it is yet dark and hardly loot
step breaks the silence of the street. And
so one rides to Germantown or Chestnut hill.
The train does not leave the depot before
the encinc-bcll begins to toll, and continues
tolling until the train is street or two be-
vond Columbia avenue. At last it stops,
but lust then another train comes downth
road. It's bell is rung and its whistle blown
vocifcrously until it is past.
This infection is one that need not be
tolerated unless our citizens wish it. In
London fires are put out without one stroke
of bell, and in Boston there is an ordl-
nance which forbids the ringing OF church
bells. In times when clocks were scarce
and dear there was the ground of necessity
for these outrages upon the community but
now every schcol-boy carries his watch. DO
the employees of IL factory which has neither
steam nor bell fail to discover when the
dinner hour comes? Why, then, should
there be any whistles or bells to annoy a
neighborhood If the nuisance is not abated
VIC may come to the pass Of calling political
meetings or partisan mobs together with our
Statc-housc bell, as the citizens of western
town were recently summoned to. tear up
the tracks of an unpopular railroad. Bells
sung by Poe may, perhaps, make harmony
rung by muscular arms, they make discord.
Phuadelphid Telegraph.