Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-09-14
The Curfew Bell.

Many have heard Of the "curfew bell"
but not all who know its origin. Its his
tory in England runs back TO the time OF
William the Conqueror, who ordered
bell to be rung about shutdown in summer
and eight o'clock in the evening in winter,
at which time fire-lights were TO be put
out and the people to remain within doors,
and penalties were imposed upon those
who neglected or refused to comply with
the law. This was called the "curiew," a
word derived from the French cougrefsu,
cover fire, and SO the appropriateness OF
the name is readily seen. The old King
has been generally charged with institut-
ing this custom in order to impress upon
his subjects sense of their abject condi
ton; but as the "curfew bell was rung
in France long before Williams time, as q
safeguard against fires, it is not improbable
that he brought the custom with him into
England from the continent, and that he
has been sandered as to his motives. At
any rate, he has sins enough TO answer for
without this.
In the sixteenth century "bellmen !"
were added to the night watch In London
They went through the streets ringing
their bells, and crying: "Take care Of fire
and candle; be kind to the poor, and pray
for the dead" 1t was the beilman's duty,
also, TO bless the sleepers as he passed their
doors. In I'll Penseroso," Milton refers
to this custom:
The bellman's drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly HARM"
Poets have often referred to the curfew
or cover. fire bell. Gray begins his beau
tiful Elegy with:
'The curfew tolls the knen Of parting day."
Longfellow, too, has pretty little poem
telling the story of this bell with charm
ing simplicity:
Selemnly, mournfully dealing It's dole,
The curfew bell Is beginning TO toll.
Cover the ember, put out the light,
Toll comes with the morning, and rest with the
night
" Dark grow the windows, and quenched is the
Sound fades into silence, all footsteps retire.
:" No voice In the chambers, no sound in the hall,
Sleep and oblivion reign over all"
King William died, and the original OBJ
bligations Of the curfew were at last re-
moved about the time Of Henry in 100;
but the custom OF ringing an evening bell
is still kept up in England with variations
as to the hour. The "nlne o'clock bell"
familiar to most New England people
which sends SO many young people home
and to bed, and which in the early history
Of our country, was almost as rigidly
obeyed by all, both old and young, as the
old curfew, traces its origin almost directly
to the cover-fire bell. In Longfellow's
" Evangeline" the custom is well de-
fined:
Anon the bell from the belffy
Rang out the hour of nine-the village curfew-
and straishtway
Rose the guestsand departed; and silence reigned
In the household"
But now the customs have changed and
though the bell still rings out on the even
ing air, in country village and city streets,
it has lost its power, save as tell-tale of
passing time. Let the old bells ring on
we love the sound; or, in the words Of
Moore:
"rhose evening bellsi those evening bellsi
How many tale their music tells,
or youth, and home, and that sweet time
when last heard their soothing chime"
--Rur1l Nep YOrksr.