The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-08-17
THE CURFEW BELL.

Rural New Yorker.
Many have heard of the "curfew bell
but not all know it's origin. Its history
in England runs back to the time OF
William the Conqueror, who ordered
bell to be rung about shutdown III summer,
and eight o'clock in the evening in winter,
as 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 curfeW," a
word derived from the French c0u0Tef6u,
cover fire, and so the appropriateness OF
the name is readily seen. The old King
has been generally charged with IN
shutting this custom in order to impress
upon his subjects sense of their adJect
condition: but as the 'curfeW bell, was
rung in France long before Williams time
as a safeguard against fires, it is not i'm
probable that he brought the custom with
him into England from the continent,and
that be has been slandered 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 light 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 bellman's
duty, also, the bless the sleepers as he
passed their doors In al Penseroso"
Milton refers to this custom:
1.-THE belIman's drowsy charm,
To bless the doors from nightly HARM,
Poets have often referred to the curfew
or cover-fre hell. Gray begins his beautiful
"Elegy" with
1.-THE curfew tolls the knoll of parting day."
Longfellow, toe, has a pretty little poem
telling the story Of this bell with charm
ing simplicity:
''solemnly, mournfully dealing its 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.
Ozark grow the windows, and quenched is
Sound fades into silence, all footsteps retire,
mo voice in the chambers, no sound in the
hall,
Sleep and oblivion reign over ALL"
King William died, and the original
obligations of the curfew were at last re-
moved about the time of Henry l., in
HOO; but the custom of ringing an
evening bell is still kept up IN England,
with variations as to the hour. The
"nine 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-fre
bell. In Longfellows 'Evangeline" the
custom is we'll defined:
canon the bell from the belfry
Rang out the hour of nlne-the village curfew
and straightway 70
Rose the guests and departed and silence
rsigntd in the household"
But now the customs have changed )
and though the bell still rings out on the
evening air, in country village and city
street, it has lost its power, save as a tell
tale of passing time, Let the old bells
ring on we love the sound or, in the
words of Moore:
''Those evening bells those evening bells
How many tale their music tells,
Ofyouth, and home, and that sweet time
When last heard their soothing chime -