The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-02-10

Two hundred and eighteen feet above
the puny mortals on the sidewalk beneath,
but who from that vast height look like
crawling insects-in perfect wilderness
of huge dust-covered beams of wood and
braces of iron, hang the great bells which
make the chimes of Trinity church. Few
persons having ears to hear have for thirty
years visited New York without listening
delightedly to the nobte music that rings
forth every hour from the lofty spire of
Trinity-and all the many millions who
have heard these bells probably not dozen
score know anything of their history, their
size, or their capabilities, or have any right
conception of the mechanical appliances
by which they are made to sound in instan-
teneous response to the touch of the play
er. Familiar as are all New Workers, and
also many thousand strangers, with the
gladstone voices of the bells, we cannot
doubt that they will welcome the lines
that tell them how the brazen tongues are
made to speak-hence the present article.
Trinity Church spire, from the street
level to the top of the golden cross that
surmounts it, is 2S4 feet high. The eager
climber, in his pursuit of knowledge under
difficulties, can only achieve the outlook
ing platform, which is at a height of $50
feet from the ground, and which is reached
by various flights of ordinary steps, con-
Guiding with narrow stairway, which in
darkened tower, winds about a central
stone pillar for the last hundred feet or so.
The whole number of stairs and steps to
be overcome is 30S, and the last 80 or 100
are SO nearly straight up and down as to
be exceedingly fatiguing. Indeed, taking
into consideration the narrowness of the
tower, its darkness, and the short steps
sharply curving round a central stem, ;,n
imaginative man might fancy himself in a
bottle trying to climb out by the corkscrew.
The climb is well worth the while of
almost any man of reasonable avordupois
for once-for, from this high elevation
magnificent view of the city is obtained,
are spread out before him as on map
unrolled at his feet. Not only are the cities
of New York, Brooklyn, Jersey city, and
all the scores of cottages that circle round
each, within his view, but the eve of the
beholder can glance north through the city
to the rural shades of Westchester and
Connecticut; eastward, he can look clean
over Long Island to the sea beyond; turn
ing his eye southwark it takes in Cover
nor's, Staten, Bedloe's, and Gibbett Islands,
and then sees, through the Narrows, the
broad Atlantic in the distance, while ON
the west and north again he overlooks the
goodly towns near New Jersey-Newark,
Jersey City, Orange, Weehawken, Union
City, Communipaw, and the others; and
rests upon the grand old Palisades and the
Catskill Mountains afar off, with the silvery
Hudson cleaning at their feet as it rushes
onward past the great city to the greater
sea.
This is the "Visitor's PLATFORM above
it twenty-five feet is the clock tower,
IuTOuSu LILO CllCuidI WluuOWS VI winch the
four large dials look towards the four car
dinal points Of the compass. These dials
are accessible by mechanics, who, in case
of accident to the hands of the clock face,
can with much toll reach them by means of
ladders. Above this still tower the spire
and cross far above the reach of any save
the most adventurous climber, and only
necessary to be reached in the case of some
unusual and unforeseen accident. A num-
Der of years ago the cross was struck by
lightning, and for some days it remained
at a most uncomfortable angle of inclina-
ton until at last coolheaded man was
found to scale the perilous steep and set
things right again.
In 1854 some wild fellows set afloat the
story that some madcap, crazier even
than himself, would, at three O'Clock in the
afternoon of certain day, climb to the
very summit of the spire, and then stand
on his head on the top of the cross. THE
novelty Of the proposition and the moral
certainty that the performer who shold at
tempt any such feat would infallibly con-
clude his entertainment by falling 2s4 feet
to the stones below, attracted an immense
crowd for not only one day, but half a
dozen. Broadway was almost impossible
by reason of the crowds which thronGed