The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-10-31

Oh dppt6tO1'S journal the folio wing plea.
SAINT sketch OF old st. ,Miohael's and it's
chime of bells:
Very dear to the people OF Charleston.
South Carolina, is St. MichaeI,s Ohuroh
In that city, which is said to have been
built after model furnished by Sir
Christopher Wren. and copied from St.
Martin'H.in-the. Fields. London. The
likeness to st. Martins is so strong that
no Oharlestonian, on coming to Lon.
don. needs have that church pointed
ever, is much the more beautiful. Any
one who had seen il would remember
the church, with. it's old-fashioned ma.
hogany pulpit. aud great brass -ehande.
liers, and high-baok mahogany pews.
whore the devout might pray, and the
careless sleep unseen. But chiefly were
the people proud Of their. bells. There
was no such chime in the colony when
they were hung, and, after they had
changed their tune of God save the King
for Yankee Doodle, there never were
any bells in New York or Boston that
came up to them in their Fourth Of July
performances. OF all the works OF
mans hands, there is none which seems
to have suoh life of it's own as bells.
How they sympathize with the people,
giving voice TO their joys and their sor-
rowsl How, with prophets voices, they
spenk to each man in his own tongnel
And now, sometimes, like mookiug
spirits, they urge the mad jury OF the
mob with peals of vengeance and tri-
umph. which In the ehrs of the wiser few
are a knelI of despair
When the British took Charleston in
1850, they stabbed their horses in the
church, and, unhanging the bells, sent
them off to London, where they were
dumped on the Tower wharf, and left
unnoticed for many years. At last, tho
veetry Of st. Michael's received letter,
bidding them expect their bells by
certain ship sailing from London. The
people went IN procession to bring up
from the chip their beloved bells, which
they had never hoped to listen to again,
and with prayers and thanksgiving they
were replaced in the church tower. The
pious benefactor never made himself
known, but he was supposed to have
been some British officer who had been
at the taking of Charleston. For seventy
years, did those bells regulate the social
life Of the city. For, not only did they
call to worship. and celebrate all occa-
sions OF public Joy and sorrow, but
nightly they rang a curfew which ruled
everybodys movements. It was intend
ed to warn the negroes home at 8
O'Clock in winter, 10 in summer; after
that hour. they might not go into the
streets without q written pass. The
nimble negro often eluded the statute,
giving leg-bnil to the ''guardman." but
the whites put themselves under the
rule. OF their own accord. All visitors
we're expected to take leave at bell-ring,
and they punctually departed at the
same moment that Cuffy was brushing
along to gain his gate before the tap of
the drum should make him amenable to
the law against strollers latter hours, t"
as it was called.
It would not suit this sketch to recall
the memories of the day when the
United States flag, lowered from Fort
Sumter, was brought up to the oity,
amid hush SO general, one might have
thought tho people repented them of
this rash act, till some one o.dered the
bells to ring mad clamor, aud with
shouts of exoltation, they drowned the
voice that still warned them to forbear.
Time went on, and Charleston. behind
her defences of sand, resisted all the
efforts to carry her. During the 500
\OtoJ u6yb VI DOulOaIuU0uCs ull the
lower part of the town had to be aban.
doned. Houses and churches were shat
tered, the cannon balls tore up the very
grave-yards, and the bones OF the dead
were scattered. Yet the spire of st.
Miohael's was untouched. Perhaps the
cannoneers tried to spare it-perhaps
good angels guarded it. But. what
neither the malice Of the enemy nor the
spite Of fortune did, tho people them
selves effected. For the bells were taken
down and sent to Columbia, to be cast
into cannon. Gen. Beauregard, perhaps
shocked ut the desecration, pronounced
them unfit for the purpose; and the fate
which heaped up at Columbia for safe
keeping everything of value i'll the State.
there detained the bells also. Then
Sherman's s army passed through, leaving
l is track as Of lightning. A party OF
half-drunken soldiers, out for lark aud
for plunder, were aocosted by negro.
sho offered to show them the bells
nlch had rung in secession. "Never," +"
said the men, ''shall they play that tuno
again!" and thoy smashed them into a
hundred pieces.
| Sad was the return to the desolated
homes, and the meetings in tho dumb
/ 49,