The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-12-20
HISTORIC BELLS.

A late number of Appletons' sJoursa
contains the following sketch Of old st
Michaels Church, Charleston, and ii
chime Of bells:
Very dear to the people d Charles
ton, South Carolina, is st. Michael's
Church in that city, which is said to
have been built after the model fur
nished by Sir Christopher Wren, and
copied from st. Martin s-in-the-F Fields,
London. The likeness to st. Martins
is so strong that no Charlestonian IN
coming to London needs have thss
church pointed out. The spire OF st.
Mlchael's, however, Is much the more
beautiful. Any one who had seen 1t
would remember the church, with its
old-fashioned mahogany pulpit, and
great brass chandeliers, and high-back
mahogany pews, where the devout
might pray, and the careless sleep un-
seen. Bnt 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 to
Yankee Doodle, there never were any
bells in New York or Boston that came
up to them in their Fourth of July per
formances. OF all the works OF mans
hands there is none which seems to have
such life of its own as bells. How
they sympathize with the people, CIV
ing voice to their joys and their sor-
rows How, with prophets voices,
they speak to each man IN his own
tongnei
When the British took Charleston in
1880 they stabbed their horses IL 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 the
vestry of st. Michael's received letter
bidding them to expect their bells by q
certain ship sailing from London. The
people went in procession to bring up
from the ship their beloved bells, which
they had never hoped to listen to again,
and with prayers and thanksgivings
they were replaced IN the church tower.
The pious benefactor never made him.
self known, but he was supposed to have
been some British officer who had been
at the taking of Charleston. For 20
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 curfew. L. was IN
tended to warn the negroes home at 3
O'Clock in winter, 10 in summer; after
that hour they might not go into the
streets without q written pass.
II would not suit this sketch to recall
the memories of the day when the
United States flag, lowered from Fort
was brought up to the city;
some one ordered the bells to ring q
clangor.
Time went on, and Charleston behind
her defences of sand resisted all the ef-
forts to carry her During the five
hundred (546) days of bombardment all
the lower part of the town had to be
Houses and churches were
shattered. Yet the spire of st. Michael's
was untouched. Perhaps good angels
guarded it. But, what neither the
malice of the enemy nor the spite OF
fortune did, the people themselves ef-
fected. For the bells were taken down
and sent to Columbia, to be cast into
cannon. Gen. Beauregard pronounced
them unfit for the purpose and the
fate, which heaped up at Columbia for
safe keeping everything of value In the
State, there detained the bells also.
Then Sherman's army passed through,
leaving its track as of lightning.
party of half-drunken soldiers, out for
q lark and for plunder, were accosted by
q negro who offered to show them the
bells which they had rung in secession.
s. Never" sid the men, shall they
play that tune again - and they smash
ed them into hundred pieces.
Sad was the return to the desolated
homes, and the meetings In the dumb
to which no miracle might now
restore the voice of the chimes they
owed
But they were men of pluck still, and
IS soon as they had shaken themselves
I'D and provided for the first pressing
needs they resolved 10 tax themselves 10
he utmost to get new chime.
Scarcely had the rector bread, and
he vestry and congregation were all
very poor, but they wrote to @. X. Pro
eau, of London, to inquire the cost of
. new set. This gentlsman had b~ss
70 long in England as TO have Secome
almost an Englishman- ~s.sh . falr Eng
ish wife and blea handsome English
.hildren- bit his heart stirred mt the
If the dear old voices that
,ad called MIN in childhood, and he un-
iertook xhe task witha loving zeal that
brought about the most surprising re-
uIts. There was no record at Charles
ON of where the bells came from. But
Ifr. Prioleau searched the directory for
he Oldest founders of the city, and
vent from one 10 the other until, at
Meares & Co., White Chapel, London,
firm which had been in existence three
hundred years, he found, by patient ez-
,mination. the record of bells cast for
IT. Michael's Church. Charleston, 3. o.,
a 17J9. The proportions OF the metal,
md sizes of the bells, were all entered
n the books and the present Meares
to turn out n new set winch,
shen hung. should make the Charles
onians themselves think they heard
heir veritahle old bells. But Mr.
Prioleau was not content with this he
Frote back to have ail the fragments
hat could be found sent ont, and tins
vas done. Meanwhile. Meares still
ound in his service an old man OF
eventy-six, who had been apprentice
lnder the very foreman who, more than
hundred years before, had cast these
,ells; and he, stimulated by Prioleau's
never rested till he brought
o light the very original moalds for
he castings. Into them the new metal
yas melted with careful distribution of
he broken Fragments, so as to make the
llusion reality. All that vas wanting
o make up the cast MIR. Prioleau add
d, and the reward of his perseverance,
md generosity was to send to the vestry
hese new bells, which are the very old
mes still. Again did the congregation
With tears and thanksgiving receive the
,ells from this their fifth voyage across
he Atlantic and hung them up In st.
dichael's steeple.
May they never again be removed by
he rough hand of War, or ever sound
night but peace ON earth and goodwill
oward men.
Clouds.
One of the saddest Thoughts that
= n Al IL kl..k