Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1876-07-08

Ing tones, those memorable words.
proclaim Liberty TO all the land
and all the Inhabitants thereof"
The old man ponders for a mo-
ment on those strange words; then
gathering the boy in his arms he
speaks:
"Look here, my child ? Wilt do
the old man a kindness?Then,haste
you down stairs, and wait in the
hall by the big door, until a man
shall give you a message for me.
A man with a velvet dress and a
kind face, will come out and give
you a word for me When he
gives you that word, then run out
yonder in the street, and shout it
up to me. Do you mind?'
1t needed no second command.
The boy with blue eyes and flaXen
hair sprang from the old Bell
keepers arm, and threaded his
way down the dark stairs.
The old Bell-keeper was alone.
Many minutes passed. Leaning
over the railing of the steeple, his
face toward Chestnut street, he
locked anxiously for that fair
haired boy. Moments passed, yet
still he came not. The crowds
gather more darkly along the
pavement and over the lawn, yet
still the boy came not.
"Ah ~ groaned the old man.
she has forgotten me !! These old
limbs will have to totter down tho
State House stairs, and climb up
again, and all on account of that
child-'
AS the word was on his lips, a
merry ringing laugh broke on the
ear. There, among the crowds on
the pavement, stood the blue eyed
boy, clapping his tiny hands,
while the breeze bowed his faxen
hair all about his face.
And then swelling his little
chest, he raised himself on tip-toe,
and shouted a single word:
"RINGp
Do you see the old mans eye
fire? Do you see the arm so sud.
denly barred to the shoulder-do
you see that withered hand grasp
ing the Iron Tongue of the Bell?
The old man is young again ; his
veins are filled with new life
backward and forward with sturdy
strokes he swings the Tongue.
The bell speaks out The crowd
in the street hear it, and burst
forth in one loud shout! Old Del
aware hears it, and gives it back
in the hurrah of her thousand
sailors. The city hears it, and
starts up from uesk and work.
bench, as though an earthquake
had spoken.
Yet still while the sweat pours
from his brow, that old Bell-keep-
er hurls the iron tongue, and still
boom Internationally Bell
speaks tothe city and world.
There is a terrible poetry in the
sound of that State House Bell at
dead of night, when striking it's
sullen and solemn-ONE lit
ronses crime from its task, mirth
from its wlne-cup, murder from
its knife, bribery from its gold
There is a terrible poetry in that
sound. 1t speaks to us like a voice
from our youth-like a knell from
God'sjudgmeut-like a solemn yet
kind remembrancer of friends, now
dead and gone.
There is a terrible poetry in that
sound at dead of night but there
was a day when the echo of that
| Bell awoke a world. That sound
crossed the Atlantic-pierced the
dungeons of Europe-the work.
shops of England-the vassel-ields
of France.
That Echo spoke to the slave
babe him look from his toil-and
know himselfa man.
That Echo startled the Kings
upon their crumbling thrones.
That Echo was the knell of
King-craft, and all other crafts
born of the darkness of ages, and
baptised in seas ofblood.
Yes, the voice of that little boy,
| who lifting himself on tip-toe, with
| his faxen hair blowing in the
DfceZe SnOuleu- LIUfy -i1du q
deep and awful meaning in its in
FAINT tones!
Why did that word "Ring v-
why did that Echo of the State
House Bell speak such deep and
awful meaning to the world ?
What had that Ring 1.-THE Echo
of that Bell to do with the down.
| fall of the Traitor King?
Under that very Bell, pealing
out at MONDAY, in an old hall,
fifty-six traders, farmers and
mechanics, had assembled to shake
the shackles of the world.
Now let.us look upon this band of
plain men, met In such solemn
council. 1t is now half an honr