The Portland daily press., 1880-11-16
Bells.
BY ADAM NEwBEGIN.

many pleasant associations. 1t is a wholesome
reminder to youth to keep early hours, and to
their elders it brings back the memory of bap-
py days in childhood, and of moonlight eye-
nings in youth, with strolls under the shad-
owy elms, or rowing parties in the harbor,
when its warning tones came sweet and mel
low over the water. There were many good
things in the Puritan days which we should do
we'll to remember, and we cannot afford to sac
ritce any of the harmless old fashions to utili-
tarianism. 1t is said that it was a relic of the
Norman curfew. But that was good thing Of
itself, for although it may have been imposed
upon the Saxons to guard against rebellious as
semblies it was well to have all fires covered
up at night to prevent conhagrations in wood
en- thatched cottages, when chimneys were
few and people were needless. The English
evidently did not dislike it, for, although the
law was abolished by Henry I. in 100, 1t con-
tinued until the sixteenth century, and even
in 1749 Gray wrote
"The eurfew tolls the knell of parting day."
All will admit their usefulness as an alarm
signal, and time out OF mind they have been
used to warn people of invasion or flood.
Dundee he is mounted, he rides up the street,
The bells are rung backward, the drums they are
beat"
And in Jean Ingelow's charming poem of
The High Tide in Lincolnshire, we read
"For evil news from Mablethorpe,
OF pyrate galleys warping down;
For sbippes ashore beyond the scorpe,
They have not spared to wake the towne.
But while the west bin red to see
And storms be none, and pirates flee.
why ring The Brides of Enderby '?''
Can we ever forget the start with which the
city awoke that morning when the Florida was
reported to be landing men to capture Fort
Preble, and the eager bells brought everyone
into the street at early dawn?
For celebrations and rejoicings, they cannot
be spared. Their most obdurate opponent can
hardly regret being walked up on Independence
morning by their merry peal when he re
members that they proclaim liberty through
out all the land, unto all the inhabitants there
Of"
How many glorious events in Anglo-Saxon
history have been thus celebrated-"Au with
the peals of merry bells over all England and
Holland, and with a solemn rre Deum' re-
sounding in every church, the curtain fell up
on the great tragedy of the Armada" says
Motley. OF the granting the Petition of Right
in 1923 by King Charles, Green says: "The
Kings Consent won grant of subsidy, and
such ringing of bells and lighting of bonfres
from the people as were never seen but upon
his Maiesty's return from Spain.'" This had
been the custom from time immemorial In
the Crusades when the news came that the
Christians had fought in the Holy Land and
had won the victory,
loud, loud the warder blew his horn,
And his banner waved on high;
Let the mass be sung, and the bells be rung,
And the feast eat merrily."
OF course discretion should be used as to the
occasion. A peal at night which announces
triumph in which but half the people can re-
joice, sounds
Like sweet bells tangled, out of tune and harsh"
in defeated ears But who objected when
our city bells rang loudly out at midnight the
glad news of Lees surrender. Did the not
rather, bless the brazen throats which shouted
so loudly the return of gentle peace, and the
swift coming of husband, father, son and broth
er from the bloody battlefield?
"The Sunday church bell is considered by
some relic of barbarism.' So it is The
Greeks used bells as signals in their camps.
The Romans rang them to announce the time
of bathing. The Egyptians used them at the
feast of Osiris, and the Christians, when they
took the heather temples for churches conse-
Grated the bells. They were used in churches
as early as A. D. 400, and came to England and
France in the 7th century. The Abbey of
Croyland, to which the Lady Godiva and
Hereward's deserted wife retired, had great
bell called Guthlac presented by an Abbot,
who died in $40, and imagine tho
sound OF its tolling coming across the marshes
to the ears of William the Conqueror, when
he besieged Hereward in that last retreat.
So for fifteen hundred years the bell has
called Christians to the worship of God, to the
christening of infants, to the mar
riage of young man and maiden; and the
solemn passing bell has tolled while honored
age has gone slowly to its last resting place
The marriage bell has almost gone out from
us, and more's the pity. 1t was beautiful
observance. Childe Harold bears testimony to
its potent influence when he says:
"And all went merry as marriage bell"
Are not our people like to lose their reverence
for religion fast enough without banishing the
time-honored monitor which reminds them of
their Christian duties? When our sailor boys
go to foreign lands will not the memory of
the sweet toned church bell linger in their
minds and help to keep them pure and worthy
of their New England homes? And how will it
seem to them to drop anchor here on Sabbath
morning in Summer after years of wandering,
and to listen in vain for the hallowed sound,
the thought of which has cheered their alb
sence and fingered in their dreams? Shakes
peare makes Orlando use them as strong ap-
peal to the Duke:
off ever you have looked on better days
If ever been where bells have knoled to church,
II ever sat at any good mans feast
If ever from your eyeids wiped a tear
And know what It's to pity and be pitied-
Let gentleness my strong enforcement be-
Until philosophy gives us better and kindlier
religion than Christianity, shall we not, if the
bells are stilled, think we "have looked on bet
ter days." and go back with regret to the men,
cries of childhood when the Sabbath brought
us rest, and when a wave of music swept over
the city as the Ginning bells called father,
mother and children to the house of prayer?
When the Sabbath bell which for fifteen hum
dred years has been symbol of Christianity,
is abolished, we shall expect to see Christiani-
ty decay, and the Christians bells,
Bringing ringing, soft and clear
Echoes of the passing year;
Ringing Christmas chimes again
Peace on earth, good will to men,
will have become memory of the past.
The President-Elect At Home.
cleveland Dispatch to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
He generally rises" says Major Swain,
.sfrom To half-nast and hrea K kfasts on fnnliIIo