The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-04-15


Bells are of very ancient origin. They
are mentioned as worn on the high
priests robes EXODUS xviii .35). Tie
prophet Zachariah (xvi. 2O) speaks of
"bells of the horses, y which were prob
ably hung on the brides OF war horses
to accustom them to noise.
Bells were use1 by the Greeks and
Romans in private houses and in camps
and garrisons. The hour of bathing at
Rome was announced by the sound
OF bell. The priest of Proserpine, at
Athens, rung a bell to call the people to
sacrifice. According to Pliny, the mon
ument of Pursehha was decorated with
bells. Sheep bells of bronze were used
in ancient Italy, and are yet preserved
in the museum of Naples.
Bells were Thought into use for
churches by Paulinus, bishop of Nola,
in Campania. about the year l40O. They
are first mentioned in England by Bede,
toward the end of tie seventh century.
Chimes, or peals of bells, are of an
cient date, the first chimes introduced
into England having been put up at
Croyland Abbey, in $50.
In the cathedral of Limerick, Ireland,
is chime of bells about which an af-
fecting story is told. They were made
by an Italian for monastery in Italy.
A revolution swept the land; he became
a refugee and an exile; the monastery
was destroyed; the bells were carried
off. After many years of wandering, lie
came to Ireland. As the vessel which
carried him sailed along the placid
Shannon the sunset chimes rang out
from the cathedral, and ne recognized
the sweet sounds. They came from the
bells which he had made. He leaned
against the railing of the deck and lis
tened in silent rapture 10 the we'll
known, long-unheard music. The boat
reached the wharf; the sailors spoke to
him, then touched him-he was dead.
His spirit bad departed while listening
to the ravishing sounds.
Some writers say that the Gus ON of
christening bells was introduced by
Pope John XIII who occupied the
pontitical chair from 965 to 972, and who
first consec1ated a bell in the Lateran
church and gave it the name of John the
Baptist. But it is evidently of an older
standing. Tor there is an express prohibi
Charlemagne, in 7S9.
Pope John TX. ordered bells to be
rung as a defense against thunder and
lightning, in the year 900. All the bells
in Europe were rung in 1856, by order
of Pope Calixtus Ill, to scare away
Halley's comet, which was supposed to
be in some manner identified with Mo
hammed H., who had just taken Con-
stantinople. The comet left, but NO
hammed stayed.
1t was an ancient custom to ring bells
for persons about to expire, to notify the
people to pray for them, from which
arose the name. of passing BELLS" 1t
was supposed that the sound of the
bells drove away evil spirits. The
wealthy were induced to bequeath prop
erty for the support of favorite bells,
which were ID be rung at their funerals.
During the thirteenth century, large
bells began to be cast. The "Jacque-
line" of Paris, cast in 1900. weighed 15,-
900 pounds; one cast in Paris in l472,
weighed $4,000 pounds; the bell of
Rouen, cast in 1901, weighed over 36,
600 pounds.
The great bell of Moscow, cast by or
der of Empress Anne in 1884, weighed
1913 tons. 1t remained suspended only
until 1897, when it fell, in consequence
of fire, and remained partially buried
in the earth until 1887, when it was
raised, and now forms the dome of a
chapel formed by excavating the earth
underneath. Some deny that the bell
was ever suspended, while others in
sist that it was, and that, when in mo-
ton, it agitated the air of the surround
ing country for forty miles.
The great bell Of Burmah, at a temple
in the environs of Amarapoora, weighs
26O 600 pounds. Klaprath states that in
an editice before the great temple OF
Buddah, at Jeddo, is the largest bell in
the world. 1t weighs LOO, 900 pounds.
four times greater than the great bell of
Moscow, and tifty-six times larger than
the great bell of Westminster, England.
The finest bell in England was The
great Tom of Lincoln, considerably
older than St. Pauls. Its elevation gave
it an horizon of fifty miles in every di-
rection. Its note was like the chord OF
A upon a full organ 1t fell from its
support and was destroyed.
On the largest of three bells placed by
Edward III. in the Little Sanctuary,
Westminster, are these lines:
" King Edward made me thirty-thousand
weight and three;
Take me down and weigh me, and more you
shall find me-"
On the famous alarm bell called Ro-
land, in a belfry tower in the once pow
erful city of Ghent, is engraved the sub
joined inscription, in the old Walloon OF
Flemish dialect:
"My name is Roland; when 1 toll there is
fire,
And when I ring there is victory in the
land"
The bell known as the Liberty bell,
which, on the fourth of July. l776, an
nouuced the signing of the Declaration
of Independence, in Philadelphia, has
upon it the following inscription, taken
from Levitit US, XIV. 10:
Proclaim liberty throughout the
land, unto all the inhabitants thereof"
The Hollanders exhibit the most en-
thusiastic fondness for bells. Every
church and public building is hung
round with them in endless variety. In
A msterdam, not less than thousand
bells are kept constantly ringing, which
creates G.in that is almost intolerable
to strangers. Golden Days.