Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1884-01-22

tPhiladeIphia Times. /

f0ltoQeIpuIA Atns0}
Rack from the main street of German
town. that echoes nov With the rumble
of the Fourth and Eighth direct cars,
that echoed los years ago with the hrst
dropping shots of wsshington's sunrise
surprise, runs School lane. Back from
School lane stands the gray old barrack-
like building whence the thorooghfare
takes its name. Il IL Germantown Acad
envy. Long and rambling 10 the edifice:
long and rambling IL its history.
The first Of the young idea that It
taught how TO shoot may have marched
with Braddock; not by any means the
last we're some Of those above whose
mem, ries the marble volunteer of 81
stands guard where the lane and Main
street meet. For ninety nine years its
scholars have assembled and dispersed
to the oiank of one bell. But for =
strange accident ITO years should have
been written instead OF -. II lost III
years of its usefulness as a guide of the
youth of Germ antovn, and II has for
this and one other reason q mournful
tone. IL 10 not one Of the kind Of bells
that Father Prout chronicled, nor 10
land Of Bruges shouting its name and
ciamorinG there il victory IN the land. y
Ii rather suggests ome-c0minR cattle,
With it's monotouous and chaotened
" cIankety -elank -clank." IL was in the
summer Of l773 that q London founder
Of bells, whose name has not lived as
long a. his handtwork, received an or
der from the then predecessors OF the
present twenty one gentlemen who d.
rect the fortunes of the academy for q
bell. Its price il not known, but 1t was
enough 70 buy 81 pounds of metal in
bell shape. The founder wrought 1t In
the honest way peculiar to old fashioned
artisans and shipped il 70 America,
where il arrived in Boston tarbor IN
December of the same year. But the
bell was in bad company. The rest OF
the cargo Of tbs ship in which II came
was tea.
Boston was opposed to tea. On the
night of December ,6, 1913, the peaceful
bell for which the boys of Germantown
were waiting clanked with a tremor Of
fear in the hold as the mock Indians
came ON board of its ship and two 9th
eIs, and made a big tea-party OF the
bleak waters Of the bay. They spared
the bell, but il Was not permitted to land,
Back il sailed to London, to be dead
stock on the hands Of its makers, Who
cursed the dishonesty Of the colonists
az WAS fashionable at the time. Then
came Lexington, Bunker's Hill, the De-
claration. later blood flowing in the main
street Of Germantown, some of IL out Of
the one thousand dead that Washington
left when he retreated-the blood of the
boys whom the bell should have called
to school. The peace, now . century
old, came at last, and in 1874, the veal
after it, tho bell crossed the Atlantic
for the third and last time, and, annie
the wonder of the KnickerbeckereC
urchins Of the time, reached its place
At last in the modest bslfry Of thu
Q ,ademy.
Johnny" said q schoolmistress v
the last kspt-in boy ON Friday afternoon
iust AZ an inQuiring visitor climbed thu
hollow worn stairs Of the academy
johnny, 10 and 43 do NOT make 100
neither can You take 110Y from 925; so
of course. il won't 90 nine times. Tn,
bell? Ito the visitor. There's history
Of the academy on the top OF an old boz
Of books in there that'll tell you all abou
il. Bless me, the bells nothing 10 til,
rest Of tho trash. There's Washington'
SOY glass and all those old books auS
engravings and the old telescope all 20
ing to rack and ruin while the director
are making mp their minds what to d,
with them. There are desks in some o
the rooms that are az old as tho bell,
should think" and the teacher locke.
about with pride at the desks. whicl
were nos a. old AZ the bell, bat date,
from the birth of the last educationa
hobby in the brain Of me superintend
emit Of public instruction or other long
named official. :
"How do dey git mp to de bell?" re
peated the oolored janitor, a. he cam
. few minutes later into the storeh0us
Of trash" which the visitor WAS RAJ
aacking. "Dsy don't git up to de bel
Dunno how dey do when dey want to d
IL; don't fix il, / guess, sab"
Outside in the sunshine of their hal
holiday vas q group of sohoolbOys, th
center Of which was red-oapped youl
pirate ON bicycle.
1T came over ia the Aayflover," b
answered promptly, in reply to a ques
ton ~ TO the history Of the bell. 81
rings at $40 O'Clock in the morning
that's all want to know about the oil
thing" said another lad. II used I.
know somethin' bout that bell, but ~
forgot" replied the smallest and pree
test Of the boys, while the rest laughed
seeming 70 recognize stock answer .
tho classroom.
Cling clanR" down at the boroual
railway station sang the bell Of an il
coming train. "The 2:A.n thought til
visiter, and 90, as he rushed for the tss
minus, from his head vanished also q
thought Of the other bell, with the mourn
full clankety -clank that tells the tale .
the misfortune Of it's youth and it's neg
Loot Of the age.