Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1884-01-13
A BELL WITH HISTORY.
A Hit Of Brtc-a-Brac at the Boston Hsr-
bor tea Psrty-Suil Doing Its Buty.


rumble Of the Fourth and Eighth street
cars. that echoed 1U6 years ago with
the first dropping shots of Washing
ton sunrise surprise, runs School lane.
Back from School lane stands the gray
old barrack-like building whence the
thorOughfare takes its name. 1t is
Germantown academy. Lopg and
rambling is the editice; long and ram
bling is its history.
The first of the young idea that 1t
taught how to shoot may bave marched
with Braddock; not by any means the
last were some of those above whose
memories the marble volunteer of '6l
tands guard where the lane and main
street meet. For ninety-nine years its
scholars have assembled and dispersed
to the clank of one bell. But for
strange accident 10 years should have
been written instead of ninety. nine. II
lost eleven years of its usefulness as
guide of the youth Of Germantown,
and it has for this and one otherreason
a III purnful tone. II is not one of the
kind of bells that Father Prout chrOn-
icled. nor Roland of Bruges shouting
its name and clamOring, "there Is VIC
tory in the land" 1t rather suggests
home coming cattle, with its monoton-
ous and chastened "clankety clank-
clank." 1t was i'm The summer of 1913
that London founder OF bells, whose
name has not lived AS long AS his hand
iwork, received an order from the then
predecessors OF the present twenty one
gentlemen who direct the fortunes of
the academy for a bell. Its price is not
II
pounds OF metal in bell shape. The
founder wrought it in the honest way
PECULIAR to od-ft,hiOned artisans and
shipped it to Amer ca, where it arrived
III Boston harbOr in December OF the
same year. But tho bell was IN bad
COMPANY. The rest of the cargo of
the snip in which it came was tea.
Boston was opposed to tea. On the
niyht OF December 16, l7I5, the peace
ful bell for winch the hoys ot German
town were waiting clanked with tre-
NOR of fear in the hold as the mock In
dianS came on board Ot It's snip anu
two Others aud mad - big teapot OF
the bleak waters Of the bay. They
splred the bell bat it was not permit
ted To land. Back it sailed 10 London,
TO be dead stock on the hands OF IT,
mtkar, wlo cuc>ei the dishonesty OF
the colonlsts. rs was fashionab at the
time. Ta"n came Lexington. BunIer'
Hill, the Dsclaration, later blood flow
ing in the main street of G,rmantown
some of it ouC of the one thou~an'
dead tn a. Washington Left when he re
treated-the blood of the boys whou
the bell should have called TO school
The peace, now II century old, came u
last, aud in 1874. the year after II, tn
bell crossed the Atlantic for the thlr'
aud last time, aud, amid the wonder
the Kmckerbockerrd urchins of tn
time, reached its place at last IN tn
modest belfry Of the academy.
Johnny" said schoolmistress t
the last kept in boy on Friday after
noon, lust "a an inquirlng VlnltO
climbed the hollow worn stars OF IN
academy, "JOnnny, 30 and 43 DO no
maxi 100, neither can you take ~
from 925. S. of course 1t won't q
nine times. The oellP Go the visitor
There's history Of tie academy o
the top of An old box of books IN thtl
that'll tell YOU all about It. Bless me
the bells nothing tC the rest or IN
trash There's WashingtO 5 spy-glas
and all these old books and engraving
and the old celesc ppe, all gong to rae
and ruin while the directors are maxim
upth,ir minds what to do with then
There are desks in some of the room
that are rs old "a the bell. | shou
think," aud the teacher looked a0o
with pride at the desks, which WEE
not as old as the bell, but dated fro
the birth of the last educational hoot
in the brain Of some superintendent