Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-10-23

/ coarse crockery, and small articles OF
work box furnishing in the deep, dark,
cave-shadOWed windows. The street
was full of donkey carts and peasants,
/ looked quaint and strange, its narrow
vista crowded with picturesque hgures
all vending toward the quaint and ven
cradle church.
In Normandie if one asks a peasant
about the size of the village he lives IN,
/ that peasant will reply:
Monsieur, it is but a small commune,
I of but one bell" or Madame, 1t IS a
/ fairly large commune, of two bells" or
/ "MadamOiselle, we have a large com
mune, of three bells.0
! The peasant village we were now en-
/ tering had been for perhaps five hun
/ dred years a little village Of but one bell.
! Year after year, generation after genera
! ton, century after century, one bell mad
! sent it's bTazen call over near and dis
/ tant farms, ringing merry cGrlUOn Tor
! bTidals and christenings, tOlling solemn
! ly for the dead borne into the little grave
yard at its feet. But now the one bell
I which had awakened the country echoes
| for many a life time had grown old and
! cracked. Two rich ladies, who had
/ chateauX within sound Of those cracked
tones, had offered to present a bell apiece
to the church if the villagers would pre-
sent another.
This explained the highly important
air Of every body we met For to-day was
to be forever a marked one in the COM
mune's history, the day of the christening
the three bells, which were to raise
! G-ville to the rank of a large COM
mune, though not an abitantWas add
/ ed to its number.
Church bells are always christened in
| France, and the ceremony is exactly
that of christening a baby. Even the
taste of salt which, in Catholic christen-
/ ing, initiated from the old Jewish form,
is put on the child's tongue by the priest,
is not omitted. We saw it put upon the
tongues of the three bells, and it must
be said that the brazen infants behaved
much better under the infictiOn than
human ones usually do,
The old church was Norman Gothic,
massive solemn and stern, with gray
walls grown with lichens and weeds, and
! boar with the rime of centuries. We
/ found it crowded as we entered, and only
that we were under convoy Of a prOmi-
nent Villager, whose blue blouse pilOted
US to good seats near the bells, we could
never have penetrated that mass Of hui
man beings.
The three bells were hanging near the
great doors, akin row. They had
never been rung, as the first strokes Of
each must be given by the sponsors or
gOdparents, after the christening is fin
ished. For this purpose a large, silken
! white cord is attached to the tongue of
of each bell, and when the sponsors pull
! the large tassels the christened bell
sounds its first cOnsecrated note. The
! bells we've inscribed with the names Of
the dOnO s, the date, and appropriate
verses OF Scripture and all in the first
person, the inscription reading, Il was
presented, etc" and not this bell was
| presented, ETC."
The Bishop had come all the way
from Bayeux for the ceremony, and the
/ first tones that would float from the
newly-christened bells in the belfry
above would be a chime of farewell as
| the great mans carriage would depart
! from the village. A number of priests
/ from neighbOIing towns were also a part
/ Of the ceremony, and it stirred Made
moiselle to green envy-gOOd Catholic
! though she is-tO see the quantities of
! priceless laces, flOunces a foot deep, and
! "Oveiskirts," as Cecil called them, down
/ to the ground, which were articles Ofsac-
| eTdOtal raiment.
! ma far she whispered. If Ihad only
/ one Of Monsieur le Cures hOunces I
would never touch a sewing machine
againl"
Mademoiselle's part of the domestic
| duty at home is with the family sewing.
! Near the bells, close beside US, stood a
| little table with the oil, salt and holy
/ water necessary to the baptism. There
was also a pile of folded and embroid-
cred silk which Mademoiselle whispered
to me were the christening robes Of the
bells-but I did not believe her.
When all was ready, the Bishop, In
his splendid garments and his mitre on
advanced from the altar toward the
bells. A COncOurse of minor ecclesiast-
les followed him, and the six sponsors
the two rich ladies, one on the arm of
her husband, the other of her son, and a
peasant cOuple-brought up the rear
Then there was much fussing about the
table, and the cure of the parish grew
very hot and excited lest something 90
wrong IN presence of the good Bishop
That great man read the christening ser
vice before each bell, one after the other
Then the holy water was sprinkled over
them. and salt put upon their tongues
Then, with more reading from the Bish-
ops book, they were anointed with
sacred oil. the Bishop himself anOint-
ing them with silk napkin and rubbing
them dry afterward with a silk cloth,
hinged with silver while priests held
back his trailing, costly robes from any
detlling contact. There was much read
ing in Latin. but no chanting or re-
spOnses, and did not understand word,
OF course.
But I knew that all was done, and
those huge brazen objects consecrated to
religious service, when / saw thespOnsOrs \
advance, each smiling, to his g0dch.ld.
Then each gOdmother caught up a white
tas,el and rang a ringing peal, first one /
gOdmOther, then the second, then the
third, then altogether. Then the god
fathers followed in the same order, and
it was amusing to notice how much more
dif1dently, even timidly, their strokes
sounded than those Of their weaker com /
paniOns.
The next move Maa nEsEaElnua one ]