Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-04
Written for the REcoRp-USIoN.l
THE HISTORIC BELL.


ITO the old bell in the belfry OF the Petaluma
Baptist Church.
There it swings in the belfry,
A cracked and furnished bell.
But its harsh, unmuscal voice
A stirring history can tell
How it sailed upon two oceans.
Thro storm and tropic calm
How il passed the spicy islands.
And lands of healing balm.
Until to Western land it came.
Where Flora sat, empowering
Lovely valleys, with silver streams
Twixt lofty mountains towering.
Where songsters carolled sweetly
Meath blue and sunny Skies
While nils and rocks held treasures
winch men so seek and prize.
Alas that a land so fair
Became the home of some so vile
VINO tore her bosom for the gold they sought
And robbed and murdered erst the while
And So like noisome pestience,
Unlawfulness ragged abroad
Till stout-hearted yigilanters
Dethroned deceitful fraud
Brought in golden summer time
And hung IN Portsmouth square,
The bell rang out its first alarm
To summon the tiremen there
For great fires surged through the city,
Like pillows from an ocean of flame.
Leaving all black aud desolate,
A city, but in a name
And when, thro' mining and gambling.
Men burned with the fever of gain,
And thoughts and deeds of bloodshed
Crowded the heated brain
Then the bell became tocsin
In mauy stirring time,
To call the ''Citizen's Committee
To prevent some mob or crime.
So, oft in the mondays brightness.
Sometimes in the midnight's gloom,
'Twould peal the alarm of the fire iend
Or ring some outlaws doom.
Twas then a brightly Furnished bell,
With tone so mellow and clear
That il seemed unfit when duty called
To ring its alarms of fear.
And did it tire of this duty
Thrilling the people with dread?
And by some gentle sound spirit
Was It's course so fayorably pied.
That instead of being toesin,
1t became a bell of peace,
Gods worshipers to summon
When their week of toll should cease.
Thus it was the First Baptist Church,
Through kind hearts. secured bell
To ring TOR time of service
Or sound funeral knell.
Three years 1t swung in the belfry
With sweet and hallowed sound
But war was threatening darkly
When the fourth year came around.
That war, which homes divided
And hearts aSunder cast,
Touched with unholy finger
The house of God at last.
And there, where sweet communion
And fellowship should 'bide,
Arose sharp contention,
The question TO decide
Should their sympathies be Northern
Or Southern. in their way?
Through their element being stronger,
The Southerners gained the day.
Then quiet VOW was taken
By one who loved the North.
That the BELLS sweet tones should never
Ring the Southerners forth.
3d. from its place twas taken,
In firm and quiet way,
And placed upon a steamer
Then bound for 'Friscos bay.
But before the steamerd started
1t was noised throughout the town.
Behold the empty belfry
The bell is taken down ~
How soon a crowd was gathered.
And the bell how quickly traced
And by posse taken
And in the tower replaced.
But on night soon after,
As midnight settled down
And all was still and peaceful
For slumber wrapt the town.
From outthe belfry rang peal,
So long, SO wild, so clear
That it filled each one awakened
With nameless dread and fear.
Once only it rang so clearly,
As it never rang before,
So wondrously loud and beautiful
Twould ring so never more.
And when the wondering people,
Curious at the midnight alarm,
Climbed the belfry next morning
To see ifthe belpd come to harm.
They found in its shining rim crack,
Which the bell with protest had yielded
To tremendous blow dealt from a sledge
Some strong right arm had welded.
In after years, in vain they sought
To restore its tone so pure;
Their beloved belf d received hurt
Which they could never cure.
Yet, dear to the hearts of the townsmen
Is the old and furnished bell;
And this is the stirring history
Its discordant tones can tell.
CLARA D. BIRD.