The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-11-09
FAIR CHIMES.
The Clamor of Bells at the Column
bian Exposition.
Various Methods Employed in
Beu-Ringing.

There are two kinds of chimes in
the Worlds Fair grounds. So far as
sound goes, both produce about the
same effect; both recall churches and
pastoral scenes and summer Sunday
evenings and the days of curfew ring
ings-for both are agreeably and prop
erly out of tune. This is right ira
dition sanctions it and chime of bells
in absolute perfect tune would be an
unheard-of iconoclasm. But apart
from this characteristic and the clear
ness with which both sets of chimes
ring out, neither of the Worlds Fair
bells conforms to the demands of ira
dition.
But if any visitor at the Worlds
Fair fancies that the changing chimes
which salute his ears are manipulated
by any contrivance such as these ne is
mistaken. Three times day, at 8
o'clock in the morning, at noon and
again at night, the clamor of bells
may be heard on the court of honor.
The sound comes from the southwest
tower of machinery hall, which has
little fretted belfry in which are ten
bells of various sizes. Directly under
meath the belfry in the gallery of the
building, seventy-fve feet below, there
is little black walnut frame, with
shiny silver attachments and music
rack. The frame is not so wide as the
keyboard of a pipe-organ. In front
there are ten long vertical slots, through
which run ten wooden handles. The
handles are at the end of levers from
which there run up to the tongues of
the bells above ten stout wire ropes
attached to the handles by means of
leather straps When the operator
depresses one of the handles suddenly
the rope is pulled and bell-note peals
out up above. The ten slots, which
form scale in the key of D, are all
lettered, 80 that the operator has
merely to read the notes on the music
in front of him and jerk the handle
under the corresponding letters. The
highest bell, an E, weighs only $50
pounds, and the E handle works as
easily as piano key. But the weight
of the bells increases as you go down
the scale, and the big D at the bottom,
which weighs 3, 100 pounds, demands
q strong pull at the bar before it will
sing Professor G. E. Bradberg, the
chimer of St. Paul's Episcopal church
of this city, is the operator, and it is
by his hands that the three chime con-
certs are rung every day in machinery
hall tower. He has an extensive re-
pertory of tunes from grave to gay,
and some of them demand rapid work.
When he is playing run his hands
move as rapidly as the feet of an ex-
pert organist on the pedals.
Another and still less poetic method
of bell-ringing is that employed In
playing the chimes above the big
clock towerin the manufactures build
ing. A man who heard the peals and
wanted to learn who was ringing them
hunted around for over an hour with
ont finding the ringers location. He
walked into the tower and then around
it and then stood of d rod or two to see
whether the bells were not being rung
by a rope let down through the roof.
Then he asked a guard and the guard
told him to walk north. Then he met
another guard, who told him to walk
east, and still another, who sent him
north again. After he had gone about
200 feet from the tower he gave 1t up.
Then he happened to see lady anus
ing herself with what looked like a
dolls piano. There was little yellow
case and about an octave of keys at
which the lady was languidly dabbing
with forefnger. 1t struck the man
as curious that when she patted key
down one of the bellsin the chimesr rung.
Then he noticed that two insulated
wires ran out of the back of the piano
and he surmised the truth, that the
chimes were being rung by electricity
Out of the court of honor and in
adjacent parts of the grounds the
sounds from the machinery hall belfry
create diverse Impressions. They are
heard at their best about half way
down the basin, where the distance
softens the tone and reduces the dis
crepancies in pitch. Those who do
1aaa+,o,o of %la halls Ard