The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-27
SPAlN'S NEW YEAR BELL.
THE vILLELA, WHICH SOUNDS
WHEN MISFORTUNE THREATENS.

coronation Bell" which Tells
Events Ina the EmperOr's Family.
JRpan's Little Giant" With the
Tiny Thinking VOice-"Dearest,
BELLS Are the Liberty, Miuets An
geIus BELL, and Notre Dame.
New York, Dec. 26.-There is a chime of
bells which, If rung one after another in
longitudinal scale. would reach round the
world. The bells hang in different coun-
tries and have each a separate history
This, told chronologically, would give a
record of the world, for the bells reach back
to the early Egyptians and the days of
bondage Taken separately, they mark
historic epochs.
Our own liberty bell is one of the chime
1t cracked ringing for independence, that
blessed crack that is its proudest marking,
but Its sound Is still sweetest music Be-
fore the moment it cracked for Joy that
bell could be heard far and wide, and its
peal easily reached the outskirts OF the
young republic of which IL was the proud
cheerful spokesman.
Spain has bell that is its prophet. 1t
is its soothsayer oracle and guide This
bell, the famous Ville.a. has hung for CEN
turtles In the historic castle, keeping watch
over the nation
1t is the most celebrated bell in Europe.
though not proud nor handsome. Its fame
rests not so much upon its notes, though
these are high-pitched, soft and clear; nor
upon its size. for there are other bells in
Spain much larger; but upon Its personal
ity.
The bells of the tower have been noted
! for centuries na
own, "Ring out, wild bells" means that
the bells have 1t within them to tell ter
ror And Chime. We bells" means they
can speak for JOY. The bell~rnger does
the best he can for them; but It is true
the bells add force Of their own.
The Villela is a Spanish bell that for
years has foretold any impending trouble
to the nation. When the father of little
Alphonso died the Villela began tollIng
in the night and tolled until morning
light In the ten years Cuban war the
bell STRUCK awful tones on the nights of
defeats, And when great fires have
touched the castle and sickness or insur-
rection threatened the throne the Vilela
has lifted up its voice In sudden loud warn
ing.
Last week the villela tolled again. 1t
was one short quick stroke. Only a
d df% heaTd e but my mean to @6e e d the
aster in Cuba. Was the war to drain
the royal vaults beyond penury to debit
The Villela would not tell. but 1t sent out
Russia has a coronation bell. 1t Is the
largest In the world, and weighs 100000
pounds, Its sound has never been bound
ed, and Is said, like the emperors voice,
to reach to heaven.
1t hangs in the Kremlin. 1t is the en-
peror's bell and is rung only in honor OF
him. At the coronation IL pealed forth as
the entered the chnTghs and its
voice announced the conclusion of the GER
emony to the who.e Of Russia. The coro-
nation bell is rung by a bell-ringer blessed
by the emperor, the head of the church.
The bell-ringer does no other work, and Is
always on duty to tell Of important events
m the family of the emperor.
busy polishing UP the bell for special hape
penings. He rings when his majesty goes
to church, and i'm case of the death OF a
Russian monarch the Kremlin bell tolls
constantly between the death and the
time of the funeral.
Since Russia is the home OF bells, It Is
not wonderful that 1t should hold the larg-
est unrung bell in the world. This bell
now makes building In the Kremlin. It
was cast two centuries ago, but was found
too heavy to remove from the pit. The
Russian monarchs, one after another,
tried to have II lifted, and hundreds of
lives We're sacrificed in the shifting pit OF
sand. Finally fate interviewed. A raging
fire broke out and heated the bell in its
pit. A quantity of cold water flowed
around Il, and a great piece, the size Of
door, was broken out. The Russian king
Immediately ordered 1t lifted to a pedes-
tai and set within the Kremlin, where II
is sometimes used as a temple Its walls
are two feet thick and 1t is twenty-five
feet high.
The dearest bells" In France are the An
gels made famous by Millet, and the bells
of Notre Dame. Millets son still lives in
the little home overlooking the stone
church where the Angels bell hangs, and
night he ont hear IL toll
while the peasants bow their heads and
say mass. The bells Of Notre Dame are
the largest bells OF sweetness In the world.
One of them weighs fifty-five thousand
pounds. The maker who cast IL would new
er disclose the secret OF its loud, sweet
tone.
The Japanese have the largest bells. but
the crudest. So unskilled are they that
many of them will not ring, and so they
are obllterated from the list of bells. The
best bells are a mixture of copper and tin,
with a hammer One-twentieth the weight
of the bell. The Japanese bells, even II
cast correctly, have two small hammers.
or they arc cast to sound like tin, and the
hammer does not strike roundily. One of
these, the Little Giant, has never been
weighed. 1t Is said to weigh comparatively
little, being of some light Japanese metal;
but IL Is thirty feet across. 1t Is used to
announce births and deaths la the royal
family. It's clapper Is a small, elongated
AFFAIR that strikes with double sound, and
the Little Giant is easily recognized when
heard.
The bell of Notre Dame in Montreal is
the largest bell Ina America, but not the
sweetest. This attribute is claimed by the
biggest bell Of Trinitys chime in New
York, which IL so surprising in its deli
cacy and so penetrating In it's pureness
that rich and poor alike stand all night, In
all weather, 10 hear II ring In the new
year. The most Indictment weather never
keeps them away, and so demonstrative
do they sometimes become at its sound
that Trinitys rector has once or twice
forbidden the chime to ring at midnight
II is cast In u fiat.
The countries OF Turkey, Greece, Italy
and Egypt have not many famous bells.
Bells are not In good reput there from the
fact that criminals wear them around the
neck and lepers are strung with them. In
the temples the high priests decorate their
robes with small, jangiing bells, and this
Is another reason why bells cannot be-
come common. In Turkey they are con-
spicuously unpopular, and that country is
the only one that positively forbids the
ringing in Of the New Year with bells.
The first New Years chimes were runs
In England in 1900, and so quickly did the
news OF them travel that soon every cap
ital OF Europe had chimes. America has
the most chimes OF any country In the
world, and few cites Of the United States
but have their Ginning bells
The voice Of the bells has, since the
INTRODUCTION OF the church bell first blessed
IN 800, been the means OF announcing the
NQW Year fThnU