The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-18
TO KEEP HER NEW CHIMES
WARM.
THEIR TOWER IS so HIGH
THAT THEY CAN'T GET EVEN
SOLAR HEAT UP THERE FOR
MONTHS.
TONS OF COSTLY BELL METAL
May Be Cracked by the Frosts That
Come After the Election This
Year.


Minneapolis is much distraught over
perpleXing question, to w.t. what to
do with the sweet-toned chimes which
peal hours and occasional hymns from
the pinnacle of the new court house
and city hall.
The people of Minneapolis thought
they had proud thing when they first
heard the mellow music of the brassy
tower singers, and they FASTENED to
ring them every time an interurban
car brought a party of st. Paul people
to see Lake Harriet or attend a ball
game.
Now, however, as the stems of the
leaves are lessening. and the lawns are
Uttered with dry rubbish that whirls
about in the chilly evening zephyrs,
the people of the Mill City are begin
ming to wonder what they will do with
the bells in winter.
The temperature at the Lumber eX-
change corner and other places on the
ground in Minneapolis averages about
twenty three degrees below zero from
Dec. ! to March 1, after reductions
have been made for wind and snow,
and the temperature at the elevation
where these bells are located has never
been even estimated, much less re-
corded
The board of court house and city
hall commissioners met yesterday,
however, to consider the question, and
at the present writing the official opin-
ion seems to be divided between put
ting storm windows on the curfew and
heating it with oil stoves, or turning
it over to the county organization to
take it's own chances.
Gov. Clough, who recently had some
experience in Minneapolis primaries,
said that if noise meant warmth. he
did not see why the bells could not be
kept ringing from the 1st of October
to the 1st of April constantly, which
would prevent them from acquiring
frost bites, chilhlains, or neuralgia
Oliver T. Erickson thought the belfry
had better be heated UP. whether by
steam pipes or some other way, but
John c. Oswald said that he did not
think that storm windows in the tower
would add to the aesthetic appearance
of the building. and ever since F. Hop
Smith was in Minneapolis his neigh
bors had been roofing hard for aes-
theticismN He thought, too, aside from
the artistic stardpoint that the steam
would have a hard time getting up
that $50 feet IF tower in ANYTHING like
a warm condition, and as heating the
tower with coal. stoves, he did not
know how the county could afford to
pay janitors for carrying the coal up
those Al spiral stairs.
George A. Bracket thought the
Friendly inn could furnish few able
10 +Ion cIoa
ly. but he thought it would kind Of
rob the Christmas bells of the spirit
of the carols if the populace knew that
they were rung over a dull fire, like
some half-baked griddle cakes
E. F. Comstock, like his namesake
Anthony. shuddered at the bare idea
and suggested that the bells be wrap
ped in something. He did not care
whether they were treated with cot
tor bandages, like the shade trees, or
asbestos covering like the steam pipes
in the basement, except that the COM
mission might get reduced rates on the
latter by reason of previous contracts.
Lars Swenson thought that if worst
came to worst, there could be a room
fixed up there for the Augsburg Pub
fishing company and the United church
DEBATES would be heated enough to keep
the bells trained
E. NJ Johnson favored an assessment
on the candidates now running for
cou-ty Offices, a trick he learned as
chairman of the campa gn committee,
to defrav the expresses of wiring the
tower for electric lights. Enough of
these he believed, could be planted
about the chimes to keep the bells
warn.
Senator Wash burn was surprised
hof iYoc xyi+ a h cl,O
suffer from the cold in a community
which lad as many stalwart all-the-
yeaf-around knockers as Minneapolis.
TITUS Mareck said he did not want to
inject any partisan feeling into the dis
cussion, but if the bells did crack dur
ing the winter, they would only be
sustaining the prediction of the cam
paign orators that the country was go
ing broke, and some of the most famous
bells in the country had been cracked
without damaging their educational
effect for posterity. If worst came to
worst. he thought that some of the
evening papers might be induced to
take up collection and have the school
children remove the bells to the cellar
of the Edison Heat and Power building.
Il would probably take three or four
years to get around to this. however,
and in the meantime the Johbers' union
might plan few ice palaces so as to in
sure mild winters.
The board will take up the question
again in a few days.