Evening times-Republican., 1903-12-24
AN OLD CHI RCH BELL,
T CANE FROM LISBON AND HANGS
IN A NANTUCKET CHURCH.

This Country-A Very Good Clocl
and IL Very Fiue Bell.
Beneath the outlook i'll n NaRtuckg
church Is the belfry. in which swing
the "old Spanish bell knowing tha
this is now a Unitarian church, the Wis
tor will be surprised to see a Catboii
cross on the bell. If he could Rad Pc,
| tuguese and had not previously &C
| quainted himself with the history o
| the bell he would be still more sur
| prsed at the inscription on It, Til,
translation OF this inscription IS us fol
lows: TO the Good Jesus of the Noun
| tain the devotees of Lisbon direct theil
| prayers. offering Him one complete SCI
| of six bells, TO cali the people TO ador.
him in his sanctuary. Jose Domingos
1 Dacosta has made it in Lisbon in the
| year 1S10.' OF course the bell must
| have an interesting history to accoun,
for this inscription. That history is
briefly as follows:
| A plague was raging in Lisbon and
certain people in that city prayed to
| the Virgin Mary for the cessation OF
| the plague and vowed to place set of
six bells in the Church of the Good
Jesus of the Mountain If their prayers
were heard. The Mountain is the
name of certain district in the city
of Lisbon in Which there is very ven
cradle church called as above. Shortly
after this the plague ceased, and, ac
cepting this us the answer to their
prayers, these devotees of Lisbon pro
ceeded to fulfill their vows. The work
of casting these six bells was intrusted
to Jose Domingos Dacosta, the best
bell founder In Lisbon
The six bells had been cast the mas
ter's labors had been crowned with
success, when Captain Clasby of the
Nantucket whaling feet chanced TO
visit Lisbon. He had long wished to
buy bell for use in his native town
In company with Captain Cary he
visited the bell foundry of Jose Do
mingos Dacosta Captain Cary. /:
seems was connoisseur in bells Da
costa applied the lever to one bell after
another as he struck each to ascertain
its peculiar tone or tone quality bn;
each time Captain Cary said, THAT
will not do
At last Dacostn raised and struck
the bell whose history we are describ-
ing. Captain Cary was delighted with
the result "Ah. CLASSIFY" he said.
you need look no further That's the
bell you want She is beauty. She
sounds on b.
well, sir" remarked Dacosta, I'VE
consider that to be the finest bell thai
we have in our foundry
At first Dacosta demurred and couie
not see his way clear to selling the
bell, since 1t belonged to the set OF
chimes designed for the Church of the
Good Jesus of the Mountain and was
appropriately inscribed and all. but
Captain CLASSIFY would have no other
Finally Dacosta decided, since the bell
had not yet been consecrated and since
he could east another 10 take its place
that it would be all right to sell.
So Captain Clashy bought the bell
and 1t was brought to Nantucket by
Captain Cary, whose vessel was going
home first. In Lisbon. just before he
set sail, Captain Cary heard Of the dec,
laration of war with Great Britain
for 1t was now the year 1912. On the
way over they We're spoken by Brit
ish sloop Of war. Fortunately the Brit
isher had been at sea, for some time
and had not yet heard OF the declara
ton of war. "The commander askeG
Captain Cary the news, but Captain
Cary says he took especial pains noi
to tell all he knew. II he had told, oul
bell would probably never
have seeIt Nantucket 1t might now be
either at the bottom of the sea or II
might be swinging in the tower OF
some English church.
The bell was landed in Nantucket
and placed in the store cellar Of Sam
uel Cary, where it remained until 1910,
when 1t was purchased and placed In
the tower where it now hangs. About
$500 was given for the bell-the society
paid about $3.50 and the rest was raised
by subscription. Even some Friends
or Quakers subscribed.
After the bell had been in use little
while the agents Of the historic Oitl
South church In Boston heard Of 1t. and
they sent letter to the agents Of the
South church in Nantucket, saying that
they had a very good clock in their
tower, but no bell; that they had heard
that the South church in Nantucket
had very fine bell, and they would
like to know for how much the bell
could be bought.
The Nantucketers replied that they
had a very fine bell in their tower, but
no clock; that they had heard that the
Old South church had very fine tower
clock, and that they would like to
know the price of the clock.
The agents offered to pay 81 pound
for the bell Since the bell weighs
1875 pounds this would have made
the price $3.50, making net profit of
81 .O75 above the price paid for the bell
and $l,225 above the amount contrib
uted by the society. 1t seems that the
old Nnntucketers must have had some
sentiment after all and were not purely
mercantile in their spirit.
II the Nantucketers had agreed to
sell, as they might have done. our bell
would probably be hanging in the his
toric tower Of Old South church In