The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1904-02-01
AN OLD CHURCH BELL

This osuntry--A Very Good cIecL
and VERY Zine BELL.
Beneath .he outlook in a Nantucke
church is the belfry. in which swings
the "old Spanish bell" Knowing tha
this Is now "A Unitarian church, the Wis
itor will be surprised to see a Catholic
cross on the bell If he could read Por
tUgucse and hal not previously &C
quainted h.nsalf with the history OF
the bell he would 5e sjll more sur
! prised az ;l' Inscription on II. The
I translation of this Inscription is as fol.
lows ITO the Good Jesus Of the Noun.
/ tain the de, otecs of Lisbon direct their
prayers. Offering Him one complete SET
! OF six bells. 10 cal the people TO adore
/ him In bis sanctuary. Jose Domlngos
Dacosta has made it in Lisbon IN the
year lSiO' OF course the bell must
have an Interesting history TO account
/ for this inscription. That history Is
briefly ms follows:
1 a plague was raging In Lisbon and
certain people I'm that city prayed to
the Virgin Mary for the cessation Of
the plague and vowed TO place a set Of
I six bells IN the Church Of the Good
T Jesus 'of the Mountain if their prayers
werc beard "rhe Mountain" Is the
name Of a certain district in the city
Of Lisbon In which there is very ven.
erable church called as above. Shortly
after this the plague ceased, and. ac.
cepung this MS the answer to their
prayers these deyotees Of Lisbon pro
ceedti to fuldli their vows The work
OF casting these SIX bells was lntrusted
10 Jose Domingos Dacosta, th' best
bell founder in Lisbon
The six bells had been cast. the mas
ters labors had been crowned with
success, when Captain Clasby OF the
Nantucket whaling aeet chanced to
visit Lisbon. He had long wished to
buy a bell for use in his native town.
in company with Captain Cary he
visited the bell foundry of Jose Do
mingOs Dacosta Captain Cary, Il
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, but
each time Captain Cary said, "Tha'
will not do"
At last Dacosta 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 a beauty. She
sounds on b."
well, sir" remarked Dacosta, eve
consider that to he the finest bell that
+ we have in our foundry"
At first Dacosta demurred and could
not see his way clear TO selling the
bell, since II 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 Clasby would have no other
Finally Dacosta decided, since the bell
had not yet bfen consecrated and since
he could cast another to take It's place
that it woulo ba all right to sell.
SO Captain Clasby bought the bell.
and Il was brought 10 Nantucket by
Captain Cary, whose vessel was going
home first. In Lisbon, just before he
set sail, Captain Cary heard OF the dee.
laration Of war with Great Britain,
for it was now the year 1872 On the
way over they were spoken by Brit.
ish sloop Of war. Fortunately the Brit.
isher had been at sea Tor some time
aud had not yet heard OF the declara.
toE OF war "The commander asked
Captain Cary the news, but Captain
Cary says he took especial pains not
TO tell all he knew. If he had told. our
precious bell would probably never
have seen Nantucket 1t might now be
either at the bottom OF he sea or Il
might be swinging IN the tower OF
some English church
The bell was landed In Nanuckei
and placed in the store cellar OF Sam
ucl Cary. where II remained until 1915
when it 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
oc Quakers subscribed,
After the bell had been in use little .
while the agents OF the historic Old
South church IN Boston heard OF IT, and
they sent a letter 10 the agents Of the
South church in Nantucket, saying that
they had very good clock in theh
tower, but no bell chat they had heard
that the South church IN Nantucket
had very fine bell and they would
like 10 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 a very fine tower
clock, and that they would like to
know the price OF the clock
The ageats offered to pay 81 a pound
for the bell. Since the bell weighs
1915 pounds, this would have made
the price Sl.5T5, making a net profit Of
Sl.0T5 above the price paid for the bel.
ana SIPS above the amount contrib
uted hy the society. Il seems that the
old Nantuckoters must have had some