Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1906-03-23
THE VOICE OF 1776.
j John Withycombe's Grafton,
With Respect to Barometer.

The great bell in the Phila-
delphia statehouse hung sombre
and silent. The flower scented
zephvrs of a cloudless, summer
sky played with the flowing locks
of the old bell ringer as he stood
and awaited signal. A bright
light glittered in his eye as ever
and anon he shot quick glance
at the bell, or with arm barred to
the shoulder, clutched the pend
ant clapper.
Below, the streets i'll all direct
ions were a mass OF surglng peo-
pie. They stood in knots and
spoke in whispers, turning eager
ly TO each other for latest news.
Momenteus events were tran
spring. The very air was sur
charged with anxiety. All night
the committee had 1aboreo and
its rerort was before the Cont
mental Congress. In there On
the table was that immortal docu-
ment. the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. Pale men with anx-
ious faces were ranged about, de-
batting the portentious question
of wlether or not to sign.
patiently the old bell-mau
watched and waited for the sign ::
waited for his faxen haired
grandson to rush from the
building and fash to him the sig
nal that the paper had been sign
ed. Hark! there is stir in the
crowd. They are surging at the
entrance. The cleaning eye of
the silver haired beli-man catches
a glimpse of a haxen head thread
ing the crowd. A nervous hand
clutches at the bell tongue. A
child voice mounts to the tower.
''Ring, Grandpa ring" The
old man hears. There is the
strength of youth in his muscle
as he grasps and swings the heavy
clappper.
The bell peals out. 1t hurls a
greeting of freedom to the noon
day sun. The molten notes from
its iron throat leap from house
to house and then to the noun
tain peaks. The crowd in the
street hears, and burst into a
mighty shout, the city hears and
starts from desk and workshop.
"How they shouted, what rejoicing,
How the old bell shook the air;
Till the clang of freedom pealing
Swept the tiding everywhere.
How the bonfires and the torches
Lighted up the nights repose,
Till f sm planes like fabled Phoenix,
Glorious liberty arose.
Independence bell is silent
Hnshed and still its clamorous tongue;
But the spirit it awakened
Still is living, still is yonng.
As we greet the laughing sunlight
On the Fourth of each July,
We will ne'er forget the bell-man
Standing there athwart the sky,
Ringing out the notes of freedom
That shall never, never de-"
The voice of the old bell is
the voice of seventy six. No
more does the tongue sway to
and fro. But the joyons notes
of that July monday ale still
pealing. The old bell-man is
the type of the men of the time.
His eager grasp of the bell ton
que as he thundered forth the
tidings is the spirit of liberty in.
carnated. That same spirit
coursed the veins and swept the
breast of every patriot of the time.
In every one there was a desire
for liberty and a determination tc
have it at any cost. Above every.
thing, overshadowing all things,
was consuming, steadfast desire
to be free.
1t shown from the old bel
ringers eye and surged into hi:
arm as he rang. 1t was the spiri
of Bunker Hill and Warren. I
was the spirit that sent Panl Re
we're across the river at midnig gh
and down the Concord road t,
tell his countrymen of the com
ing conflict. 1t was the spirit il
Washington, in Jefferson, an,
other immortal heroes of the tim
whose lives were resplenden
with virtue, and in whose mem