The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-21


 nervous people to live,
 What an important guild that of founder must have been in the middle ages can be seen seen by the many legends attaching to the more famous names, the imputation of socery which attached to many and the secrets of the art which were to many and the secrets of the art which were jealiusly guarded by each foundry. Many of these bell founders achieved fame far beyond the precints of their town or country and often executed commits sions for foreign potentates in distant lands. The German poet Schiller gives in his poem Die Glocke,'' or The Bell" a delightfully."- poetical descrip- tion of the casting of such a bell, set ting up the mould, the mixing of the metal, the. carving of the inscription and the baptism of the sacred object flor bells were considered sacred in the middle ages, and it was not deem- ed a sacrilege to baptize them with all the rites of the Church The bells to the people then were like voices from on high. Theirs was a noble mission ''to calll the living and mourn the dead" to ring forth the joy and the sorrow of the community and to eele- brate the glory of the Almighty with their metal voices. Every bell had it's name being often called after the most popular local saint. It a chime or caril- lon were composed of thirteen bells as was often the case, the heaviest and largest bell named Jesus or "Salva- tor,' while the others bore the names of the apostles.
 The inscriptions on the bells are gen. erally in rhyme and made to read as if the bell itself is telling its name and the history of it's making. Hol- land still possess many of these an cient bells, notably in the province of Friesland. The earliest authenticated bell is that of Krommenie, cast in 1896, by Rodolphus de Montigny. Most bells now in existence were, however, cast in the fifteenth, sixteenth or seventeenth centuries.
 The Reformation brought a change in the naming of the bells. The Roman Catholic saints were forsaken, and on- ly Biblical or worldly names were al- lowed, while the inscriptions also breathed other views, as can be seen by comparing the bells cast in the seventeenth century with those of earlier date Those on the older bells have a purely religious significance, while the later ones refer to worldly subjects, as for instance the famous bell at Ham, which recounts in its inscription how it burst in 1866 be- cause it had too loudly pealed out its joy at the victory of the Dutch beet over the English"
 Holland has produced many famous families of bell founders. Among the very oldest is the family Butendue, the first of which was William ButenGue, in 141S, according to the inscription on an ancient bell, for every bell told in it's incription who was it's maker and in which town it was cast A member of the Butendue family cast the first chimes for the Cathedral of Utrecht. Another family of bell founders was Moor of Delft, one of iwhosa members cast bell for Haarlems most famous church, the St. Bavo, In 1500 Other well known bells cast by the family were those for the Dude Kerk of old Church of Amsterdam Q511) and for Antwerp, Leyden and Delft The fam fly Van Won, of Kampen, was famed far and wide, and many bells In Hol- land and Germany were cast by them, among others the renowned Gloriosa of Erfurt. Perhaps the most famous of all bell founders were the Hemonys, whose bells were celebrated for the lovely purity of their tone, and whose chimes were tuned perfectly in the half tones, which was considered noth- ing short of witchcraft to achieve, Thtey lived in the seventeenth century, and had the reputation of socerers. Notwithstanding this, Amsterdam ap- pointed them bell founders for the city.