The Newtown bee., 1908-04-03
THE CHURCH BELL.

lIlL OI1 hOIl DELL.
 Hark hear its strains, as they come pealing from wonder tower. Its notes, sweet and sad, merry and grand, have continued to peal from the place where it now swings for-I can't tell how many years. How rich are its sounds, as they float over the hills and through the glen of my own native town.
 It is the Sabbath. Throngs of wor- shippers come in obedience to the sound of the "Church-going bell :" to worship the Lord of the Sabbath. How sweet are its sounds to the ear of the church-going and church-loving man.
 Now list to that joyous peal, that comes as if Sproclaiming "glad tidings of great,joy." A bridal train is pas sing through the portals of the church, and the village bell peals forth it's mer- riest notes, as if Tn harmony with the joyous party, and it also seems to say, nLong may you be in possession of all the happiness that now pervades your bosoms.
 An! list! hear the bell. How sadly its notes sound, as they strike.on my ear. One-two-three; so says the bell, as it proclaims the death of that little one, who so short time ago, was with us to cheer us with her joy ous prattle.
 But methinks hear it again. One two three-four-fve; ah !! the moth CTS jewel, the fathers idol! He has gone. But let us not mourn for flowers offered in the bud, are no vain sacrifice.
 Again l hear it. Its sounds pierces my inmost heart. She, who few days ago was by our side, all gladness apd gayety, the bell by its one-two-thr four -fve.-siX-seven tells me, has gone to the "spirit land.
 What again must l list to the sad- dened note of the bell? Yes, nine long, soft, saddened notes float through the air far and near. How lonely will be the hearth stone of that once happy family. Never before has the home circle been broken, but now Death has come, and with his resistless hand, has snatched that manly form. k :. Often, and quite too often, our poor frail hearts tell us, has the bell thus called us to mourn the loss of our loved ones. But an Almighty hand took them from the evil to- come, and they seem to say to us through the sweet plain tive notes of the bell, Meet me in Heaven. ."@t's% % Jane Eliza Camp,
 Now Mrs E. L. Joh~son. X
 Note.-Soon after church bells were introduced into the town. the custom prevailed until about the year 1860, of having the bell tolled whenever death occurred in the town. First, ringing of the bell, then a striking, three strokes for a girl, five strokes for a boy, seven strokes for woman, nine strokes for man. In that way, the people at large, first heard of death in the town. For years and years Bronson Bulkley was paid twenty-five dollars a year to toll the bell for deaths, and to ring the bell for calling town meetings.-[ B. L.J.
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
 Wha must have been the feelings of Christopher Columbus when he first saw the shores of our now happy and prosperous country, then nothing but wilderness, inhabited bysavage h. dlans. After all the difficulties and trials which Columbus encountered and overcome, at last to behold his scheme fulfilled, on which were based his hopes of happiness and wealth, for which he had endured hardships, fatigue anxiety and doubt and for which he had been laughed at and ridiculed, was the fulfil ment of his highest hopes of glory. But he cared not now; he stood upon the land he had so long anticipated finding. joy was his predominant feeling. He could in his turn laugh at those who had laughed at him. He now saw the reality of the bright visions on which his mind had been so long fixed. The winds and storms had passed over his barque, but still it had passed safely OCT the sea for what harbor, he knew not.
 Columbus now rests from all his la Dor, in the long and dreamless sleep of death. He knows not of the changes that have been wrought Iii his then new world. He might have anticipat- ed changes; he might have imagined the land inhabited with people of his nation but the many and great changes that have taken place, are not in the power of men to effect, without the help of Creator.
 T,,o,, Eo,rol,lJ