Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-11-09

Every patriotic American has learned
OF liberty bell. which from the belfry
OF the state house at Philadelphia pro-
claimed proudly the declaration of i'm
dependence. and which seven years
later III known the joyous news that
peace between the United States and
the mother countr: had been at last
restored. For more than Il century the
old bell, still preserved in Liberty hall.
has been II shrine for countless pill
griIns from every corner of the civil
ICED world, who have all seen the large
crack running the entire length of the
bell. and uniting it for duty. This
break was always thought to have oc-
Cured while liberty bell was tolling at
h funeral OF Chief Justice John Mar
shall. on July 8, 1885. but other stories
and this On Elm h New York Times is
the latest. The writer tells us that;
Now. more than tl.rec-Quartcrs of a
century after the old bell was silenced
comes q ma who declares that mono of
the more or less accepted versions of
now 1t cam to be cracked is correct;
that his version alone is the true ex-
PLANTATION of the incident. For more
than so years, he declares, he has been
reading IN newspapers and elsewhere
all the various conflicting stories of
the accident, but. inasmuch as his has
DS(AA NAl CkuCt OuSy II0. Is HAS
bothered his head overmuch
about them until quite recently.
Being now old. and retired from
active work. he has more leisure on his
hands: his mind dwells more and more
ON the past; his tenacious of
to take him back to early youth and
review the happenings that still stand
out from the haze of yesterday.
So. when q few days & this man
saw yet another story OF how the lib
erty bell was cracked, and realized vet
again that his memory branded it as
incorrect. he fastened to protest.
Il was one OF those who We're pres
ent n assisted In the cracking of
that bell-perhapS I am the only per-
son now living who was present. he
stated. Those words took a Times re-
porter at once to his house with the re-
quest for full details.
The man who, he says, helped crack
the old liberty bell, is Emmanuel Jo-
seph Rauch, of 386 West 116th street.
He is So years old. but doesn't look it..
In fact, so straight is he still, so square
and robust, that he seems scarcely old
er thar his son, a man who has turned
so.
And Mr.. Rauch's manner of speech is
such as to justify the pride he takes in
his memory. His talk goes right ahead,
without neSltatlOn or confusion. He
never adds anything concerning which
he feels the slightest uncertainty.
He was born at Chester, Pa. of
Pennsylvania Dutch stock. on Novem-
Der s, 1895, II removed with his pa
rents to Philadelphia when he was /
years old. 1t was three years later-in
1S35--that, according to him, the crack
ing of the liberty bell occurred. That
is the year usually given as the one in
which the mishap occurred, but Mr..
Rauch is emphatic in his statement that
h bell was not cracked on the occa-
sion OF Chief Justice Marshall's tuner
al. Here is his own version of the oc-
currence:
The liberty bell was cracked, as I
remember. on Washington's birthday,
1885, and this is the way it was done:
Il was h 10 years old. On that
day / had been sent by my mother on
an errand to n shop not far from our
home. On my return from it, | was
walking through State House square
when l noticed that the janitor, or
steeplekeeper, of the old state house
building. was reckoning to me. His
name was COMMUNICATIONS Jack" we
used to call him-and he was a we'll
known character i'm Philadelphia at that
time.
"'Come here!' he called to me and to