Elko independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1915-current, 1915-05-08
1916 PERSONS DROWNED
WHEN NLUS|TA IA IS sun
HISTORY OF OLD
L|BERTY. BELL

| Inc IOllOW1nB history OIL tne OLD I'D
erty bell is of especial interest now
when it is about to start on Its west
ward journey to the Panama-Pacific
International exposition at San Fran
cisco. 1t was hoped that it would
pass through Elko, but it is to go
north from Salt Lake City by way of
Portland and Seattle:
The Liberty Bell was cast in
Whitechapel. London, by order Of
the general assembly of Pennsyl-
vania, as an outgrowth of the cele-
bration in Philadelphia in 1851 of the
flfueth anniversary of the city's
second charter. The committee in.
trusted with the ordering of the bell
chose the Biblical line which was cast
as the inscription: Proclaim Liberty
Throughout All the Land, Unto All
the Inhabitants Thereof"
Seemed Doomed to Crack.
From the beginning the bell seem
ed doomed to crack. Only a month
after It's arrival in Philadelphia in
August, 1852, while 1t was being test
ed, it cracked. 1t was recast in
Philadelphia foundry with the addi-'
ton of more copper to render it less
brittle, but when tested again in the
spring of 1853. it was found to be
toneless, because of too much copper
in the metal. So it was recast again
by the same foundry, and was finally
raised in the steeple of the state
house in the week of June /, 1853.
The bell remained in the steeple
until 1871, when it was taken down
with the steeple and hung again in
the state house tower, where ii re-
mained until 1916. 1t rang out for the
first time on August 81, 1853, when it
called the general assembly into ses-
sion.
Sounds Funeral Dirge.
For more than eighty years the
bell continued to ring on great oc-
casions, it's hidden flaw constantly
growing and widening into crack that
became fatal on The occasion of its
last peal
1t rang on days of rejoicing and
for occasions of mourning. Muffled
1t sounded a funeral dirge when the
English ship reached Philadelphia
with stamps for Pennsylvania, New
Jersey and Delaware, and again on
the day when the stamp act went
into operation.
IL celebrated the repeal Of the
stamp act, and sounded many times
in the storm period before the re-
volution in protest of British acts or
approval of Colonial defiance. When
the tea ship arrived II called to-
gether in the state house yard, the
largest political gathering Philadel-
phia had seen up to that time to pro-
test against the tea tax
II was mu1led for the closing OF
the port of Boston in 1774. On
April 25, ITS, 1t called 5000 citizens
to the state house to hear the news
of Lexington and Concord and to
take the pledge of fealty to the Colo.
NAL cause.
Rings Greatest Note.
| Tnen on July 3, 1776, II rang It's
greatest note, when the Declaration
of Independence was proclaimed to
the world, and July 4, 1777, 1t cele-
brated the first year of independence
In that same year, when Philadel-
phia was EVACUATED by the Americans
and bell was removed to Allentown to
prevent It from falling into the hands
of the British. 1t was brought back
in June OF 177S, to remain until Il.
went on it's first triumphal journey
through the country is 1884,
The bell rang the rejoicing over the
surrender of CORVALLIS in 1881 and
for the treaty of peace with Great
Britain. Muffled for the first time
since the days before the Revolution,
in 1893 1t sounded funeral dirge for
Washington. In 1924 it welcomed
Lafayette, and ten years later, tho
next to the last time It was TO ring