The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1918-01-17

~ hayward streets of Antwerp
there fell one day 400 years
ago the mellow din of bells.
In q gay and golden peal the carlton
of Notre Dame sang to the town until
every eye turned toward the belfry
and every foot fastened to the cathe-
dral door.
Over the threshold paced a process
sion rich with the color and stiff with
the pomp Of the middle ages. AS the
company went up the nave, where vel
vets and jewels caught added radiance
from the crimson and amber of stained
windows, the bells beat upon the air
again with Il louder triumph before
they ut last fell silent.
There was good cause for the lusty
strokes which the carlton ringers
tugged ut their ropes on that pleasant
day in 1907. For the new bell, the
Big Bell, had come safe from the cast
ing furnace; the bishop in his robes
was there to cOnsecrate it, and the
king himself was standing as its spon-
sOr.
been spoken that dedicated the bell
at the service of God and Antwerp,
Charles struck from the bronze sides
one loud tone. The noise rose clear
and deep through the hush of the
cathedral. It foated among the dim
rafters as voice that promised bless
ings and it hummed into oblivion with
slow, portentous melancholy that
might we'll have been q presage of its
doom.
Big Bell Into 4 Furnace.
For doomsday has dawned upon the
big bell of Notre Dame and upon the
bells of all the other steeples in Fl0n-
ders-the Germans need metal. They
have taken the doorplates and piano
ornaments from the homes Of Brus-
sels and the splendid bronze horses
from the Avenue Louise. They have
taken the chimes from 1segnem and
lloulers, from Bruges and q dozen
villages.
The bells are being made into guns.
When next day they speak 1t Will be
In roar that means ruin to the very
fields over whose harvests they so long
have rung the curfew and the angelus.
The bells have always meant much
TO Flanders. A wealthy lowland beset
by greedy neighbOrs, the little Kingdom
has countless times been warned OF
marching enemies by the clnmor from
q steeple. In days of peace the Elem
ish developed their chimes into the
lively Tilt of the carillons which made
thesr guilds CT ringers noted through
out Europe. To hold the carillOns
they built some Of the noblest towers
the world has seen, and when the
towers were built the cities We'd with
each other In SLING them with noble
bells. There were forty bronze voices
in the tower Of Bruges cathedral and
the same number at Louvain. There
we're forty-four at SIalines and almost
a hundred in Antwerp's Notre Dame.
Bells Roused the Towns.
Every one of these had its baptismal
name, as we'll as a popular nickname.
that's Doucen,ent,' the villagers
would shy as q high tone trembled
on the mir ut evensong. Or, Ia the
dawn, "T1a Puce:le' is calling to mat
ms" Or rs an alarm crashed forth
some anxious night, The Thunderer r
Here comes the enemy"
Usually the alarm bell, which was
IS a matter Of course the largest In
he church, belonged not to the ca
t,.edral, but to the town. It was
,wned by the Municipality because tia
ocyia ;,rsvei vfsnl in primitive t,nea
% ire towns existence. No fewer
han three bats IN Notre Dame were
~. u~,.rty d Antwerp itself. The