The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-12-05

minister quarters do not play Nearer My God to Thee" but their own chining piece. The heaviest bell in England is one of F tons, in St. Pauls Cathedral. There are only two or three heavier in the world, and they were all in Russia sand cost there before the war). The Church Bell Foundry has turned out about a dozen peals for America, most of these few for New England churches, including the Church of the Advent, Boston; Groton School chapel, that Roosevelt attended; and the Chapel of Wesleyan University, Middleton, Conn. Canada has only two peals, one in Van- couver cast by a French foundry, and one in Montreal cast by this very old English establishment
 Australia and south Africa have sev- aral peals. and Indian and African plan tations have many far-carrying bells, for sunmoning workers, that were cast by Robert Mott's successors. They also have produced fine toned dinner bells for aristocratic homes in Great Britain-aad these costly special bells are silver plated.
 It seems wrong to say that there are rot more than dozen peals of bells in America, none in the west but such s technical truth. There may be hun dreds of churches that have more than one bell, but these are not, properly SpSaklllEs, LII p6dlS. lHGy are fTuuS Dy one man. He pulls ropes that strike the tongue, or cla.ne,w, against the bell, which is iinmovabe itself.
 Peculiar to England are peals They are rung by a man to a bell, the bell 3winging on heavy mount ting, starting at an inverted position when it is at rest. The bell is attached to a wheel over which rope is strung pulley-wise, each ringer having the two ends in his hands. bA r',1fr 1,-r 4Hn.r fI..% .1x "change-ringers' stand in circle, with a conductor in the center. If there are eight bells there are eight change-ring- CTS and conductor It takes a year of training, one night a week, to make a change-rlnger. It always requires a very strong tower to stand the strain. of the swinging bells. The effect of the swinging is to give a very much more beautiful tone than that of fixed bell.
 Now about these change-ringers They are trained church folk a rule and look upon themselves as artists, or per- haps artcraftsmen.
 The ancient society of College youths. founded in 1887, is the city of London or ganization of these change rangers. There are more than a thousand members and they meet monthly at churches, on week evenings, when they ring special peals in relays. On great days, like the Kings birthday. coronation day, peace day and others equally important. there is such . demand for change-rineers through London that the bell foundr.es are called
 pon for their professional band. But
 lcne of the other change.ringers are ever raid.
 The more you inquire into changc-ring- ing and bell founding the more delight fully musty and mouldy 1t becomes. The secret of the art or craft, of ringing in peals. is to be able to mernorize the tune. not by ear but mathematically; in ~etting "touch'' with the ropes so that YOU can swing bell from it's inverted ~epose to inverted repose without come lack or the breaking of halfway bar that prevents a bell when correctly pulled, from toppling all the way over and making another chime. But such is the weight of the bell that this brake bar would be crashed through by an mex nerienced muscular ringer. And they have to have muscles and endurance. Some of the tunes, or joy-peais, last more the elhange-rlngers, but there are strong armed few.
 Change-ringing associations exist ali ryer England Thcre is even magazine for them the Ringing World a weekly ,aper that reports the,s special peals and
 heir talks and their vicarage socla!s-- and their time records
 IL 9 Hia'.iiCiI<1tiSSti, slS l nave SuSSeSteV. With five-bell peal there is a pas- sihility of 1a0 variations of ringing. Six bells permit T20 variations, [ bells, o.040. and so on. The tunes are written on charts giving columns of figures. A line drawn across tho chart shows d iuynn from No. hell to N-. snd to c.r..~s There are many standard tunes, "Plain Rob,'' and %Grands re-" gre two anr there's ''Stedman" and Kent Treble" end 'Iondon Surprise"--all quite as an cient as change-rlnginx They are the slines that are played constantly in Eng
 and. although some ambitious conductor now and then compcses q new variation for special occasion.
 But of all the associations the Ancient Society of College Youths is the only one having the rank of city guild, and on fete days it's members turn out on par with the cloth-weavers. glass-blow- CTS, hide-skinners and the rest of them It is these guilds that elect the mayor and executives of the city of London. no common citizens having vote.