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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1950-03-16, Page 3The City Of The Many Bells o "The Ringing Island," England has been called, because froth Sax-, on days its people have loved good honk azul the sweet sound of them,. These bells have rung et the birth and the passing of countless men end 'worsen. They have sounded the tocsin of strife and more gladly celebrated peace on many historic occasions. So in joy and sorrow the E;elle have acquired an almost sacred character. If ,England could be called ,the ringing island London assuredly could be called the "city of bells," for every one of the hundred and odd' churches in the closely packed "Kuare mile" had its peal, which not only called the people to praise and prayer, but told theist also when their work for the day should tease, writes Ernest H. Rann in The Christian Science Monitor. The "big bell of Bow," for in- stance, sounded the hour when work in the neighborhood should. begin and end, A mercer of the name of Dune bequeathed two tenements In Hosier Lane, nearby, so that the rents might pay for the daily ringing of the tenor hell as a signal for the workers. It was to be rung at six in the morning and eight in the evenings --a long enough day, in all conscience—and if the parish clerk who was re oponsible for the signal was late, in his rigning, he heard about it from the angry apprentices, who pang: Clarke of the Bow Bell, with the yellow locks Tor thy late ringing thy head shall have knocks , Be tried to placate them with At couplet: children of Chepe, hold you all still, ou shall have the Bow Bell rung at your will Low Bell came -froth the White chapel Bell Foundry, the oldest in the country, where church bells have been made ever since the days • of Queen Elizabeth. It was founded by Robertus Mot in 1570, six years after the birth of Shakespeare, and developed by Richard Phelps, who took the present site 18 1728, where the Artichoke Inn once stood. There the firm of of Mears and Stainbank, as it is now known, bee carried on its good work to this day. * * One of the earliest of its castings was the fifth bell at Westminster Abbey, which has been in use since the 16th century. The largest bell made at the Whitechapel foundry Is Big Ben, famous the world over, with its weight of 13% tons and Its hourly boom over London. The great hour bell of St. Paul's weigh- ing more than five tons, was cast there, and also Great Peter of York, twice that weight, and the bell of Notre Dame Cathedral, Montreal, which is the largest bell ever sent out of England. The bells of London were con- demned to silence during the war, lest they should give information to the enemy. Many of the churches In the city were then destroyed by the blitz, and their bells brought to earth. But London is now getting rid of the scars of war; some of the churches are being rebuilt=all too slowly—and the bells which have rung throughout the centur- ies will be heard again. Curiously enough it has not been a church, but the Royal Exchange which has led the way. Since the time of its founder, Sir Thomas Gresham, there has been a carillon at the Royal Exchange. Twice the Exchange has been burned down, but each time that it has been rebuilt a new carillon has been in- stalled. The carillon in use until recent times was installed in 1895, and played its tunes at 9 a•m„ noon, 3 p.m., and 6 o'clock, It was stopped on the outbreak of war. When after. the war it was proposed to start the ringing again, the mechanism was found to be worn beyond re- pair, and a new machine, but us- ing the old bells, was installed, Flow many generations of Eng- lish children have run the gantlet at a merry Christmas party, to this years -old chorus; Oranges and lemons, Say the bells. of St, Clemen's, Lend nae five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martha's. When will you pay me? Says the bells of Old Bailey. When I 'am rich, Say the bells of Shoreditch. When twill that be? Say the bells of Stephey. I do not know, , Says the great bell of Bow. Here comes a candle to light you to bed. And here comes a chopper to chop off your head. Like many another aneieuet cus- tom the origin of the rhyme is "Rcpt in rnistry," but one sug- gestion is that at Clement's Inn, opposite the church, on New Year's Day the servants used to make the round of the lawyers' chambers and present each tenant with an orange and a lemon, while the bells of St. Clement hailed the new year, The old custom has been revived in recent years, but the lawyers no longer get the presents, for the oranges and lemons are given to the children who attend a special service there. Quite often the gift has been the gift of the Danish children living in London, a pleas- ant reminder that the Church of St. Clement Danes, to give it its full title, is built on the site of an ancient Danish colony in Lon- don. Alas! St, Clement'a is little more than a shell today. It has got ahead of other London churches, though, in one respect, for steel scaffolding is crawling up its battered walls After "Swim Throne"—Helen Hagen, a model, has been chos- en to represent New Jersey in the national finals in June when the "Swim for Health" Queen will be chosen for 1950. -m By Harold Arnett EMERGENCY LAMP SHADE THRES CORKS AS SHAWN CAN SE USED TO HOLD EMERGENCY LAMP SHADE MADE OF PAPER FROM HOT BUM. ATTACH CORKS TO PAPER GONE WITH PINS.. RETRIEVER FOR LOST ARTICLES ARTICLES LOST UND£R A GRATING MAY BE RECOVERED WITH CLOTHESPIN RETRIEVER. CUT JAWS OFF PRN AND FASTEN IT TO STICK. PLACE WIRE RING AROUND PIN TO HOLD JAWS OPEN AFTER PIN I5 TACKEDTO STICK. USE STRING TO PULL WIRE RING AND RELEASE JAWS. Gables At Home—Clark Gable and his recent bride, former Lady Sylvia Stanley, are pietured for the first: time at their home following their wedding trip. They spent their vacation in Hawaii. and steeple, and the bells, which were buried in sand during the war, will be heard again, playing, among other tunes, the olcl nursery rhyme. * e There are other bells to be heard again soon. Bow Bells have a magic of their own, with which London i$ familiar, and they too will be heard before many of us are notch older, The bells of Shoreditch have not yet "grown rich," except in tone and tradition, and £3,300 is now the price of restoring their fortunes and enabling them to ring again in the tower of St. Leonard's parish church. Hard by the Tower of London is the ancient Church of All Hal- lows, Barking,—or what remains of it—where William Penn, the foun- der of Pennsylvania, and John Quincey Adams, sixth President of the 'United States, were married. When Queeh Eliabetlt went there a little time ago to re-lay the foun- dation stone of the now re -building church, the bells were in position, and rang out a merry pealThey had been recast as a gift from Mr, J. W. McConnell, President of the "Montreal Star." So today All Hallows, Barkng, by its bell forges another link of love and friendship across the At- lantic between the Engilsh-speaking peoples, PLATYPUS PALATE TS PLEASED BY WORMS FROM ZOO'S FARM Is your girl a finicky eater? Take your troubles to the Bronx Zoo. You'll get plenty of sympathy, They have a girl—Penelope is her name—who's so fussy about her' food that they've finally had to turn the lion house at the zoo into the biggest worm breeding farm in the world. Penelope is a platypus, a small, duck-billed animal from Australia who insists on 14,000 worms a month to stay alive and happy, And not just any old worm, either! Three years ago, when the zoo got word that Penelope and two relatives were on their way from Australia, Christopher Coates was assigned as curator in charge of the platypuses, h * +k "We started looks for worms, but the earthworm farms couldn't sup- ply enough to meet the needs of the duckbills, Our initial order for worms was 25,000. Months later, we received 3,596," Coates says. So Coates and Keeper Thomas Callahan took up farming in the dark basement of the lion house. After several months of digging and breeding, they figured they had a pretty good supply of worms. They did, if they wanted to go fishing. But not if they expected to satisfy Penelope and her two companions. The crop frons Coates' farm was the common earthworm, and Penelope wasn't having any. While Penelope went on a hunger strike, zoo workers went worm hunting all over Bronx Park and — Give To The Red Cross — neighboring parks. They dangles: thin worms, fat worms, short worms and long worms under Pene- lope's nose, and she reacted like a child sniffing spinach. Finally they turned up a nice fat specimen in a pile of decayed leaves. Penelope fairly snapped at it. Coates promptly tagged it the leafworm and filled his farm with leafworm eggs. Today they're being cultivated like prize dahlias. Calla- han harvests two pounds a. day, whicifis anywhere from 250 to 2,000 worms, depending on size and weight. In his spare time he also dishes up egg custard, crayfish and frogs for Penelope and friends. But he doesn't use Penelope's dinner to go fishing. Hl hest Village In All Europe Chamois, as we all know, is the pante of a nimble, tong -horned mountaingoat, and It is the name of the soft leather duster with which we wash down our cars, Chamois is, also, the name of the little valley and its community, to which °•I re- cently paid a very interesting visit. There were two disappointments in store for me: There are no more mountain goats left at Chamois, and the people of Chamois have never heard of a "shammy' leather, be- cause such leather happens to have nothing whatever to do with the Channels goat. The people of Chamois make only one claim •to fame; they say they live higher up in the clouds than any other people in Europe. They may be right and they may be wrong, but I can tell You this, they grow edelweiss in the front gar- dens, said Ivor Benson in a recent international broadcast, There are only tato possible 'ways of reaching Chamois --by the winding, stony footpath from the bottom of the Valtouruancite, or by helicopter. As there are no heli- copters to be had in the Aosta Val- ley, I had to walk, carrying on my back enough bread rolls and smoked sausage to last a week. For there is no shop at Chamois, and nothing to buy except milk and butter. And for a week, I lived in the priest's house at Chamois, studying the life of one of the most inter- esting communities in the world. The twentieth century, with all its bustle and its inventions, is sweep- ing us along with it; but here is a cluster of 150 people who have been by-passed and left behind; to go on living exactly as their fore- fathers lived for many centuries. First of all, a short word picture of the place: The air is clear and crisp; the clouds are whiter, and the sky beyond is bluer than any- where else in Italy. Far away to the south are the snow -streaked mountains of Gran Paradiso. Here, on the sloping fields in front of the white -washed church, the women are working. They wear long cot- ton frocks with aprons. On their heads they wear kerchiefs, and on their feet big, wooden clogs. With rasping sounds from their sharp scythes, they cut the rich grass, and with it the white and yellow daisies and wild violets. In another field, the grass cut yesterday is now dry and pale, and is being gathered into• great bundles and carried into the storage bins situated above the cowsheds, Higher up the mountain slopes, the small red and white cattle are grazing contentedly, the bells about their necks making a per- petual din that can be heard a mile away. The men sit and watch, now and again sending their dogs fes round up one or two beasts that are straying too far from the heed. Moet of the milk from these herds is made into a sweet, coat cheese called Routine, for which Aosta is famous. The money they get for it the peasants spend en matches, salt, and the few other things they must buy. Here, life is simple. The dally menu is maize, porridge, which they call polleenta, potatoes, and alwayq some milk, Sometimes they have an egg, meat only in. November, when a few pigs are slaughtered. When the sun goes down, it le bedtime. And long before dawn, they are up again and working. Life is hard. The people are alt lean and tough; the women have deeply lined faces, for they gener- ally do the heaviest work. With long, horn -shaped baskets strapped to their backs, they carry 75 -pound loads of cheese and butter to the bottom of the valley, and, most times, they have to carry similar loads of provisions back to their hones, In autumn, they carry'larch logs from the mountain sides, and in the winter, when the snow is a metre and a half deep outside, the men and woman cut this timber into laths and weave baskets for the markets lower down the main valley. Every moment of the day they must work if they are to keep themselves alive on this narrow shelf in the moun- tains. But life is real. They may be the hardest -worked people in alt Europe, but they seem to be happy and content, and they get along very well without many of the things so necessary outside their valley --things like police stations, jails, hospitals. The day I left Chamois, some- thing happened that may bring many changes, One of the peas- ants who had been working in Turin returned with a wireless act. It was installed in his bedroom, and the villagers crowded in to hear it. And so, at last, the loud voice of the modern world has come to Chamois. The old people shook their heads; they could make noth- ing of it. But I noticed that the young people listened with shining eyes. Good Reason Bride: "I think we should open a new bank account" Hubby: "Why?" Bride: "Our old one doesn't have any more money in It" Deepest lake is ScotIand's Leek Morar, 1,017 feet, How The "Breakaway" Cockpit Works—These sketches show the working of a new "break- away" cockpit unit, designed to allow pilots of high-altitude super-soniclanes to escape in emergencies by means of a parachute -borne "pod," The pressurized pod (1) is ejected from the plane's main body; a small, "drogue" parachute is released (2), the drogue chute operates mechanism which releases the main chute (3), which then billows out (4) to drop the pod gently to earth or water (5). In water landing, the pilot releases his chute and pod serves as lif e -boat, By Arthur Pointer kris.