Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-01-30 | Page 13 | Church Bell Used for War Material

CHURCH BELL USED FOR WAR MATERIAL Great Instrument Was Utilized for Centuries Cen-turies to Warn Despised Hussites It Was Time to Go Home, Special Cable to The Tribune. IN'KSBRUCK, Jan. 29. The historical "Huss-bell" oi Kitzbuehl no longer exists. ex-ists. For nearly 250 years this famous bell hung In the belfry or St. Catherine's church, but now It has been taken down to be used for the manufacture of shells and cartridges. The famous bell, which weighed near.1' a ton, was cast shortly after the Thirty Tears' war by Stephen Zach, a famous bell founder of Hoettlng. Since It was hoisted Into the steeple of the church It has been rung every evening at 8 o'clock In the winter and at 9 In summer. The sound of the bell was the signal for the ''Hussites." who at one time were not allowed to live In the cky, to retire to their houses in the suburbs. Toward the end of the seventeenth century the Iron mines In the neighborhood neighbor-hood of Kitzbuehl employed hundreds of workmen, who came from all parts of Europe. Many of them were adherents of the teachings of the Bohemian reformer, reform-er, Johannes Huss, who was burned at the stake at Constance on July 6, 1415. The "Hussites" were bitterly hated bv the Tyrolean population and treated as outcasts, but they could not be spared In the mines, as they were excellent workmen. They were not allowed to settle within the limits of the town, though, nor even to spend a night there! Rvery evening the big bell of St. Catherine's reminded them of their humiliating hu-miliating position, and the custom of "ringing them out" was kept up until now, although thev completely disappeared disap-peared from the district more than a century ago.