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Show OLD BELLS IN NEW YORK. :T7t Metal Jrecugers Whoso Tones Etn Sounded to ManjC'ucratlons. Whether it be duo &? patriotic oj 0oetio instincts it is nevertheless true ?hat a famous old bell always arouses a reminiscent feeling. Its very presence suggests a story tho glad cry of liberty, liber-ty, tha joyous peals of wedding festivities, festivi-ties, the somber tone of funeral processions. proces-sions. "Woather stained and hoary, an old boll seems liko a messenger of fate. Hence it is not to bo wondored at that the bell in tho yard of tho Collegiate church, at Fifth avenue and Twenty, ninth street, daily attracts a throng ol Inquiring faces, closely pressed against tho high iron railing surrounding the nhurob. From the quaint Latin inscription on Ihe boll ono learns that it was sent in 1795 by the people of Amsterdam as a gift offering to tho North church in New York, then at Fulton and William streets, where it had beon erected in 1628. Hanging high above the city, at Forty-eighth street and Fifth avenue, it another link that binds us to the past This great bell bears this Dutoh inscription: inscrip-tion: "Een loegat aan de Needordeutscht Kirke, Niew York, 1731. " It appears from tho old will of Colo nel Abraham de Peysterthat he ordered a boll to be made in Holland for the Middle church, then occupying the site of the old fort at the Battery. Tho people peo-ple of Holland wero so pleased at being thus remembered by one of their number num-ber in America that a great number ol coins were thrown into the smelting pot which contained tho metaT for the bell as au evidence of their appreciation. apprecia-tion. During tho Revolution the Middle church was put to strange uses. Removing Re-moving tho pulpit, gallery, pews and flooring, tho Hritish dragoons converted It into a riding academy. John Oothout wa granted permission from Commander in Chief Lord Howe to remove tho Do Poyster bell to a place of safety. Accordingly, in the most unobtrusive un-obtrusive manner possible, the boll was sent to Chambersburg, Pa. When peace was restored, tho bell was hung in the steeple of tho Middls church, afterward leased to the federal government for postoffice purposes, and which many remember as tho old Post-office Post-office building. A little more journeying journey-ing and tho Do Peyster bell reached itt present haven. Tho Collegiate consistory carefully preserve the rolics of their severe churches. A pewter plate bearing tho date 1760 and giving a history of the old North ohuroh is stowed away with a charter granted in 1606 by William HI empowering them to incorporate themselves in New York. Hero, too, Is zealonsly guarded tho old will ot John Harpending, now yellow with age, bequeathing, in 1723, much of his lanJ to the Collegiate corporation. Ne-?-Ycrk Herald. |
