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The Liberty Bell

The Story of the
Liberty Bell

^By WAYNE WHIPPLE

Author The Story of the American Flag,
The Story of the White House, Etc.

ILLUSTRATED

PHILADELPHIA
HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY

/I.

CoPYEiGHT, 1910, BY Howard E. Altemus

ICI.A2685 15 /.

Introductory

/ c/

^^ ]p*^ROCLAIM Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabit-
ants thereof/' is the legend moulded around the Liberty
Bell. This inscription is from the twenty-fifth chapter of
Leviticus, as part of the directions given by Jehovah for the
celebration of the year of jubilee, and the very next words to it in the
Bible are:

' ' It shall be a jubilee unto you ; and ye shall return every man unto his
pc^:ession. "

For Liberty is the ' ' possession ' ' of every man, woman and child.
The Story of the Liberty Bell is the story of Liberty. It is a history
of thrills and throbs and tears. If the ancient Hebrew slaves had not
made that immortal dash for liberty when the Egyptians pursuing them
were drowned in the Eed Sea, there never would have been that

tumult in the city,
In the quaint old Quaker town,

when the Liberty Bell rang in the ''year of jubilee," and rang out the
glad tidings of freedom "throughout all the land unto all the inhabi-
tants thereof."

When ancient people conquered their enemies they made captives and
slaves of them. They had very little idea of personal rights and still
less of religious liberty. They seemed to think that those who did not
believe as they did ought to be put to death if they were strong enough
to kill them — unless they cared to make slaves of them or hold them for
ransom. The ancients understood the right of Might, but they knew
nothing of the might of Eight.

Though the human race is counted to be six thousand years old,
Liberty, as we know it, is but little more than one hundred years old. It
is a hardy, slow growing shrub, which was just about to show its tender
shoots when the wicked, cowardly King John of England granted the
Magna Charta, or Great Charter, to the barons, because he was afraid

6 INTRODUCTORY

of them, on a green meadow or mede, called Runnymede, near Windsor
Castle, on June 15, 1215. This gave the English an inch along the line
of Liberty and they and their children in America have made that inch
a yard at least.

The ' ' Compact ' ' which the Pilgrim Fathers signed in the Mayflower,
just before the Landing of the Pilgrims, was a wee child of the Great
Charter, but it soon grew to be the father of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. From this, in turn, descended Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation, which at last gave freedom to all in the Great Republic,
and made the keystone of ' ' that government of the people, by the people,
for the people," which "shall not perish from the earth."

So, if it had not been for many sacrifices, sufferings and martyrdoms
among the devout and simple Swiss, the stalwart Irish, the knightly
Poles, the brave English, the sturdy Dutch, the staunch Germans, the
chivalric French, the valiant Italians, and many other heroes, who loved
Liberty better than their own lives, the giant statue of ''Liberty Enlight-
ening the World" would not now be standing in New York Harbor,
the front doorway to the New World, nor, indeed, could

The Star Spangled Banner yet wave

O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

The Story of the Liberty Bell

AN ANCIENT PEOPLE'S DASH FOR LIBERTY

Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed — his people ai'e free.

— Thomas Moore.

AFTER four hundred years of bitter bondage in Egypt, much
worse than the negro slaves ever suffered in this country, a
million Hebrew people, encouraged and led by Moses, who had
been brought up in the Pharaoh's palace, came together one
dark night, over three thousand years ago, and made a wonderful dash
for liberty. Their cruel masters had recently suffered so much on their
account that they were forced to say :

' ' Go — leave, every one of you ! We have had so much trouble about
you that we are glad to get rid of you."

But the Egyptians soon found out how much they missed their Jewish
servants and they said among themselves :

"How foolish we were to let all our slaves go away!'*

And the king, Pharaoh, began to think of all the great stone cities,
pyramids, temples and tombs he was building of giant blocks of stone;
he remembered how he had planned all these massive structures to have
them inscribed so that people thousands of years to come would wonder
and exclaim:

"What magnificent monuments! What a great king that Pharaoh
must have been!'*

The Pharaoh saw all the unfinished buildings — and they never could
be completed now that all those Hebrew slaves were gone — standing
there, half done, through coming ages, a scorn and a by-word, making
his neighbors and future nations laugh at him, saying:

"Behold the half built monuments that foolish Pharaoh began to
build and then let all his slaves go away and leave him."

10 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

The Pharaoh could not bear the thought.

''I was weak and tender-hearted to let them otf, after all," he said
to himself. ' ' I will go out after them now, and bring them all back. That

Moses Before Pharaoh

will be easy, for they are only a great mob of slaves without weapons
or anything to fight with. ' '

The king also learned that, instead of going as directly as possible

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 11

out of Egypt across the isthmus of Suez into Asia, the slaves had
inarched toward th'e Red Sea. "What a foolish thing to do!" he
thought. "The crazy mob has marched right into a trap." Yes, he
would go right out after them and drive them back like a vast flock of
sheep, and set them all to work again, lifting huge stones and finishing
pryamids and temples. So, as it is told in the fourteenth chapter of
Exodus, beginning with the sixth verse :

He made ready his chariot, and he took his people with him, six hundred chosen
chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them, . . . and
he pursued after the children of Israel, and the children of Israel went out with a
high hand.

But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and
his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea.

When the runaway slaves saw that they were shut in between the sea
in front of them, and Pharaoh 's army, infantry, cavalry and all, clatter-
ing away behind them, they were terribly frightened, as they had a right
to be. They began to ask Moses sarcastic questions, like :

' ' What was the use of getting us out here and making matters worse ? ' '
"Didn't we tell you you would get us into deeper trouble than ever
when you teased us to run away?" "Was it because there were no
graves in Egypt that you fooled us into coming out here to be murdered
in the wilderness?"

While the poor, frightened people were screaming "We told you so!"
"We all knew just how this would come out!" "Just as we expected!"
and so on, the Egyptians, "horse, foot and dragoons," came thunder-
ing nearer and nearer.

Moses, instead of being angry or disgusted with the scared and trem-
bling slaves, held up his hand, making a sign for silence. Then he said,
in loud but gentle tones :

Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you
to-day : for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more
forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go
back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters
were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry
ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.

12 THE STORY OF THE LIBEETY BELL

And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all
Pharaoh's hoi-ses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

The sluTering Israelites hurried across on a sand bar, while "all the
king's horses and all the king's men" followed hard after them, not
seeing, in the darkness, that they were really running on the bottom of
the Eed Sea. The Pharaoh and his anny evidently thought Egyptian
masters could follow wherever their Hebrew slaves could go. They
were playing a game of "follow the leader" on a grand scale.

Over three thousand years after that awful night the great Xapoleon
was in Egypt with a brave French army, marching along the shore of
the Eed Sea. "A strong east wind" was blowing again as it did long
ago, while the Eg^'ptian army was marching in about the same place,
chasing the host of Hebrew slaves. But some one discovered that
Xapoleon and his army were walking on a bar in the sandy bed of the
sea. A signal was given for the men to "double quick," and the French
aiTny had barely got out and up on the shore when the wind, which had
held the water back, suddenly changed and the sea came rushing and
foaming across the very path on which they had just been marching.
It was a hairbreadth escape. As they saw the waves tmnbling and
frothing over their line of march, those brave men turned pale, and
Xapoleon remarked to one of his staff :

•"That is what happened to the Egyptian army thirty centuries ago."

Xapoleon was right; for as soon as the last of the Hebrew slaves
hastened up the shore on the farther side of the arm of the sea the wind
changed and Pharaoh and his army were engulfed and drowned in the
midst of the Eed Sea.

When all the people saw how they had been saved and how all their
cruel and terrible taskmasters were drowned, their fears and complaints
were turned to rejoicing. Moses, who was a poet and musician, com-
posed a song describing the miraculous event. And his sister Miriam,
the older sister who had watched over him while he was a little baby in
the ark of bulrushes in the edge of the river Xile, joined in the grand
responsive sei'vice. Miriam was a woman now. She led the thousands
of women in the great concert chorus.

MiBTAM's Song of Triumph

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

HOW IRELAND LOST ITS LIBERTY

She's the most distressful country that ever you have seen,

For they're hanging men and vpomen there for the vpearin' of the gi'een.

DERMOT McMORROUGH, the Prince or Chief of Leinster,
was the Judas who betrayed Ireland. It was in the twelfth
century. He had been so cruel and wicked that he had to be
driven from the island. He found refuge in England. He
knew he was despised by his own people, so in his own fierce hatred he
devised a devilish scheme of revenge. It is doubtful if Dermot real-
ized all he was doing when he induced Henry the Second of England
to come over and try to conquer Ireland. Neither did Judas Iscariot
know what an awful thing he was doing when he betrayed his Lord.

Invasion op Britain by the Eomans

Before the coming of the English, Ireland was the most favored
country in the world. While the savage Goths and Huns were running
wild over Europe, and during the Dark Ages that followed their bar-
barities, ancient Erin shone like an emerald safely surrounded by a glit-
tering sea of sapphire, the fortunate Island of the Saints. The Roman
legions, when they conquered savage Britain before the time of Christ,

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 15

never reached the Emerald Isle. It was a land flowing with milk and
honey. There was plenty for all. The people lived in ease and quiet.
When the English came, no serpents, toads, frogs or reptiles of any kind
were found in the green fields or bogs. Only once a frog was discov-
ered in Wexford, and the bearded natives came from many miles around
to gaze in astonishment upon the strange looking creature. A green
and living frog had never been seen in Ireland before. While the crowd
was dumbly gazing at the little monster, as it seemed to them, Donald,
King of Ossory, began to wail and beat his head in deep grief. Then he
uttered this prophecy :

''That reptile is the bearer of doleful news to Erin."

Donald's prediction was soon fulfilled, for the English came within
two years.

A story is still told among the Irish people how St. Patrick drove
the snakes out of the Emerald Isle. While a lad, Patrick had been car-
ried off by a band of Picts from his home near the wall of Severus in
Roman Britain. His father was a magistrate. Patrick, as his name
implies, was of patrician birth. Those of more noble rank among the
Romans were called patricians. The noble young Patrick became a
slave. He played on a harp to while away the quiet hours. After six
years of faithful service Patrick was set free. He was allowed to go
home to his family, who had given him up for dead. As he was of a
devout and thoughtful turn, Patrick prepared himself in Brittany to
become a priest. During his vigils he had a vision sucli as St. Paul
saw before he went to i^reach the gospel in Europe. He saw some one
making signs to him to come over and preach and teach the people of
Ireland. In the year 432, he obeyed, going as a minister and friend to
the very hills where, as a slave, he had cared for his master's sheep.
The people received him gladly. He taught them how terribly wrong
it was for them to sacrifice their little babies as they still did, sometimes,
in their ' ' Valley of Slaughter, ' ' thinking that by taking the lives of their
little infants they were pleasing the horrible gods they believed in and
feared. For the Christian religion had not then made much headway
in the world and nearly all the people everywhere knew nothing of the
Bible and the Church and all the things that have since made the world
much better and happier.

St. Patrick soon preached to the Irish assembled as a nation on the

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

hill of Tara. His word was received in honest and good hearts. Be-
sides leading the big, bearded sons of Erin away from their ancient
superstitions, he founded schools, colleges and monasteries. Then Erin
became the leader in Christianity, education and refinement. Centu-
ries before Alfred the Saxon founded Oxford University, the university
of Armagh flourished, and men came from all parts of the civilized

world to study there — seven thousand at
a time. A hundred schools were scat-
tered over the beautiful green island.
Irish missionaries were sent to ancient
England, Scotland, France and other
parts of Europe, carrying the gospel to
the heathen, Irish teachers founded
schools and monasteries in Europe, light-
ing the lamp of knowledge for the Dark
Ages. When Charlemagne wished to
found colleges to better establish his
great empire he sent for Irish scholars
to be professors in them. The Irish
Church, in simple grandeur, faithfully
carried on the work of converting
the neighboring tribes and nations
from pagan barbarism. When Europe
emerged from the gloom of ignorance
and superstition it was Ireland that led
the way out.

Such was the state of the Island of the
Saints when Dermot McMorrough, burn-
ing with hatred for his clan and tribe,
went to King Henry the Second of En-
gland and betrayed the whole country in
order to avenge himself on his own kith and kin. When Henry, with five
hundred Norman knights and two thousand soldiers, crossed the Channel
and landed near Waterford on October 18, 1172, her brave people were
doomed. They fought heroically and suffered extreme cruelties. Henry
commanded his soldiers to put out the eyes of all their men prisoners and
cut off the noses of the women. So great were the cruelties practised

An Early Norman King

Henry the Second and the Barons

18 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

then, in time of war, that this order did not strike people as very strange.
It made the Irish giants the more desperate, for they would rather meet
death in battle than be tortured after defeat and drag out their miser-
able lives in slavery, dungeons and sightlessness. To the Normans it
was no more a crime to murder an Irishman than to kill a dog. Their
priests granted speedy absolution to men who came in red-handed from
the murder of a son of Erin.

The heroic struggles of Roderic O'Connor, king of all Ireland, and
his loyal subjects, fighting for home and Church and Liberty, were of
no avail, Henry gave their lands to his Norman knights. One, named
DeLacy, alone received eight hundred thousand acres for his share in
the destruction. So Ireland, formerly the seat of learning for all Eu-
rope, was in a few centuries reduced to abject poverty and ignorance.
The "pure religion and undefiled" of St. Patrick gave way to super-
stitious forms and rites. *

To conquer completely the lovely island required centuries of
harshness and cruelty. There was another "conquest of Ireland"
in Elizabeth's reign, four hundred years later. All around the
great colleges of Armagh and Cashel, where ten thousands of students
resorted at once, a thousand years ago, many people are now unable
to read.

Patriots and heroes like Grattan, Emmet and O'Connell have fought
and suffered for the sake of the beautiful island and her devoted and
oppressed people. The bards of Ireland can sing no more the songs they
used to sing when their poetry and music were the envy of Europe. Her
lovely lakes and mountains resound no more with the melodies of Erin.
Yet the old songs with their deep pathos are heard in foreign lands.
They appeal to the heart of humanity, and are full of promise that the
Emerald Isle shall yet be free. Her noble sons in America and other
far countries are fervently loyal to "the old sod." As the ancient
Hebrews in exile sang of Zion, so the men and women of Ireland are
crooning to their children of their beloved country.

The very songs of Erin with their heart-appealing pathos, and the
love and loyalty of her sons shall yet endow her with the fulness of
freedom she enjoyed a thousand years ago, Thomas Moore, the great-
est of all the poets of Ireland, has told the story of the by-gone glories
of his native land in that simple and familiar song :

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 19

The harp tliat once through Tara's halls

The soul of music shed,
Nov/ hangs as mute on Tara's walls (

As if that soul were fled.
So sleeps the pride of former days,

So gloi'v's thrill is o'er.
And hearts that once beat high for praise

Now feel that pulse )io more.

No more to chiefs aiid ladies bright

The harp of Tara swells.
The chord alone, that breaks at night,

Its tale of ruin tells.
Thus Freedom now so seldom waives.

The only throb she gives
Is when some heart indignant breaks

To show that still she lives.

20 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

THE PRICE THE BRAVE SWISS PAID FOR LIBERTY

Avenge, 0 Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold.

IT seems strange that the very people who enjoyed the greatest free-
dom in ancient days lost their precious liberties during the hard
struggle and changes of later centuries. The Jews, the chosen
people of Jehovah, have suffered persecutions and exile for nearly
two thousand years. The brilliant and cultivated Greeks, whose mental
powers made them masters of the known world several centuries before
Christ, later suffered for centuries the rude and cruel rule of the half
civilized Turks. After many struggles against Turkish tyranny, the
Greeks were aided by other nations in their revolution of 1821, and
gained a certain degree of independence. The monarchs of Europe then
selected a king for them. The present king of Greece was Prince George
of Denmark, the brother of Queen Alexandra of England.

The Armenians, also, are said to have founded the earliest Christian
Church that still exists, and have preserved their simple faith without
the forms that have gone to make up the rich rituals of the Greek and
Roman Catholic Churches. These natives of the land where Noah's
ark rested are still suffering great persecutions from the brutal Turks,
who are worshipers of Mahomet and who have a deep and abiding hatred
of Christians. The daily newspapers often give long and painful ac-
counts showing how the Armenians are being massacred by the terrible
Turks.

About the only ancient people still free are the Waldenses or Vaudois,
who still live in the mountain fastnesses of that part of Switzerland
which looks down upon the sunny fields of Italy. They dwell up among
the fields of ice, called glaciers, from which great avalanches often slide
down the mountains, carrying destruction in their paths. Though the
three valleys of the Vaudois scarcely measure sixteen miles square,
they have been the scenes of valiant combats and hideous persecutions
for nearly a thousand years. The heroic conduct of Leonidas at the
pass of Thermopylae, or Horatius at the Roman bridge, has been re-
peated again and again and outdone by brave men, and women, too,
among these simple Swiss. Several times almost all the Vaudois per-

THE STOEY OFV THE LIBERTY BELL

ished, and the few who were deft were dragged away from their icy
fields and dizzy caves and, scattered over Europe. But these few and
their children and children's children remained loyal to their simple
faith and longing for their desolated land and homes in the mountain-
tops of Switzerland. The story of their sufferings is too terrible to tell
in detail — ^how they were burned, maimed and hurled over the Alpine
cliffs, all because they were true and faithful to their own pure and un-

How Arnold op Winkelried "Made Way for Liberty"

defiled religion, which, they believed, came to them direct from the
apostles and early Christians who had 'fled to them in their mountain
wilds to escape the horrible persecutions of the Roman emperors.

It was the vindictive people and the; cruel times before the dawning
of Liberty that made, men so violent toward all those who were brave
enough to think for themselves and to believe differently from all their
neighbors. The people of' Piedmont, early in the seventeenth century,
were guilty of the most inhuman butchery of their harmless neighbors,

22 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

in the quiet little villages nestling in the mountain ravines of Switzer-
land. The world, even in those cruel days, stood aghast at the atrocity
with which the Vaudois had been treated. John Milton, author of
'* Paradise Lost," one of the greatest poems in the English language,
wrote a poem On the Late Massacre in Piedmont of which this is part:

Avenge, 0 Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;

Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,

When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones,
Forget not: in thy book record their groans

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled

Mother with infant down the rocks.

It is impossible for us to understand to-day why those good, modest,
kind and harmless mountaineers aroused such rage and hatred among
the powerful nations around them as to make even devout members of
the Christian Church throw helpless Vaudois mothers and their inno-
cent babies over the cliffs. Their terrible story is only hinted at here
to show those who now enjoy the blessings of Liberty why they ought to
appreciate their privileges more and more. We who were born in this
''sweet land of Liberty" cannot appreciate the marvelous mercy of free-
dom so truly as those who have come to our shores from Russia, Italy or
some foreign country where such liberty is never allowed. We do not
realize the full value of a blessing until we have to do without it. You
never know how good a little cold water tastes until you have been where
you could not get a drink of water for a long time and are very, very
thirsty. People used to hunger and thirst for Liberty so much that they
were willing to give their lives in order that others might enjoy it.

In our glorious Twentieth Century since the birth of Christ we are
wholly unable to comprehend how even the best educated people looked
upon their neighbors' "beliefs^ a thousand or even a hundred years ago.
To-day, if those around us don't go to the same Church we attend, or if
they don't go to any Church at all, we don't think that is our affair.
We know, without even thinking much about it, that they have a right to
think and act as they please, so long as they don't interfere with the
rights of others. Hundreds of years ago — not so long as that — a man

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

who thought for himself, in religious matters at least, was looked upon
as either crazy or an outlaw. He was a "freethinker," and instead of
admiring a man who could think for himself, as we do, they considered
that a man who could think independently was a terrible kind of being,
a man to be afraid of!
One reason for this
general feeling against
one who thought dif-
ferently from all his
neighbors was because
the Church was be-
lieved to have the right
to bring up and edu-
cate its children in its
own way. When a
child was wilful and
wayward his body had
to be punished "to
save his soul." Also
the Church and State
were bound closely
together. A Russian
had to worship in the
Greek Church ; in
Rome they had to "do
as the Romans do;"
in Germany it was the
Lutheran Church. The
law of the country re-
quired the people of
that country to attend
the State Church. Not
to do this was to be a
law breaker and one must be punished for breaking the law. In Eng-
land the Church kept changing. For many centuries it was the Roman
Catholic Church, and all who worshiped otherwise had to suffer for it.
Then, through what was called the English Reformation, it was the

Vaudois Defending Their Liberty

24 THE STORY OF THE LIBEETY BELL

Church of England, of which the King of England was the head or
presiding officer. The English Church persecuted the Roman Catholics
and the Nonconformists, as they were called who did not believe in the
English forms of worship and refused to '^ conform" to them. The
Pilgrims who fled to America and landed on Pljonouth Rock were
'* Puritans" and ''Nonconformists." But, after coming thousands of
miles, across the ocean, for the sake of worshiping in the way they
thought was right, even the Pilgrims persecuted, banished and hanged
Baptists, Quakers, and others who did not think just as they did!

So, old as the world is. Liberty is a new thing. It is a new way of
thinking. This intolerance, or unwillingness to let others think and do
as they pleased with their own affairs, was not confined to religious
matters. Far from it. There has been a great change in people's no-
tions of personal liberty, aside from the liberty of conscience and free-
dom in thought. To show this it will be necessary to tell but one little
story :

About one hundred years ago a man in London, England, thought a
high silk, or "stovepipe," hat would look well on him, so he had one
made and started down street with it on. People in London had never
seen a silk hat before, and they did not like it. If you saw a man wear-
ing a strange looking hat that you thought was queer, you might laugh
at it, but you would not think of such a thing as hurting the man for
wearing it. But a hundred years ago people saw such things in an
entirely different light. A mob soon gathered about the man wearing
the silk hat. Men attacked him with their fists ; they kicked him ; they
beat him with sticks ; screaming women joined in and threw stones and
eggs at him; the crowd tore off his clothes and he barely escaped with
his life. Of course they spoiled the hat. This was not done in fun,
either — the mere sight of such a hat seemed to throw even respectable
people into a violent rage. Times have greatly changed since then.
People have been learning, slowly and painfully, the sublime science
and lovely art of "minding their own business." It is the fashion now,
at least in America, to attend to one's own affairs.

Liberty has come into the world through the Christian Church, and
it has grown just as fast as the people would let it. Liberty is the
Golden Rule put in practice by all the people — that rule found in the
twelfth verse of the seventh chapter of Matthew : '''■''^' '

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so
to them.

About sixty years ago Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, called upon
his neighbors to set the Vaudois free, and let them go back to their homes
in the lofty Alpine valleys, and live there in the freedom their ancestors
had enjoyed eight hundred years ago, when their liberties were snatched
from them, or rather when they were torn from their liberties and their
homes. There was joy among them all and in the cities of their most
cruel persecutors. Everywhere were heard rejoicings over the return
to home and happiness of ''our Vaudois brothers," to the "Alpine
Church," and there were glad speeches on ''liberty of conscience" from
the children of the very people who had tortured and murdered the
Vaudois for believing in liberty and conscience. The city of Turin, from
which armed men had gone forth to massacre their ' ' Vaudois brothers ' '
was now illuminated in their honor. There was a grand celebration
with processions and banners and music. Cheer after cheer went up
for the Vaudois and their path was strewn with flowers. All this from
neighbors who had always plotted
their destruction, astonished and
gladdened the hearts of the simple
mountain people. They breathed a
prayer of thanksgiving and whis-
pered in their hearts as they climbed
up the rugged roads and crooked
paths toward their old homes in the
high hills, the old Scripture promise*
that had sustained their faithful
hearts through many trials :

The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and
come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away.

The Vaudois have gone home to
stay. Nothing has happened in the

sixty years to disturb their peace and a Scottish Highlander

26 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

Gessler the Tyrant and His Hat

happiness — because all the people of the Christian world have been
learning the Golden Rule. This teaching applies to all the affairs of
life, not to religious matters merely. For instance, all the people of
Switzerland had a long, long struggle for Liberty. It would seem that
hardy mountaineers can never be conquered. This was true of the
Highlanders of Scotland as well as the Swiss. The Scottish High-
landers were never ruled by the Romans who conquered England about
the time of Christ, nor by the Saxons or Danes, nor by the Normans

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 27

who came and subdued the Saxons, nor yet by the later kings of Great
Britain and Ireland.

The story of the struggles of all the Swiss for liberty is so well illus-
trated by that of William Tell, who represents Switzerland, and Gessler
the tyrant, who stands for Austria, that it will be well enough to repeat
that familiar legend here. The story goes that Gessler, the Austrian
governor, hung his hat up on a pole and commanded a company of Swiss
to bow down before it, thus showing that they were Austrian subjects
or slaves. William Tell, a big, brawny, brave man of Switzerland,
stood bolt upright, scornfully refusing to bow his head. The Austrians
threatened him, but that made no difference. They chained him in a
prison cell, and came day after day to tell their Swiss prisoner that they
would let him go free if he would only nod just a little bit to the hat on
a pole. But it was of no use. Meanwhile Gessler had been told what a
sure shot with the crossbow his brave prisoner was. So the tyrant
sent word to Tell that if he would shoot an apple off his son's head at
a hundred paces he would set him at liberty. Tell said he would try.
His son Albert was a brave lad and willing to take the risk. He had
seen his father shoot and had great confidence in such unerring aim.

As for Gessler, he thought in his wicked, cruel heart that if the hand
of the bold fellow who refused to bow to his hat should tremble just
a little from fear of hurting his boy, the arrow would strike the lad in
the forehead or, perhaps put out an eye. But Albert stood perfectly
still, not the least afraid, while his father, with a stern eye and a steady
aim, sent the arrow straight to the mark and split the apple right in
halves. In the general relief and rejoicing, Gessler noticed that an
arrow fell from under Tell's jacket. He asked what that other arrow
was for.

"For your heart if I had hurt my boy," answered William Tell,
boldly.

Then Gessler ordered that Tell should be bound again and taken across
Lake Lucerne to a castle from which he could never escape. A sud-
den storm came up and lashed the lake with such fury that Gessler was
afraid of drowning, and commanded his men to unchain Tell to let him
steer the boat to safety. Tell was a powerful and skilful boatman, and
guiding the boat past a jutting rock, he sprang out upon it, and the boat
sank with Gessler and his crew, drowning them all.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

THE GREAT CHARTER OF ENGLISH AND
AMERICAN LIBERTY

Thej^ that give up essential liberty to obtaiu a little temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety.

— Benjamin Franklin.

CRUEL as Henry the Second of England seemed to be to his
enemies — especially to the Irish — he granted to his subjects
many so-called liberties, renewing and adding to the chart-
ers of Edward the Confessor and Henry the First, his
grandfather. He did this, partly, to make friends with his people,

for Henry was a French-

subjects

English

The Landing of William of Normandt

man and his
were Anglo or
Saxons. Henry was a
great-grandson of William
the Conqueror, who, as
the Duke of Normandy, in
the northern part of
France, sailed across the
narrow channel and con-
quered the Anglo-Saxons
under their king, Harold,
at the battle of Hastings,
in 1066. William the Con-
queror thus became King
William the First of Eng-
land. He divided the con-
quered country among his
knights and men, who
turned the Saxons out of
their castles and good
homes and made them
till the farms they used
to own. Thus the Nor-
mans became the masters,
and were called noblemen

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 29

and "barons, while the Saxons had to do all the work as shepherds,
farmers, mechanics, servants and even slaves.

As King Henry was a Norman and could not understand the language
of his subjects he granted them certain liberties (they were considered
great liberties then), in order to make friends with the conquered Saxons
who still felt resentful toward their foreign king. Henry's father was
the Norman duke who had once stuck a spray of broom-plant in his hel-
met for a plume so that his followers might know him in battle. The
armor of the knights and nobles in battle all looked alike, so they had
to have ensigns, pennants, sometimes coats with designs embroidered
on them, to wear outside their armor to show who was inside the iron
or steel coat of mail. These distinguishing coats or designs were called
''coats of arms." Men often wore j)lumes of different colors and ar-
ranged in special ways on their helmets, and they were called crests.
So Henry's father seized a sprig of the plant they made brooms of, for
his plume or crest, and they called him by the French name for that
plant, or Plantagenet. So his son Henry the Second of England was
called Henry Plantagenet, and Henry's son Richard was known as Rich-
ard Plantagenet until they found a better name for him.

Henry the Second was a big, strong, handsome, brave man, and well
educated for his time. No one thought much of his having the captured
Irishmen's eyes put out, and their women's noses cut off. If people
thought much about it they considered it rather a funny thing to do, for
he had beaten them in battle and they belonged to him to be his slaves
or to do with them as he liked. So Henry marked them in that way, as
a ranchman brands his cattle — to show that they belonged to him. They
had queer notions in those times. For instance, Henry had a great
friend, a priest named Thomas a Becket. He asked the pope to ap-
point Becket Archbishop of Canterbury. But when Henry tried to
make Becket do something which Becket did not think was right, and
refused to do, a quarrel arose. This went on for years. One day in
a fit of rage the king exclaimed :

''Why don't some of the cowards living on me get rid of this insolent
priest for me?"

The king's expressed wish, in those days, was considered an order.
Four knights who heard Henry's sneering remark rushed out from his
presence, galloped away to Canterbury and murdered the archbishop

30 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

at the foot of the altar. Then they fled the country and lived and died
in the Holy Land to atone for their crime. As for King Henry, he was
overcome when he heard what the knights had done. He said he did
not intend to have Becket murdered. It was the result of an unguarded
remark made while in a fit of anger. He walked barefoot to Canter-
bury and had seventy monks there lash him over his bare shoulders
with scourges to expiate his part of the crime. Then, in order to make
up to the pope, who was at that time a great emperor, as well as the
head of the Church, Henry began to conquer Ireland as a present to
the Church. That is, to atone for one murder, which he claimed he
never intended, Henry made himself guilty of ten thousand he did mean
to commit, besides crippling, blinding, torturing and disfiguring thou-
sands more! Henry did not see how ridiculous such an ''atonement"
would look in the eye of Heaven, nor did anyone else, for that matter,
in those cruel days, when the life of a common man did not count for
much in the opinion of kings and nobles. Liberty has taught us to set
the highest value upon human life, whether high or low in the social
scale, rich or poor, educated or ignorant. In the days of Henry the
Second a man did not seem to have a right to his own life if the king or
some other rich and powerful man wished to take it from him.

But Henry was obliged, against his will, to pay other penalties. His
wife. Queen Eleanor, was an able but wicked woman. She and her sons
fought against their father, the king. There were four of these sons,
Henry, Geoffrey, Richard and John. To have his own sons revolt
against him almost broke King Henry's heart. He defeated his wife
and had her imprisoned. Henry and Geoffrey both died repenting of
their evil conduct toward their father. John worked secretly against
his father, but fawned upon him, pretending that he alone had remained
true and loyal. But the king found John out before he died and left
him no territory to rule over, so he was called John LacMand. He left
the throne to Richard, who was a great, hearty, brave, reckless fellow,
whom the French people called Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard Heart
of Lion. Richard was very fond of fighting and adventure, so he was
anxious to go on a crusade to the Holy Land, to drive away the Saracens,
who were Mahometans, and take possession of the sepulcher of the
Saviour. Richard first went to London to be crowned, though he had
but little use for the English people except to get money enough from

The Murder of Thomas a Becket'

THE STOEY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

them to pay the expenses of a large army to Palestine and back. Dur-
ing the celebration of Richard's crowning, the crowds mobbed and ill
treated the Jews. Richard claimed to be friendly with them, partly

because he needed
their money, but
the people hated
them. Whenever
the king or a pow-
e r f u 1 nobleman
needed money for
some special pur-
pose he imprisoned
a rich Jew and
threatened to tor-
ture and kill him
to make him give
up the amount of
money required.
The story of the
nobles ' cruelty to
the Jews is well
told by Sir Walter
Scott, in ' ' Ivan-
hoe." They often
tortured a wealthy
Hebrew victim by
laying him on a
bed of glowing
coals and keeping
him there until the
pain made him tell
where his money
was hidden. From
this custom has come the phrase, ''haul him over the coals," when
a severe reproof is referred to. A modern slang term for the same
idea is ''a roast."

Richard went off on the Crusade, leaving his mean, wicked, and cruel

Put Into a Dungeon and Tortured

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 33

brother John to reign in his place while he was away. John also ex-
torted money from the Jews, and did whatever he could to undermine
his brother Richard during his long absence. Their older brother
Geoffrey had left a son Arthur, only a lad, whose eyes John ordered
put out. But even the jailers could not bear to hurt the lad, he was so
good and kind. It is said that John came himself to the castle where
Arthur was a prisoner, pretended he was going to take his nephew out
to set him free, but stabbed him instead, tying weights to the boy 's body
and throwing it into the river. No one ever knew just what became of
Arthur, for if there were a boatman or any other witness to the crime,
he would never dare to tell lest he lose his own life. There were a
great many ''fatal secrets" in royal families then. Even a father or
a brother who might be in the way, because he had a better right to be
king than the man on the throne, disappeared suddenly and mysteri-
ously. The people wondered, but no one asked foolish questions, for
fear his curiosity would cost him his own life or liberty. There was a
theory, too, of the "divine right" of kings. But the right of such a
king as John was more devilish than divine.

It was not an enviable lot to be a king or prince in those troublous
times, nor at any time. Royal princes cannot have friends and play-
mates as they please, nor can they even marry after their choice. In
those days the princes, besides being restricted, were often imprisoned
and put to death by wicked relatives to get them out of the way.

Richard the Lion-Hearted spent many months trying to get possession
of the Holy Sepulcher. The people loved him — he was so big and
brave and strong and handsome ! Perhaps they loved him more because
he was away all the time and because his brother John was trying dur-
ing his absence to get the throne away from him. From boyhood John
had always been wicked and mean. Richard went on the great pilgrim-
age to the Holy Land to atone for his undutiful and traitorous conduct
toward his father. But before he started away he had his mother re-
leased from prison where his father had kept her shut up. Richard was
a devoted lover and husband. The people of Cyprus were very rude to
Berengaria, his betrothed, who was traveling toward the Holy Land
in a separate ship which was wrecked on the coast of that island. Rich-
ard, in great wrath, conquered Cyprus and made its king his prisoner.
But he was very courteous to his royal captive, actually making chains

J — The Story of the Liberty Bell.

34 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

of silver for liim instead of loading him with links of iron. History
tells us that the fallen king was very grateful for this great kindness.
After marrying Berengaria, Richard went on to Palestine, where he
became such a terror to the Saracens that Mahometan mothers used to
frighten their children, when they were bad, by saying, ''King Richard
will get you if you don 't mind, " as if Richard were an ogre or a goblin.

While fighting around Acre and other walled cities of Palestine, Rich-
ard of England took the lead of all the kings and knights in the Crusade.
This made the King of France, the Duke of Austria and others jealous
of him. One day the duke made a sneering, insulting remark about
Richard's father. This made Richard so angry that he took hold of
the duke and kicked him hard. If Richard, King of England, had
killed Leopold, Duke of Austria, then and there, it might have been
thought right and proper — but to kick him as if he were a poor villain,
a moan slave! That was an insult never to be forgiven. Philip and
Leopold went back to their own dominions and left Richard and his
army to fight in the Holy Land alone. He met with some bad reverses,
and began to hear stories from home that his brother John and Philip
of France were conspiring against him. So he embarked for home and
was shipwrecked. Alone and without money King Richard, disguised
as a pilgrim, started to walk across Europe. While passing through
Austria, the country of the duke he had kicked, a soldier who had been
in Palestine recognized Richard and he was soon arrested and put in
prison. Richard was too popular to be put to death, so he was held for
a great ransom.

King John, instead of trying to rescue his brother, was secretly glad he
was locked up and out of the way. He began to arrange with Philip
to divide Richard ^s kingdom.

But there was a boy harper, named Blondel, to whom Richard had
been kind, and he started out to find where his master was imprisoned.
There was a rumor that Richard was in prison somewhere in Europe,
but no one knew just where. Blondel went on foot through Europe
playing for people and asking what prisoners were in the different
" castles he passed. After months and months of weary searching the
young minstrel sat down in despair by the wall of a great castle in
Germany and began to play and sing a sad little song which no one knew
but King Richard and himself. Imagine his surprise when a deep

ElCHARD THE LlON HeARTED

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

bass voice came floating down to liim from a little lofty window of the
massive building, singing the second verse! The loyal lad had found
King Richard the Lion-Hearted. He had to hurry back to England
to tell some one who might be rich enough to purchase his master's
freedom. Richard's mother, Queen Eleanor, and some English barons

quietly raised the money
required by the Emperor
of Germany, who now
claimed the English king as
his jDrisoner, and Richard
was set at liberty after
eighteen weary months in
prison. Wlien King Philip
of France heard of Rich-
ard's release he sent this
message to John:

"Take care of your-
self, for the devil is un-
chained. ' '

There were many who
feared for their lives when
Richard of the Lion-Heart
came home, John went
cringing before his brother,
the real king, as he had al-
ways done to his father.
Richard was kind enough
to forgive John, but he
knew his j^ounger brother
pretty well.

' * I wish I may forget my
brother's injuries as soon as he will forget my forgiveness."

John behaved himself very meekly while his^ brother lived, and when
Richard died, four years later, in 1199, after a reign of ten years, John
became the actual king he had been plotting and scheming to be, for
Richard left no children. It seems too bad that John should be king after
all, but if Richard had lived, or if a better man had succeeded him, the

Blondel Seeking Eichakd

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

barons might not have been indignant and disgusted enough to demand
their rights as they did ; or even if they had done so, another king might
have refused to grant them. For John was a sneaking coward and he
lost all his friends. Finally the barons (who were the nobles of the
kingdom, descended from the knights who had helped John's great-
great-grandfather, William the Conqueror) came in a body and de-
manded their rights or threatened to choose another king in John's place.
When they told him just what they must have — demands which seem
moderate nowadays — the king was very angry and said he would never
consent to anything of the kind. But the more John blustered the more
firmly the barons behaved. He tried to put off a decision, hoping
something might happen to prevent him from giving a final consent.
The barons saw what he was at and demanded that the king set a day
for his decision. They drew up a paper stating what they must have.
They were in no mood to be put off or trifled with. They asked that
there be courts established
in different parts of the
realm where trials could
he held without long de-
lays or great expense for
traveling and following
the king from place to
place, where he happened
to be. They demanded
trial by jury, and that no
one should be arrested or
imprisoned without good
reason being given. Also
they required that the
king consent to have a
committee of twenty-four
nobles to see that the
things named in the docu-
ment were done as agreed.
The great day was June
15, 1215, and the place,
Runnymede, a broad, Norman and Saxon Arms

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

King John and the Barons

green field by the Thames near Windsor, where the people had met
before to present petitions to the king. The barons, calling themselves
the "Army of God," came with great pomp and circumstance and
pitched their tents there. The king and his retinue paraded out in fine
style and confronted the "Army of God," as if two armies were en-
camped over against each other. When John read the paper presented
by the nobles and came to the item about the twenty-four barons to be
chosen to see that he kept his agreement he was very angry and asked :

"A^^iy not elect four-and-twenty over-lords to rule the realm in my
place and be done with it ! "

But the barons knew John would never keep his word if he were not
compelled to do so by main force or fear of consequences, so they re-
mained firm in this, as in every other demand. John was afraid they
would do him some bodily injury, so he signed the document against his

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

own will, hoping he might get out of keeping his agreement. The barons
marched away with that great parchment with its big signs and seals,
containing a new code of laws recognizing the rights of all classes of
people, which is called the Magna Charta, or Great Charter. It was
the dawning of English liberty, from which American liberties are
derived.

After the barons had gone, and John got safe back into his castle,
he raved violently, gnashing his teeth, biting, striking, kicking, and
swearing he would have his revenge on those cursed barons — just like
a naughty, unruly, spoiled child.

40 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

''THE NOBLE ARMY OF MARTYRS" FOR LIBERTY

Ten thousand of the tried and true
Have laid them down and died.

IN our glorious Twentieth Century since the birth of Christ we are
often told that we cannot be thankful enough that we live in
America, the "sweet land of Liberty." We ought to be more
thankful, if possible, that we live in an age of freedom, for only
about a century ago Liberty was a poor, starving thing, even in the most
enlightened countries. We are unable to understand now how the best
educated people used to look upon their neighbors' religious beliefs
and what a crime it was for a man to think for himself ! Now we ad-
mire and honor an original thinker, but in olden times a "free-thinker"
was a terror, capable of awful crimes against the soul.

This was because the Christian Church took a firm stand as the Mother
Church. All the children in Christendom were born into her care as
children in a smaller family should be taken care of by their mother.
It was a stern duty and responsibility which the Mother Church exer-
cised in a strict, unyielding manner. As mothers in ancient Sparta
made their children suffer hardships to make them tough and ready for
the struggles and battles of life, so the Mother Church made thousands
of her children suffer in their bodies for the sake of their souls and the
souls of others. At least, that is what she meant to do. It was "heroic
treatment," as the doctors now say when they are about to perform a
necessary surgical operation. It brought out the real heroism of mil-
lions of true and noble hearts.

In Russia the State Church is the Greek Church; in Germany it is
the Lutheran; in Spain and some other countries of Europe, it is the
Roman Catholic Church ; in Holland, or the Netherlands, it is the Dutch
Reformed; in England it is the Church of England; in Scotland, it is
the Presbyterian Kirk ; in some countries it is no Church at all ; and in
America it is "any Church you please." The Mother Church in Eng-
land had been for nearly a thousand years the Roman Catholic Church.
Then what was known as the English Reformation came about in the
time of Henry the Eighth, and the religion was changed. Henry's
daughter, Mary, was a staunch Catholic, and his other daughter, Eliza-
beth, was just as staunch a Protestant. When the Roman Catholic

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 41

Church was in control the people of the English Church were put out
and persecuted; then, when the English Church came into power it
persecuted the Roman Catholics. As has been shown, it was the people
who were cruel, and the kings often used a Church as an excuse to carry
out their own wicked schemes, as did Henry the Eighth. When the
English Church became established it drove out not only the Catholics,
but other Protestants who would not conform to the worship of the
Church of which the king was the head. Among these "Nonconform-

Executions by Puritans for Conscience's Sake

ists" were the Pilgrims, who fled to America and landed on Plymouth
Rock. And when these Pilgrims got their Church established they ban-
ished the Baptists, hanged the Quakers and did considerable persecut-
ing themselves. It was all due to the spirit of intolerance or unwilling-
ness to allow other people to think and act for themselves.

The next step, after the barons succeeded in frightening King John
into signing the Great Charter, was for something to be done that would
reach the people at once without waiting for Liberty to filter down to
them from the king through the nobles, and so on. The common people

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

have always been ignored. All we know of the real lives of the ancient
people of Greece and Rome is what we have learned, almost by acci-
dent, in reading about Alexander and Socrates, Caesar and Cicero, and
a few great men like them. It is only recently that a great thinker has
written "The History of the English People.'' Before that the great
histories had mostly to do with the kings and nobles. In America we have
learned to speak of the "sovereign people," whose will is law and whose
united voice is "the voice of God," because millions of men, voting and
acting in harmony, are more likely to decide and do that which is right
than the mere will of one man acting for and by himself. So the Ameri-
can people are sovereigns instead of the "vulgar herd," or "the
masses," as they are often called in countries where one man is the
sovereign. A man spoke once to President Lincoln about "the com-
mon people, ' ' and Lincoln said, ' ' God must love the common people for
he made so many of them." Abraham Lincoln was proudest of being
one of the common people and gladdest to be able to do them a great
deal of good.

So, when a great idea or a great question gets out among the people
and they keep thinking about it while at their work or sitting by their
firesides in the long evenings, something is sure to come of it. When
all the people have a chance to settle a great question it is sure to be

settled right, though it may take a
hundred or even a thousand years to
do it. The "every-day people" who
did the work and had the best right
to live in old England (though the
nobles did not think so) began to get
at the truth when John Wyclif, mas-
ter at Oxford, the great English
university, took to writing and
preaching against some of the wrongs
that were then practised and taught
by religious leaders who, he thought,
were misleading the people. Among
other things, he taught that the
Church and the State ought to be kept
John Wyclif separate?

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

They ought to have been glad to have such a thinker and teacher as
that at a great seat of learning like Oxford University, then five hun-
dred years old. But no, the leaders in learning were indignant with
Doctor Wyclif for criticising and writing against their ideas before
the people, and they made him give up his position as Master of Balliol
and leave Oxford. So he took charge of a little church at Lutterworth
and began to do about the most important work that a man ever ac-
complished— he translated the Bible
into the language of the people. The
different Saxon tribes spoke separate
dialects when the Normans came
over to England, about three hun-
dred years before this. Then the
Normans spoke French, and the
Bible and all the other books were
written or printed with the pen in
Latin. It took years to print a single
Bible by hand, and such a book cost
as much as a great estate, so, very
few, even among the nobles, owned
Bibles. The Church did not believe
in having the sacred book read by
the people, because there is so much
in it that needed to be explained to
them. The few Bibles that were
found in the churches had to be
chained to the desks to prevent their
being stolen. If the people had had
the privilege of reading the chained
Latin Bibles they could not have understood them.

During the three centuries between the conquering of Saxon England
and the days of Wyclif, the Saxons had been brought together in a bond
of sympathy, because of their Norman masters. Also kings of England
claimed the throne of France and this brought on a war that lasted so
long that it was called the Hundred Years' War, and the English kings,
knights and nobles got into the habit of hating everything French. Be-
sides, the kings of England found that they must learn the language

A Knight of the 13th Century

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

spoken by their subjects in order to get money from them in the form
of grants, or gifts, and taxes and revenues to carry on their extensive
wars, crusades and maintain their expensive courts. So when
Doctor Wyclif translated the Bible for all the people to read he really
brought them together to speak and understand the same language and
practically melted the Anglo-Saxon clans and tribes together into the
great English People. That was a great achievement, but Wyclif did
more than that. He set the people to reading and thinking and talking,
and a little bird of Liberty was let out of its cage to grow strong, expand

its wings and fly to the sun, the
source of light. That bird of free-
dom is the American Eagle.

Wyclif is called "the Morning
Star of the Reformation" and the
''Father of English Prose." He
was really the father of the Eng-
lish language. He opened the way
for Chaucer, ''the Father of Eng-
lish Poetry," whose long poem,
"The Canterbury Tales," is still
read with interest and amusement.
It shows that people were already
beginning to think for themselves.
Chaucer set them laughing at
monks, friars, ' ' pardoners, ' '
women, and even kings and queens,
and told of their weaknesses and
wrongdoings in such a way that
even the king or the Church could
not take offense, but if a priest or monk had said such things in
the pulpit he would have been tried for thinking and speaking evil of
those in authority, and he would probably have been burned at the stake,
as poor John Huss was, away off in Bohemia, just about the time the
people of England were chuckling over the "Canterbury Tales." This
long poem was a description of a pilgrimage to Canterbury to pray at
the shrine of St. Thomas, the Thomas a Becket who was killed about
two hundred years before. Becket was called Saint Thomas because he

Chaucek as a Pilgrim to Canterbury

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 45

was made a martyr for doing what lie thought was right without fear
or favor from the king. It became the custom, after King Henry had
walked barefoot to Becket's tomb, for people to make pilgrimages to
the martyred Thomas's shrine. Chaucer told of an imaginary pilgrim-
age, as though several members of the party were relating the ' ' Canter-
bury Tales." These few lines will give you an idea of the style he
employed:

A monk there was of skill and mastery proud,
A manly man — to be an abbot able —
, And many a noble horse had he in stable.

I saw his large sleeves trimmed above the hand
With fur — the finest in the land.
His head, was bald and shone like polished glass,
And so his face, as it had been anoint,
While he was very fat and in good point.
Shining his boots; his horse right proud to see,
A prelate proud, majestic, grand was he;
He was not pale, as a poor pining ghost ;
A fat goose loved he best of any roast.

Of course the louder all this ridicule made the people laugh the angrier
it made the monks and friars, so angry that they wanted to kill Chaucer,
and he fled to Holland. When he came back he found that many of the
people had laughed themselves out of the Church and were rapidly
joining the Lollards, as those followers of Wyclif were called who refused
to have anything to do with the priests and friars. Chaucer had to go
away a second time. It was only through the saving sense of humor
of those in authority in the Church that kept the others back, so that
good, jolly old Geoffrey Chaucer was permitted to die a natural death
in the year fourteen hundred, probably without any idea of all the good
his quaint, queer poetry had done for the cause of thought and conscience.

But John Huss suffered a very different fate. A great scholar from
Bohemia, who had been at Oxford, and heard Doctor Wyclif preach,
carried Wyclif 's books home to his house in Prague, Bohemia. This
learned professor was Jerome of Prague. In this way, John Huss, a de-
vout, eloquent and learned man came to read Wyclif 's books, and found
deep truth in them. He began to preach against the wrongs committed
by many high in authority in the Church. He and Jerome were terribly

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

Huss Before the Council at Constance

in earnest. They did not laugh nor did the people of Bohemia. Husg
was summoned to appear before the great Council of Constance, Switzer-
land. There Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, presided and there were'
thousands of prelates and nobles in attendance. Sigismund promised
John Huss a safe-conduct, that is, he agreed to be responsible for Huss's
safety — but they imprisoned Huss and brought him out, gave him a
mock trial and condemned him. All John Huss had done was to be-
lieve the same things Wyclif had taught. He did not say half as hard
things as Chaucer did in his poem, but they burned him at the stake
in the public square at Constance, in the presence of a great crowd of
people, on July 16, 1415, while great piles of Wyclif 's and Huss's
books were also burning. His friend Jerome stood up for him and

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 47

afterward paid for his bravery by being chained to a stake and
burned.

It is told that during his so-called trial John Huss turned and looked
at Emperor Sigismund, who had promised the safe-conduct. But the
Emperor's pass or ticket of safe-conduct was taken from Huss and he
was kept in prison for months. On the final day of that trial,
when John Huss saw that some of the men he had accused of lead-
ing wicked lives were determined to have him put to death, for
they shouted at him when he tried to speak in his own defense, he
stood up calmly and spoke distinctly, turning to Emperor Sigismund,
saying :

* ' I came to this Council of my own free-will, with a safe-conduct from
the emperor. I came in full confidence that no violence should be done
me, and that I might prove my innocence. ' '

Then, while John Huss stood gazing steadily, the emperor knew he
had spoken the truth, and that if he had given the order he could have
commanded thousands of men to defend Huss. The emperor's face
turned scarlet and the thousands in that great Council of Constance
beheld the blush of shame on the cheek of Sigismund, Emperor of
Germany.

One hundred and five years after this, when another German emperor,
Charles the Fifth, at another great council, was asked why he did not
break his word and violate the safe-conduct he had given Martin Luthef,
he said:

''I should not like to blush as Sigismund blushed before John Huss.'^

Martin Luther was not burned at the stake. Great things for Liberty
had happened in the century after the deaths of Huss and Jerome of
Prague. Savonarola had preached in words of fire against the wicked-
ness of Lorenzo de' Medici and other great sinners in Florence, Italy.
"The common people heard him gladly" for a time, but revenge came
swift and sure. The ashes of Savonarola were thrown into the river
Arno, in Italy, as the ashes of Huss and Jerome of Prague had been
cast into the Rhine and the ashes of Wyclif were scattered upon the waters
of the Avon, which flows through Stratford, the birthplace of Shakes-
peare.

But a greater event than the giving up of their lives in the holy cause
of liberty by such men as Huss, Jerome and Savonarola came to pass

48 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

in the latter half of the fifteenth century. At first it was kept a great
secret, but it became known in this singular manner :

A stranger came to the palace of Charles the Seventh, King of France,
with a package which he would not open for anyone but the king. At
last he was admitted and carefully undid the precious bundle, taking out
a beautiful copy of the Holy Bible, printed on j^archment, richly bound
and fastened with strong clasps. The king was delighted with the
regularity of the letters. It looked as though the monk who printed all
that by hand must have taken the greatest pains. Every Bible cost a
fortune in those days. The king asked the price of it. "Seven hun-
dred and fifty crowns" (nearly one thousand dollars), said the man.
The king was glad to buy it so cheap, for he really expected to pay much
more for it. He gave the man the money and let him go. Shortly
after this transaction the king received a call from the archbishop, to
whom he said, eagerly:

''I have a beautiful Bible to show you — the most perfect I have ever
seen. The letters are done so evenly and well that I do not see what made
the man sell it so cheaply."

The king showed the great, handsome volume to the archbishop, and
to his astonishment that prelate sent out to his carriage for a package,
opened it and placed another copy of the book beside the king's. The
two Bibles were exactly alike ! Such a thing was never heard of before.
The two men were perplexed. What could it mean? Every page was
the same, every letter, every point. They were all so true and even, too,
and did not show the marks of a pen. Was it a miracle, or witchcraft?
No one but a wizard could do such a marvelous thing. They soon
found out that there were other Bibles sold cheap — only a thousand
dollars apiece ! Some thought it must have been done by the devil him-
self. Others said the devil would not be out selling Bibles. But the
archbishop said the devil sometimes took the form of "an angel of light."
The king and the prelate ordered the matter traced out. The man was
caught selling other Bibles just like the ones he had sold in France.
They found that the books all came from the house of a Doctor Faust
of Strasburg, in Germany, near the French boundary. This was hun-
dreds of years before Goethe wrote his great drama in which he repre-
sented a certain Doctor Faust as having sold himself to the devil. This
real Dr. John Faust did not want to tell how those Bibles were made

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

for fear lie could not sell so many, or at such high prices. But people

were suspicious and frightened. They thought he was a wizard, or a

man who, like a witch, had sold himself to the Evil One to do the works

of darkness or magic, like flying on i broomstick at night. If anything

was done that people did not understand, they thought the devil was at

the bottom of it. Some

men landed, hundreds of

years ago, near Lyons,

in the south of France,

in a flying machine, and

had a narrow escape

from being put to death

for witchcraft, for

witches were the only

13 e o p 1 e they thought

could fly.

This very King of
France, who was puzzled
because many Bibles
were just alike, had been
placed on the throne
through the wonderful
leadership of a young
country girl, named Joan
of Arc, who could neither
read nor write, but who
heard, or thought she
heard, voices telling her
to lead the army of
France and drive out
the English who had
taken possession of many
French cities, claiming
king. The people, the

Joan of Arc

that France belonged to the English
soldiers and King Charles all believed the
girl was inspired of heaven. This gave everyone so much confidence,
that the victory was half won before Joan and the French army reached
Orleans, for the idea that a higher power was with the ''Maid of Or-

4— The Story of the Liberty Bell.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

leans," as they called her, inspired the English soldiers with fear. When
Joan of Arc saw her beloved king, Charles the Seventh, crowned, she
wanted to go back to her humble country home and mind the sheep, as
she was doing when she heard the voices telling her to go and save
France. But King Charles and the army begged her to go on driving
the English out of France. She was persuaded to do this, though she
felt that the voice of her king was not the same as the voice of God.
She was half-hearted, and some of the very men who begged her to keep
on as their commander, deserted her when she was surrounded by the
enemy, and the English finally made her their prisoner. They took the
poor girl and told her she had done all the wonderful things by magic,
and tortured her to make her confess that she was a witch and that it
was the devil who had told her by whispers in her ear just how to go to
work to beat them. Joan could only tell what the voices said, and
while she was in the most excruciating pain she would say ''yes" to any
question they asked her, just to make them ston their terrible tortures.
Then they said: "She has confessed that she sold her soul to the devil.

Joan of Arc Before the Tribunal at Rouen

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

She is a witch, she says so herself. She must be burned." And they
took poor innocent young Joan of Arc out on a beautiful May day, in
1431, chained her to a stone post in the market place of Rouen, and
burned her to death.

For thousands of years everybody believed in • witchcraft. Moses

had said, as the Bible tells us, "Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live." There-
fore, millions of innocent men, and even
old women and young children, have been
put to death or burned as witches. Even
the best educated people believed in this
superstition. Sir Matthew Hale, one of
the greatest men and a just judge, con-
demned men and women to death in the
highest court of England, two hundred
years after Joan of Arc's time, for being
in league with the devil, bewitching cows
so they would not give milk, preventing
butter from forming in the churn, and
such common things as that. In this
country Dr. Increase Mather, the
president of Harvard University, only two hundred years ago,
wrote a book on witchcraft, which was thought to have much to do with
the hanging of the witches at Salem, Massachusetts. His son. Dr. Cot-
ton Mather, though so often referred to as having been to blame for
that delusion which was common at the time, really had nothing what-
ever to do with it. When Cotton Mather was in favor of vaccination,
to prevent smallpox, ignorant people thought "inoculation," as they
called it, was of the devil, and they threw a hand grenade, or small
bomb, into his window, trying to kill him. Whenever anything was
done that the people did not understand, they were frightened and whis-
pered, "Witchcraft!"

We left Charles the Seventh of France, the archbishop and others

gravely debating whether it was through witchcraft that so many Bibles

looked just alike. As they threatened to try Dr. John Faust, of Stras-

'burg, and burn him also, he was forced to explain how the books were

made. He told them that they had not been printed with the pen, by

Cotton Mather

52 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

hand, but stamped with little blocks of wood or lead. This is the way
the art of printing started :

A jolly Dutchman, named Laurenz Koster in Holland, the country
of canals and windmills, used to whittle out toys and blocks for the chil-
dren. While doing this he happened to think he could make wooden
dies such as are now used in stamping letters and designs in butter and
wax. He found he could make up words, letter by letter, tie them to-
gether and print them. Laurenz Koster was the first person to put
wooden type together to make words, though seals and stamps had been
used for thousands of years. The Chinese are said to have known the
art of printing a thousand or more years ago, but they used single blocks,
printing with them, but making a separate impression for each char-
acter, somewhat as a grocer prints his price cards to-day, with separate
rubber types. Koster did a little printing in a small way, but he died,
leaving his precious secret with his apprentice, a young German named
John Gutenberg, who improved upon Koster 's invention by casting
lead type in moulds, instead of carving it on wood as Koster did. Young
Gutenberg needed money to perfect his invention, so Dr. John Faust,
a good, wealthy neighbor in Strasburg, supplied the funds for this and
to enable him to print a large number of Bibles. These were stored
with Dr. Faust and he saw to the marketing of the precious books. This
explains how the king's detectives traced the Bible salesman to Dr.
Faust 's house. This, in brief, is the story Dr. Faust had to tell to prove
that he was not guilty of witchcraft, and that the devil was not a silent
partner in that firm of printers. In all printing offices in England and
America to-day they call the boy apprentice the printer's *' devil."
The reason Dr. Faust did not like to tell how his Bibles were printed
was because he was afraid he could not sell them if it were known
that they were not written with a pen in the old way, at least he thought
the people would not pay such large prices when they knew how they
were made. It is a good thing the art of printing was not long kept a
secret.

About twenty-five years after King Charles bought his first printed
Bible, a man named William Caxton, of England, on a business trip to
Holland, saw the type and how it was used. He found the process so
interesting and profitable that, when he went back to London, he opened'
a printing place in a chapel of Westminster Abbey. The first book ever

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

printed in English was not the Bible, but "The Game and Playe of
Chesse," for the English people were then nearly as much interested in
chess as the Americans are in baseball to-day. There is a fine statue
of Gutenburg, as the inventor of printing, in Strasburg, Germany. But
should not the highest honor be paid to good Laurenz Koster, who really
invented printing while carving on wooden blocks the names of little
children 1

Thus printing came into common use in Germany just in time to save
Martin Luther from, being burned alive — for the people could get printed
Bibles and read them for themselves, and they became such great friends
to Luther that the men in authority were afraid to treat him as others
had treated John Huss, Savonarola, and thousands of the people called
Lollards.

Besides, Martin Luther's influential friends stood by him to the last.

Emperor Charles the
Fifth, though not known
as a good or honorable
monarch, held sacred the
safe-conduct promised to
Luther when that re-
former, as he is now called,
came to the Diet, or Con-
ference, at the city of
Worms in Germany, to
answer for his teaching
and preaching and writ-
ing, just as Huss was sum-
moned to the Council of
Constance. Dr. Luther
had been a professor in a
German university. He
was a singer and com-
poser. As he journeyed
to the town of Worms for
trial, crowds were waiting
for hours in the streets
MARTIN LuTHEE and on the housetops

56 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

to see the great Doctor Luther pass — the man who opposed the
selling of indulgences, and other wicked things done by men under the
cloak or protection of the Church. One of his hymns is now familiar
because it is sung in English as well as in German, and in the great
French opera, The Huguenots. It begins:

A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing.

The streets of Worms were so crowded that the emperor's officers
could not conduct Doctor Luther to the council hall by the usual way,
and he had to be led through private passages and gardens. In that
spacious, solemn council chamber, the emperor and the nobles of his
court were assembled with the high dignitaries of the Catholic Church.
The Diet was presided over by Archbishop Treves, representing Leo
the Tenth, one of the greatest potentates that ever ruled the Christian
world from Rome. There was a deathlike stillness when the arch-
bishop, in the rich regalia of the Church, pointing to a pile of books and
pamphlets on a table before him, asked the humble man in plain garb,
standing before him :

"Martin Luther, did you write these books?"

Luther stood looking at them. He had seen on his way from Witten-
berg, notices posted up, condemning all his writings and warning every-
one who read them to a fate worse than death, of excommunication,
which meant eternal punishment. He believed when he came to this
Council, that he was coming to his own death. His friends, in tears, im-
plored him not to go to Worms, or he would suffer the fate of John Huss.
His great friend, the Elector, or King of Saxony, had sent his chancel-
lor to entreat Luther "not to enter a town where his death was decided."
The answer which Luther returned was simply this, "I will go though as
many devils aim at me as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses. ' '

While Martin Luther stood considering how best to reply, the silent,
suspense was almost sickening. After he had looked the books over he
said, quietly, that as far as he knew, he had written them all.

Then the Archbishop asked him in a harsh, threatening voice:

"Will you take back what you have written!"

Doctor Luther calmly began the speech he had been deliberating. It
would mean life or death to him — death most likely. He went on quietly

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

explaining why be had been forced to write and to preach as be bad
done. They let him proceed. They dared not shout at him and call
him names as some bad done to John Huss. What made this great dif-
ference! Printing had been discovered. The people had begun in
Germany to read and to think for themselves. So Martin Luther was
permitted to go on. It was not a long speech. It ended with these
words :

* ' Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen. ' '
Many of the nobles and prelates present had urged the Emperor
Charles the Fifth to break his word with Luther and give him over to
them to be tortured and put to death. But the young emperor, seeing

how the peoi^le all over Germany
loved their good friend, Doctor
Luther, agreed that it would not do
to violate his safe-conduct, but as
soon as Luther had reached his
home at Wittenberg in safety, they
might arrest him and do as they
pleased with him.

On his way back from the Diet,
while passing along a lonely road in
the depths of a dense forest, a band
of men dashed up on horseback
and surrounded Doctor Luther.
Throwing a cloak over him, they
compelled him to mount a horse
they had brought for him to ride.
Luther did not know who they were nor where they were taking him.
His captors rode on with him in silence. Luther asked no questions. He
thought his enemies had him in their power at last. No one spoke a
word all that long day. After nightfall they came to a high, steep hill
on top of which the towers of a huge castle loomed, gloomy and threat-
ening, above them. ''This is to be my prison, then," thought Luther.
A great gate swung open and his captors led him inside. They con-
ducted him to a little upper room, where clothing such as a knight wore
was laid out for him.

''Put those on," they said to him, ''You are a knight, now, and

Seal of Charles V

58 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

your name is George. You will have to let your hair and beard grow.
No one must know who you are. ' '

It was all very strange. Though Martin Luther was puzzled he was
also very weary. He threw himself upon the bed and slept soundly.
In the morning he arose and looked out through the little grated window.
Trees, nothing but trees. He was evidently in the heart of a deep for-
est— but where! Though a prisoner he was treated kindly. What did
it all mean' Months passed. The world heard nothing of Martin
Luther. He had mysteriously disappeared. His friends thought he
had been seized secretly and put to death.

Yet Martin Luther was among friends. Frederick, Elector of Sax-
ony, saw that his friend's life was now in greatest danger. Knowing
that the great Doctor Luther would never fly or retreat of his own ac-
cord, he sent men to make Luther a prisoner to save him from a worse
fate. Luther's enemies thought he had fled the country and hoped they
had seen and heard the last of that troublesome, outspoken reformer.

The place in which Frederick of Saxony kept Luther confined for ten
long months was the castle of Wartburg. As Doctor Wyclif had done
at Lutterworth two centuries earlier, when driven out of Oxford, Luther
began in this castle the greatest work of his life, the translation of the
Bible into the language which people in all parts of Germany could
read and understand. He took the greatest pains in making this trans-
lation. When he came to the passages about the sacrifices he watched
a butcher killing sheep and other animals and learned all that he could
about them. While working on the twenty-first chapter of the Revela-
tion he consulted a jeweler about the different precious stones there
described. He put forth every effort to make the Bible so plain and
simple that it could be understood by the mother in the house, by the
children in the streets and by "the common man in the market." As
Wyclif 's translation had brought all the Anglo-Saxons together into the
English people, so Luther's united all Germany into one Fatherland,
and made the present German Empire possible. Grand as this achieve-
ment proved to be it was by no means the greatest thing Luther did,
for the service he rendered the human race in the sacred cause of Liberty
can never be estimated. As all the people read their Bibles they "looked
into the perfect law of liberty."

Nearly four hundred years have passed since Martin Luther worked

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

day and night, in the great castle prison of Wartburg, in the heart of a
gloomy forest of Germany. In that time four hundred million Bibles
have been published — more than a million a year ! Thanks to such men
as Wyclif, Huss, Jerome, Savonarola and Koster, Gutenberg, Caxton
and the '* noble army of martyrs" and heroes '*of whom the world was
not worthy, ' ' the printing-presses of Christendom are sending forth more
and more Bibles every year; more and more good books are being
brought within the reach of all the people, and Liberty is spreading
faster than ever.

Early English Printing Office

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

SAH^ING THE "SEA OF DARKNESS" FOR
LIBERTY'S SAKE

WHEN you are asked what shape the world is, you promptly
answer that it is "round like an apple or an orange."
Any child can say this now, but a few hundred years ago,
for a man to say so in earnest would have cost him his
life, or at least his liberty. Christopher Columbus, the son of a poor
wool-comber of Genoa, Italy, somehow got the idea into his head that
the world is round. He went from country to country trying to get a
chance to prove his theory by sailing around the globe. How people
laughed and made fun of poor demented Christopher Columbus ! They
thought he was foolish or he would have been burned at the stake. The

Inquisition had not
been started or
they might have
arrested Columbus
and put him on the
rack, and stretched
him there until his
bones began to
come apart to
make him say "I
take it all back, the
world isn't round,
it's flat, yes, flat as
a pancake!" That
is the way they did
with Galileo, an
Italian philosopher,
a" hundred years
later, who made
m a n y important
discoveries. Galileo
really invented the
telescope and dis-
covered stars

^./<^w^~'""'^^=^V-

Columbus Before Ferdinand and Isabella

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

never before seen by human eyes. When he was an old man he was
called to answer questions in the Inquisition. The Church did not like
new discoveries for fear they would contradict the Bible.

They told Galileo he must take back all that he had written and taught
about the earth revolving around the sun. He was an old man. They
threatened to torture him if he didn't say, "I was wrong; the sun re-
volves around the earth."

Poor old Galileo! He
knew it wouldn't make
any difference to the sun
or to the earth and it
might make a great deal
of difference to an old
man like him, so he took
it all back. He knelt, as
they ordered him, and re-
peated the seven peniten-
tial psalms every little
while for the sin of saying
' ' the earth moves. ' ' There
is a story that after
Galileo read his speech
denying it all he said
softly to himself: "And
yet it moves ! ' ' The world
has moved since then in
another way. It has
moved out of darkness
into the sunlight of Lib-
erty.

Thus Columbus might
have been tortured for
saying the world is round,
only they thought he was
half crazy on the subject.
They did not hurt his body
for this belief, but they

Columbus in Youth

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

did torture him as children too often torture each other and even
strangers by making fun of them.

'*Ho, ho!" a girl would say when Columbus went by. ''There goes
the poor, silly man that thinks the world is round. How do the people
on the under side stick on, then? — He! he! he!"

''Yes," a boy would add, "and he says he can go east by sailing west —
going one way by starting in the opposite direction! Ho! ho! ho!
Ain't that rich, though!"

Columbus had gone from country to country and no one believed or
cared enough about
the matter to help
him until Queen Isa-
bella of Spain,
touched by his earn-
est wish to convert
the heathen, said she
would see that he
had a few ships
even if she had to
pledge her crown
and other jewels to
pay for them. It is
strange that the
queen who had most
to do with starting
the Inquisition, and
the queen who drove
the Jews out of
Spain, was the same
queen who was so
good and generous
to Columbus, and
enabled him to prove
that one could go
east by sailing
west. Queen Isa-
bella was not nat- Columbus and the Egg

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

urally cruel. She only thought as St. Paul did, when he was persecuting
the early Christians — that she was doing God service.

When Columbus and his three little ships went ''sailing out into the
west" from Spain, the crews that manned them were criminals let out of
prisons, for no free sailors would ship with Columbus on such a danger-
ous voyage. The western sea, which we now call the Atlantic Ocean, was
then known as the "Sea of Darkness." Sailors and nearly everybody

The "Santa Maria," the "Pinta" and the "Nina' =

else believed that no one would ever come back alive from that unknown
sea. Some thought it was the home of terrible sea monsters waiting to
devour all who came their way. Most people believed that a ship going
westward beyond certain bounds would be engulfed in a great mael-
strom, or whirlpool, and be sucked down through the earth, or caught
by a swift current that would rush it over the edge of the world as a small
boat is carried over Niagara Falls, and go down, down forever into the
bottomless abyss. So it required more than mere heroism for Columbus

THE STOEY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

to start out across that unknown sea. The men who had been made to
sail the ships against their wills came to him every day to beg him to
turn back before it was eternally too late, for they expected, hour by

hour, to be caught
in some irresisti-
ble current and
whirled to swift
destruction. They
sometimes went
down on their
knees at his feet,
with tears stream-
ing down their
bronzed faces, en-
treating him not to
drag them down
to death before
their time. Colum-
bus said all he
could to encourage
them and to divert
their minds. The
queen had offered
quite a fortune, as
a prize to the first
man who should
discover land be-
yond the western
sea, and Columbus
added to it an ex-
tra gift of a vel-
vet jacket. Yet
the poor sailors
from the Spanish jails did not believe anyone would find any-
thing in that direction but sure death. When they could not
persuade 'the Admiral'' as Columbus was now called, to let
them turn back, they schemed to tie him. hand and foot, and throw

Columbus Quieting the Grumblers

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

him into the "Sea of Darkness." Columbus discovered the plot and,
with the help of the faithful leaders on each of the three little ships,
kept the prows pointing westward. After ten long, anxious weeks
Columbus himself first sighted land. He had faith that he would find
it if he kept going long enough. Those who believe are the ones who do
things. The men who meant to murder Columbus were the first to
acknowledge that he was right and that they were all wrong. When
Admiral Columbus came back to Spain he was the greatest hero in the
world. Those who had snickered and made fun of him now considered
it an honor to tell their children and grandchildren if ' ' Admiral Colum-
bus ' ' happened to smile on them in a passing parade in his honor. The
king and queen did him honor and gave him wealth and titles which his
descendants, the Dukes of Veragua, have held to this day. The highest
honor of all was that he, by his faithfulness in following the call of duty,
gave the New World to the Old. The World's Fair, four hundred
years later, the grandest international exposition ever given, was all in
honor of the man whose neighbors ' children called ' ' crazy Christopher. ' '
It was because Spain tried to keep her great discovery secret that
Columbus lost the honor of having the two continents of North and
South America named North and South Columbia in memory of their
discoverer.

Try hard as she might, Spain could not hide the new world under a
bushel. Other men soon sailed out across the western sea, and John
and Sebastian Cabot and Amerigo
Vespucci discovered the continents of
North and South America before
Columbus found his way beyond the
outlying islands. King Henry VII
of England paid the Cabot who
first saw and landed on North
America, ten pounds, or fifty dollars,
for a new continent! The New
World soon became a refuge for
those who could not find Liberty in
the Old. Sir Walter Raleigh, one

of the noblest men that ever lived, y^^ ^ u^Y-'^'^'^^Efr-^ i* ''^'
came to found a settlement on the Sir Walter Kaleigh

5— Thf Story of the Liberty Bell.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

coast of North America, naming the region ''Virginia" in honor of
Qneen Elizabeth of England. It was Walter Raleigh who spread his
red velvet cloak over a muddy ])lace in the road for Queen Elizabeth
to walk on, and thus save her dainty pearl-embroidered slippers from

being soiled. Raleigh's
colony did not last long,
but he took back tobacco
to England and potatoes,
which were first found in
America, to Ireland,
where they have grown so
well as to be called "Irish
potatoes. ' ' The English '
used to call smoking
"drinking" tobacco.
Raleigh learned to smoke
from the Indians and,
after returning to Eng-
land, he sat smoking one
day in his room. A serv-
ant thought his master
was on fire and dashed a
pail of cold water over
him, drenching him from
head to foot to put the fire
out!

Sir Walter Raleigh
spent many years as a
prisoner in the Tower
of London because he
was supposed to have opposed King James as king of I^lng-
land. While confined in the Tower he wrote his "History of the
World." The king released him on condition that he should com-
mand an expedition to America, find a certain mine the king thought
Raleigh knew about, and bring back a cargo of gold. Sir Walter had
an unfortunate voyage, failed to find the gold-mine and returned empty
handed to the king, who was so disappointed and angry that he ordered

Death of Ealeigh

PocAHANTAS Saves Captain John Smith

68 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

Raleigh taken back to the Tower and beheaded. The unfortunate man
need not have returned to England at all, but his high sense of honor
made him feel that he ought to report to the king. James did him the
honor to allow him to have his head cut off on Tower Hill instead of be-
ing hanged at Tyburn, like a common criminal ! When he was on the
scaffold ready for execution, Raleigh felt the keen edge of the heads-
man ^s ax and said, with a smile:

' ' This is a sharp medicine, but it is a cure for all ills. ' '

Another Englishman who did a great deal for America was Captain
John Smith. He came to America with a company of colonists led by
Captain Newport. They named two capes, Charles and Henry, and a
river James. A settlement was made and named Jamestown, in honor
of the king. Some of the settlers refused to work. They considered
labor undignified, if not degrading. Captain John Smith showed them
that unless a man worked he should not eat. He had several encount-
ers with the Indians. In one of these he was captured and carried into
the presence of Powhatan, the head chief. He was condemned to death.
Just as two stalwart braves had their war clubs uplifted ready to dash
out his brains, the Indian chief's daughter, Pocahontas, rushed for-
ward, threw herself upon the white prisoner's prostrate body and inter-
ceded with her father, Powhatan, in Captain Smith's behalf. King
Powhatan, as he was called, made a treaty with the white men, but after-
wards consented to join in a conspiracy to put all the white men out of
the way by murdering them. Pocahontas came secretly and gave Cap-
tain Smith warning of the plot, and he was ready for the Indians when
they came. The chief of the Pamunkeys detained Smith in a parley
until he was surrounded by Indians. Captain Smith seized the chief
by the hair and threatened to blow his brains out if he did not withdraw
and call off his braves.

Smith had many encounters with the savages and with mutinous
white men. He forced the idle fortune seekers to work or starve, and
had cold water poured down the necks of the men. He also made
voyages along the coast and drew a map of New England. It was he
who gave the name of Plymouth to the region afterward settled by
the Pilgrims. It is said that slavery was introduced in this country by
the bringing of negroes to Jamestown in 1619.

Captain John Smith was badly burned and injured by an explosion

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 69

of gunpowder. He soon returned to England and was honored by
King James, whose son, Prince Charles, named the northern part of
what was then called Virginia, "New England."

The colonies which settled in New England came over for Liberty ^s
sake. Pennsylvania and Maryland, were also established in the inter-
est of religious freedom. The former was settled by Quakers from
England, and the latter by Roman Catholics driven out of the Virginia
colony by Church of England people. The story of the settlement of
Pl}^noutli is the most interesting of them all, because of the noble pur-
pose of the people to be free to worship as they wished. When ''Good
Queen Bess," or Elizabeth, queen of England, died, she left the throne
to King James, the foolish, obstinate king of Scotland. He was very
narrow-minded, bigoted and mean. He thought he was very clever and
wise, when everyone could see how stupid and silly he was, but no one
dared or cared to tell him when he was in the wrong. To offend him
cost a man's life or liberty.

Perhaps the silliest thing of all that King James tried to do was his
attempt to make all the people of England worship in the Church of
England, of which he was the head. Those who refused to ''conform"
were called Nonconformists. Many of these desired a purer religion,
so they were called Puritans. The Puritans, instead of trying to purify
the Church, or make it better, separated themselves from it, so they
were called Separatists. That anyone should have the courage to
wish to think or do anything but what King James ordered and just the
way he ordered it, seemed to enrage him beyond measure. Several hun-
dred ministers in different iDarts of the kingdom, who earnestly desired
to make the Church and the people better, presented a humble petition
to the king to be allowed to explain their ideas to him. James gra-
ciously consented to hear them. He invited bishops and prelates of the
Church — his Church, for he was the father of the State Church — and
after taxing all the people to support his Church he used what he wanted
of the Church money himself ! Why not ! Was he not the Head of the
Church? When those hundreds of Nonconformist ministers came to
their "hearing, ' ' it was they, not the king, who did the listening, for when
they began to tell him why they wanted to talk with him, he stopped
them and snarled at them through his nose, in his self-satisfied way:

"I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion. I alone will

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

decide. 1 will mafce you conform or 1 will harry you out of the land,
or else do worse — hang you!"

Then he rubbed his hands with glee and chuckled to the bishops whom

he had invited
there to see the
fun, ' ' I peppered
them soundly, did
I not?"

There was a de-
vout little meeting
at Scrooby, Eng-
land, where sev-
eral pious preach-
ers expounded the
Gospel in its sim-
plicity, and taught
the plain country
people to live pure,
upright lives. Thfe
man who lived in
the house where
the meetings were
held was William
Brewster, an im-
l)ortant man at the
court of Elizabeth.
He had seen the
seamy side of high
life and had settled
down to use his in-
fluence to hel]i to
improve the condi-
tion of the neigh-
borhood. A youth of seventeen, named William Bradford, was
another worshiper there. These (|uiet, law-abiding people were
sorry to hear of the king's decision, for it meant that they
must give up what they valued more than life — their liberty of

Foolish, Obstinate King James the First

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 71

conscience. The king went right to work to have the Nonconformists
"clapt up in prison," as he expressed it. Wliere could they got It
would be as bad for them in France and it would take years and cost
a fortune to go to America. They must leave their comfortable homes
and get out of England at once. In Holland the government and the
people were kind and allowed peoijle to worship as they chose. Brew-
ster and his neighbors had to go fifty miles to the seacoast in order to
get a ship to take them to Holland. He arranged with a captain to
carry them to Amsterdam. They sold their homes for all they could
get, packed up and made the journey to Boston, England, at night.
They were waiting on the quay, all readj^ to escape, when a constable
with a band of the king's men came clattering down the cobblestone
street and arrested them for trying to leave the country — after the king
had driven them away ! The ship captain, who had agreed with William
Brewster to take them to Holland, had informed on them instead. They
were kept in prison six months and finally set free. Then Brewster
tried again to take his faithful little band out of the country. This
time he bargained with a Dutch shipmaster to meet them at a lonely
spot on the English coast. They separated and went to the place of
meeting. But the ship was not there as agreed. The men, women and
children hid themselves along the shore the rest of the day and all night
before the Dutch skipper arrived. In the morning the shivering, dis-
couraged little company were glad to see the ship anchored off
shore. They began to take the people and their goods on board in
small boats. Some of the men and women were on the ship and some
on land and working hard to transfer the rest of the families and
goods when over the hills came a troop of armed police, sent by the
bishop, and seized those who were still on shore, clubbing them, even
the women, with their guns. The oaths of the officers and the shrieks
of the women and children made such a commotion that the Dutch
captain, fearing he might be arrested also, hoisted his anchor and sailed
away.

Young William Bradford was on board, and thus described the scene
in his diary :

''Pitiful it was to see the heavy care of these poor women — what
weeping and crying on every side — some for their husbands carried
away in the ship, others not knowing what should become of them and

72 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

their little ones ; others melted in tears seeing their poor little ones hang-
ing about them, crying for fear and quaking with cold."

The little ship, instead of reaching Holland in a day or two, was
caught in a gale and driven away to the coast of Norway. For seven
days the fleeing passengers did not see the light of the sun or moon, and
hourly expected to go to the bottom. It was fourteen days before they
reached Amsterdam.

As for the broken families left behind weeping bitterly on the shore,
after fathers, husbands, wives and children had been carried off, they
were put in prison again and kept there until government officials in
London could be consulted. It was found that the bishop had no right
to arrest them, so they were allowed to go — but where? They had no
homes, their goods had been lost or destroyed. Of course, to-day such
officials would have to pay the penalty of such wanton abuse and ill
treatment. Even the king would now be made to suffer for such a tres-
pass upon the rights of private citizens. King James was not made to
suffer, but his son Charles, when he became king, was beheaded be-
cause of his father's high-handed crimes against Liberty. Especially in
royal families are the ''iniquities" of the fathers visited upon the chil-
dren "unto the third and fourth generation." King James did great
good in the cause of Liberty, by accident, as it were. He called together
the Church and other dignitaries to tell them just what he would and
would not allow in the way of worship, and the ''King James" trans-
lation of the Bible was the outcome of it all. It is still known as the
"Authorized Version." One has only to read its quaint and fulsome
preface to see the difference between the way we look at that stupid,
self-sufficient monarch and the way people had to see him then. Be-
sides being king and a worse despot than the Czar of Russia dares to be
now, he was the head of the English Church. But Providence over-
ruled the greatest evils of those days to bring about the highest good
in the world to future generations.

After many weeks of discouragements which amounted almost to
despair, the little group of Separatists was united in Amsterdam, Hol-
land. Men who had owned landed estates at home were obliged to learn
trades there to support themselves and their families. Though they
had lost lands, homes, friends, early associations and been separated
from all that they had learned to love, and were condemned to work

Sailing of the " Mayflower" from Holland

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

from early morning till late night at hard labor, all these things seemed
no hardships to them because they had escaped the power of the king
and bishops who had persecuted them in the name of the Christian re-
ligion ! They worked on for many years, glad in the right to live their
lives and worship God in the way they wished.

Although the Dutch were kind and good to the English Nonconform-
ists, their very liberties became the cause of fear. They were still loyal
to their country and even to their unworthy king. They were English
in spirit, in spite of all they had suffered at the hands of the English
Church and State. They did not want their children to grow up to be

Hudson's Ship the Half Mocn

Dutch men and women. Besides, according to their strict ideas, the
Dutch notions of religious liberty seemed too liberal entirely. They
looked upon the Dutch manner of observing the Sabbath as loose and
full of license. They could not acquire lands and homes of their own in
Holland, so their weary, longing eyes turned toward the new country
beyond the western seas.

Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch East
India Company, had returned, in the Half Moon, from the voyage in
which he had discovered and named the Hudson river, telling of the
rich lands to be found along that beautiful stream. The English
Puritans in Holland thought that seemed to be an ideal place to settle.

THE ISTOKY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

iin!|[lll(l!llllll!!|llllll!llilili|l!il(l'miitiiiiniiiiiiii!i[iiiiiiiii'[i'i iimi

They got together and, after much discussion, determined to go to New
Amsterdam, where the Dutch were already settling, or farther south-
ward to Virginia. They had hut little money, so they had to find
men in England who would advance enough to enable them to hire
one or more ships to make the voyage and help them build settle-
ments and live for years in the new country before they could pay it
back. When some one approached the king in their behalf he refused
to grant them his permission to settle in America unless they would
worship there in the forms he prescribed. It was after many years of
toil, suffering and anxiety that, with the aid of a syndicate calling them-
selves the "Gentlemen Ad-
venturers," the Puritans of
Holland were ready, in the
summer of 1620, to sail for
America.

They sailed from the port
of Delft Haven, Holland.
Their beloved pastor, John
Robinson, who had often
preached at the home of
William Brewster, at Scrooby,
England, was now too old to m
undertake so long a voyage.
He bade them a fond good-
by, prayed with them at the
landing and gave them all his
parting blessing. The peo-
ple "wept sore" as they well knew they should "see his face no
more. ' '

They sailed through the English Channel to Southampton and Plym-
outh, where they were delayed and where others were added to their
number. Among these were Myles Standish and Rose, his wife, John
Alden, and the troublesome Billington family, which, as Bradford ex-
pressed it in his diary, was "shuffled into their company." They now
called themselves "Pilgrims," because they were wanderers in search
of a home. It Avas a religious pilgrimage, though they were not in
search of a shrine. It was an altar, a family altar, they sought — a

Bible Brought Over in the ' ' IVIayflower ' '

76 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

place where they might worship God in the privacy of their homes and
hearts as their consciences dictated. Not all the Pilgrims, however,
were Puritans. Myles Standish had been brought up a Catholic, and
the Billingtons were looked upon as hoodlums by the rest.

They sailed away in the '* Mayflower" and the "Speedwell"; the
latter was a small ship, only one-third the size of the "Mayflower,"
which was a clumsy little brig. The "Speedwell" didn't speed well at
all. While creeping along the southern coast of England it sprung a
leak, and both ships had to put back into Plymouth, England. After
another delay the "Mayflower" sailed alone with one hundred passen-
gers. There is no aristocracy in America. Thousands of people liv-
ing in this country now, nearly three hundred years after the sailing
of the ' ' Mayflower, ' ' trace their family line to the Pilgrims of Plymouth.
It is a descent to be proud of, for those voyagers were true noblemen
and heroes. That immortal sailing list remained the same, for though
one man was washed overboard in a storm, a man child was born on
board to take his place, so the "Mayflower" brought just as many im-
migrants to America as emigrants from England. It was a crazy old
tub, but no ship in all history can compare in beauty and loftiness of
purpose and imagery with the ' ' Mayflower. ' '

The overloaded little craft had a stormy voyage. It came near split-
ting in two, in a storm, and they had to tie a cable around it to hold it
together. A storm drove them out of their course so that, instead of
reaching the mouth of the Hudson, they found themselves off Cape
Cod. Here they anchored and held a meeting in the cabin, at which
the men signed a solemn "Compact" by which they were to be gov-
erned. John Billington sneered at this agreement. He could not con-
ceive of authority coming from anyone but the king. He declared that
he would not be ruled by the others. He was a low-lived fellow. His
wife had to be punished as a common scold and their son — the boy who,
while x^laying with forbidden gunpowder, narrowly escaped blowing
up the "Mayflower" — was the wayward, lawless lad who gave the col-
onists a great deal of trouble. Once he got lost and Myles Standish
and a band of men had to spend days in search of him. This Billington
boy grew worse and worse and had to be hanged, years afterward, for
murder. This was the first sentence of death ever executed in that
.colony.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 77

This digression has been made to show how new and strange it was at
that day for authority to come from anyone but the king, John Bil-
lington boasted that they could not force him to abide by laws made by
men among themselves, and he and his family learned, to their sorrow,
the force of this new but wonderful Compact. They all solemnly signed
as a mutual agreement that November day, in the stuffy cabin of the
dirty little '* Mayflower, " their modest agreement, little thinking that
it would take its place as one of the greatest documents in the world,
beside the Magna Cliarta of English Liberty. It contained the seeds of
the Great Republic. They were to be ruled by the majority, not by
the king. From it came the Declaration of Independence, the Emanci-
pation Proclamation and that *' government of the people, for the peo-
ple and by the people" which "shall not perish from the earth." Here
is the opening paragraph or preamble of the Pilgrims ' Compact :

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, by these presents, solemnly
and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves to-
gether into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of
the aims aforesaid, and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and form such just and equal
laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most
meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all submission
and obedience.

Then they proceeded to elect John Carver their Governor. He died
of something like a sunstroke the following April. He was an old man.
The rest of the Pilgrims were young — none of them over forty — or they
could never have endured the hardships and privations of that "long
and dreary winter," followed by "the wasting of the famine and the
burning of the fever. ' ' The drawing up and signing of their Compact*
was of vastly more importance than even the "Landing of the Pil-
grims," which did not take place until a month later, December 21, 1620.
A more important "landing" was that of the Pilgrim Mothers, who
went ashore at the end of Cape Cod and did nine weeks' washing, for
they had been cooped up in that overcrowded little ship for sixty-three
days. It must have been a great pleasure to them all to go ashore, even
to do a huge washing like that. They did this on Monday, and Monday
has been "washday" ever since.

The Pilgrims began at once to build a few log cabins, living on board
the "Mayflower," which had sailed up into the harbor of Pljniiouth,

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

which had been visited and named by Captain Jolm Smith, several
years before. They worked just as hard on the twenty-fifth, four days
after the landing, as on any other day. They called Christmas a
"papish hohday," so they considered it a sign of Liberty to be free to
work on that day! Half of them died that first winter. At one timt,
only a few were well enough to nurse all the rest, and they had to stop
building houses for the living to dig graves for the dead. These they
smoothed down level so tliat lurking Indians might not count them and
find out how few white men were left.

They built a log fort on top of the hill, for a church. Instead of- a
bell they had four brass cannon mounted on its flat roof. They marched
to church every Sunday, the men carrying their guns, which they stacked

Indians Declaring War

by the door during service. They kept a man on guard to give the
alarm in case of a sudden attack by the red men. The Pilgrims had to
watch as well as pray. They belonged to the ''church militant." They
have often been criticised because they drove away those who did not
believe as they did. It is true that the Puritans of Boston and Salem
banished Roger Williams because he was a Baptist, and hanged Quak-
ers and witches, but it must be remembered that the Puritans had come
to America, at great sacrifice, to worship tJieir way, not every way. If
they could have been satisfied with any kind of religion they would have
stayed in Holland. If others did not like their faith and forms they
were at liberty to go elsewhere and start a church of their own. That
is what they had had to do. They would not do as King James did.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

but would let those who disagreed with them go iu peace though they
could not conscientiously bid them God speed.

When Governor Carver died, young William Bradford, who had
joined the little company at Scrooby, England, when he was only seven-
teen years old, was elected Governor. Bradford held that office for
nearly forty years. The diary he had begun before he was nineteen,
he kept for many years. His plain, quaint story of the settlement of

They Had Come to Stay

Plymouth '^ plantation" is now one of the most precious books in the
world. Its return to Massachusetts by its owner in England was re-
garded as a great event by and between England and America. All be-
cause that Bradford boy tried to do that which was right, and put down,
in plain and simple language, the daily happenings of his life, which was
full of hardships, sorrows and, seemingly, commonplace items.

When the ** Mayflower" started to England in the spring of 1621 an

80 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

offer was made to carry back without charge any who wished to go
"home," as the colonists always called England. But, although they
had all been ill and hungry and sad, no one wanted to go. They had
come to stay. They loved Liberty in a howling wilderness among
savages better than to live amid "mansions and palaces" without free-
dom. Hard as the life was in their new settlement, with its sufferings
and privations, the cruel, demon-like Indians were better than foolish
King James and his officers. The Pilgrims took a long stride toward
Liberty when they landed on Plymouth Rock.

Mrs. Hemans has well described their noble purpose in the following
poem:

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS

The breaking waves dasli'd high

On a stern and rock-bound coast,
And tlie woods against a stormy sky

Their giant branches toss'd;

And the heavy night hung dark,

The hills and waters o'er,
When a band of exiles moor'd their bark

On the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted came;
Not with the roll of the stirring drums.

And the trumpet that sings of fame;

Not as the flying come,

In silence and in fear; —
They shook the depths of the desert gloom

With their hymns of lofty cheer.

Amidst the storm they sang,

And the stars heard and the sea;
And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang

To the anthem of the free!

The ocean eagle soar'd

From his nest by the white wave's foam
And the rocking pines of the forest roar'd —

This was their welcome home!

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

There were men with hoary hair

Amidst that pilgrim band: —
Wiiy had they came to wither there,

Away from their childhood's land?

There was woman's fearless eye,

Lit by her deep love's truth;
There was manhood's brow serenely high,

And the fiery heart of youth.

What sought they thus afar?

Bright jewels of the mine?
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? —

They sought a faith's pure shrine!

Aye, call it holy ground.

The soil where first they trod.

They have left unstained, what there they found-
Freedom to worship God.

Watchixg the "Mayflower" Sail Away

6— The Storv of the Liberty Bell.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

''LIBERTY AND UNION, ONE AND INSEPARABLE"

Hereditary bondsmen ! Know ye not
Who would be free themselves must strike the blow!

— Byron.

HILE liberty of conscience had been borne in upon the Pil-
grims and Puritans, they had much to learn about per-
sonal rights. They

were such firm be-
lievers in ''total depravity" and
"original sin" that they consid-
ered the human heart "of all
things desperately wicked." All
who were jolly and happy were, to
their way of thinking, on "the
broad road to perdition." The

The Culprit's Feet Were Thrust Through the Stocks

New England Seal

"Merry Mounters" of
Boston were so gay as
to shock their Puritan
neighbors. To be
light-hearted was to
be considered light-
headed or worse. It
was the same way with
the English Puritans.
Macaulay wrote of
them that they op-
posed bear-baiting, not
because it hurt the
bear but because this
form of sport gave
pleasure to the onlook-
ers. The tender mer-
cies of the Puritans
were cruel. It must
have been an awful
thing to be a child in

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

a Puritan family. All occasions were solemn. If a boy played
he was trifling on the brink of eternity. This terrible strictness
gave rise to the "Blue Laws," in which the outer conduct of the
people was regulated in a ridiculous manner. A sailor returning
to Boston from a three-years' voyage around the world kissed
his wife on the front steps of their home. For this public dem-
onstration of affection he was condemned to the pillory, that is, he had
to stand in a public place with his head and hands locked through holes
in two beams of wood, in the burning sun for many hours. For smaller
offenses, like speaking saucily or a manifestation of unseemly mirth
(they thought all mirth "unseemly"), the culprit's feet were thrust
through holes in beams called the stocks, and fastened there for days
and nights.

The whipping post was often used. A woman who scolded too much
was strapped into a chair at the end of a long beam beside a pond or
the sea and plunged into the water
until she was nearly drowned. They
went only a step farther when they

hanged a woman for a witch. Chil-
dren of to-day should be thankful
that they did not live in such cruel,
solemn times. Young America goes
to the other extreme nowadays.
Children are not taught to show
enough respect to their parents and
older people. "Children should be
seen and not heard" was an old
precept. Now they are too often
"heard" as well as "seen," and al-
lowed to behave like unthinking ani-
mals. There should be a "happy
mean" between the solemn strict-
ness of the Puritans and the absurd
behavior allowed to-day. One rea-
son that Liberty has progressed so
slowly is because people want to go
too fast and take liberties with Lib-

RoGEE Williams Taking Refuge Among
Indians

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

erty. 3^ii^t is the trouble with so-called socialists and anarchists. They
go^oo fast, and trample on the rights of others in claiming what they
c^U their own rights.

1 Ever since its discovery America has been the land of Liberty, and the
refuge of those who were driven from their own countries. Yet some
who came to this country must have thought they had fallen "out of
the frying-pan into the fire. ' ' Roger Williams was a Baptist. He had
to leave Salem for that. He tried to find a place to stay with other col-
onists. But being a Baptist was too great a crime. His white broth-
ers could not bear to have a Baptist around. So he turned to the In-
dians and they received him with open arms. In 1636 Roger Williams
founded a colony and a city which he named Providence, which is now
in the State of Rhode Island. Providence soon became the refuge of
people who thought and believed a little differently from other people.
A woman named Anne Hutchinson became too much of a teacher and

preacher for Boston, She
wielded too great an in-
fluence, and Anne had to
go to Providence. The
Quakers came — and went
to Providence. Some of
them felt it their duty to
come back and try to teach
the Puritans to behave
in a Christian manner.
Those Quakers — women,
too — were hanged on Bos-
ton Common. It is said
that a great Boston minis-
ter was in favor of bring-
ing a shipload of Quakers
from Barbados and sell-
ing them into slavery. If
the Chinese, the Turks, or
even the most savage and
brutal tribes in the Dark
Lord Baltimore Continent of Africa should

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

try to treat American citizens as cruelly to-day as Boston treated the
Quakers they would soon be punished by the United States Government.

The Massachusetts Bay colony was not alone in its cruelty. The
Church of England people in Virginia drove out the Roman Catholics,
and they settled Baltimore, named for their leader, Lord Baltimore.
Maryland was named for Henrietta
Maria, wife of Charles the First,
the Catholic queen of England.

The longest step toward Liberty
during the colonial period was that
taken by William Penn and the So-
ciety of Friends in Pennsylvania.
Penn's father was an English ad-
miral. King Charles the Second
owed the Admiral sixteen thousand
pounds (about eighty thousand dol-
lars) which was paid by giving his
son William a large district in Amer-
ica. Because this territory was a
vast forest, William Penn wanted to
call it Sylvania, but the King named
it Pennsylvania, or ''Penn's
Woods." William Penn had left the court and joined the Society of
Friends, or followers of George Fox, who believed in living at peace with
all men. The Friends were called Quakers because they often said men
ought to ' ' quake, ' ' or shake with fear at the very thought of the wrath of
God.

William Penn and a colony of Friends came to settle in Pennsyl-
vania in 1682. Everybody laughed at the idea of the Quakers having to
live among the Indians, for the savages were quarrelsome and would
take advantage of the Quakers who believed it was better to die than
to fight. The Friends would find chances enough to die when the In-
dians found out that they would not fight. The idea of ruling Indians
by love and kindness — people said that was a funny notion! Penn
founded a city which he named Philadelphia, "Brotherly Love," and he
soon arranged a meeting with the Indians under an elm near the village.
Here he made a treaty or bargain with the red men. Though all Penn-

WiLLiAM Penn

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

sylvania belonged to him by right of purchase and grant from the Brit-
ish crown, lie bought the country again of the Indians, giving them ar-
ticles of real value, instead of cheating them with glass beads and such
cheap things. The Indians gave Penn a wampum belt, showing a white
man and a red man clasping hands. Penn made a speech telling how
friendly he and his people felt toward the Indians, and they replied
saying :

William Penn 's House

''We will live in peace with Penn and his children as long as the sun
and moon endure. ' '

This pledge was kept for eighty years, because the Friends had re-
gard for the rights of the red men. When a case came up in which an
Indian was involved, they had a trial by a jury of six Indians as well
as six white men. Instead of hanging or driving away people of differ-
ent religious faiths, Penn invited such to come and settle in Pennsyl-
vania. A colony of Germans came, at his request, and settled

88 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

Germantown, a few miles north of Philadelphia. From these Germans,
and others who settled in different parts of the State, have come the
so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch," a thrifty, cleanly, kindly, law-abiding
people who have done much toward making Pennsylvania the "Key-
stone State."

William Penn's children and grandchildren were not noble in heart
and mind like the founder of Pennsylvania. They lost sight of every-
thing but the money their great inheritance would yield them. They
lived in England and refused to do anything to protect or develop their
vast estates. They were called the "proprietaries." They were al-
most, if not quite, as stupid and arrogant as the kings of England and
the governors they sent to represent them in the American colonies.
When Benjamin Franklin was sent to England in behalf of the colony
of Pennsylvania it was to confer with the grandsons of William Penn
as much as with King George of England.

Probably if the English government had treated the American colo-
nists with due consideration there would never have been a war for in-
dependence. But the governors who were sent to America were usually
incapable and insulting. They acted badly toward the people and told
false stories about the colonies to the English ministers, so that the
people were misunderstood at court. The first settlers had come to the
new world to escape injustice, so, when they were treated more unjustly
by the government than the king's subjects in England, they were natur-
ally indignant. England was in great trouble with the rest of Europe
and had to wage a number of expensive wars with neighboring nations.
In order to pay for these, in addition to maintaining the government
and an extravagant court. Great Britain taxed her subjects very heavily.

To raise all this money the Stamp Act was passed, requiring the
Americans to put a certain stamp on every document, and to pay a heavy
tax on many of the necessaries of life. As the colonies in America were
not allowed to have anything to say in the British Parliament about the
wars they were asked to help pay for, or, indeed, about the taxes them-
selves, they were very angry and refused to pay them. The tax col-
lectors were mobbed and had a hard time trying to collect the unjust
and burdensome revenues. The Americans ordered no silks, satins,
laces, cloths, or other articles usually brought from England. Men,
women and children dressed in homespun. The Stamp Law raised such

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

a storm of indignation in America that the English government was
forced to repeal, or take back, the law. No doubt, if Mother England
had said to her daughter across the ocean: ''I have had some very ex-
pensive wars and would like to have you help your poor old mother
pay for them," the colonial children would have turned in and helped
her. But England treated her children like slaves and demanded help

THE

NUMB

IPENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL;

AN D

WEEKLY ADVERTISER.

EXP I R 1 N G : In Hopes of a RafccErection to LlTE a^ ai ri.

am forry to be
obliged to ac-
quaint my read-
ers that as the
Stamp Act is
feared to be obligatory
upon us after the firff. of
November ensuing (The
Fatal To-morrow), The
publif her of this paper, un-
able to bear the Burthen,
has thought it expedient
to Cop awhile, in order to

deliberate, whether any
methods can be found to
elude the chains forged for
us, and efcape the infup-
portable f lavery, which it
is hoped, from the laft
representation now made
againft that act, may be
effected. Mean while I
muft earneftly Requeft
every individual of my
Subfcribers, many of
whom have been long be-

hind Hand, that they
would immediately dif-
charge their refpective
Arrears, that I may be
able, not only to fupport
myfelf during the" Inter-
val, but be better prepar-
ed to proceed again with
this Paper whenever an
opening for that purpofe
appears, which I hope
will be foon.
WILLIAM BRADFORD.

Newspaper Announcing the Death op Liberty

in such a disagreeable way that the daughter became obstinate and re-
fused to assist her at all.

In repealing the Stamp Act England left a small tax or ''three pence
a pound on tea," thinking this would be so small that the colonists woul(^'^
be glad to pay it, after such heavy taxes had been repealed. But the
people of America said, ''No; 'in for a penny in for a pound'! It is the
principle we object to. We refuse to pay even a small tax without

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

representation in the government that levies that tax. To pay three-
pence a pound on tea would be admitting Great Britain's right to tax
us, and what would then prevent her increasing the amount or taxing
other things we want!"

The British government, however, did not seem to see the use of such
close reasoning and allowed shiploads of tea to be sent to the chief ports
of America. At Charleston, South Carolina, the tea was unloaded and
stored in damp cellars where it would spoil. In Philadelphia and New
York, the tea ships were not permitted to be unloaded, but were returned,

as they were to England. In
Boston, indignation meetings
were held, and a band of men,
dressed as Indians, went on
board the ships waiting in the
harbor to be unloaded, broke
open the chests of tea, and
emptied them into the water,
saying by this act :

' ' There, Mother England,
you may have your tea when
it's steeped enough!"

This was the ''Boston Tea
Party."

This was a bold act on the
l)art of Paul Revere and others
of the Society known as ''the
Sons of Liberty." The feel-
ing against England had
been growing and deepening for many years. Samuel Adams,
John Adams, James Otis, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Han-
cock and many others had been speaking against the tyranny and op-
pression of England. Benjamin Franklin was perhaps earlier than
all of them, and George Washington came to the front when an army
needed a commander.

Franklin had been postmaster general of the colonies and had gone
up and down the country in his official capacity. He was the best known
man of his day in America, if not in the whole world. His inventions

Dr. Benjamin Franklin

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

and his almanacs, with their quaint maxims of ''Poor Richard," had
made all classes in many lands familiar with the name of Doctor Frank-
lin. As a delegate to the first Continental Congress he originated a flag
showing a snake
cut in sections
separated. 0 n
each piece was
the name of a
colony. Under it
was the legend,
"Unite or Die."

Franklin had
been a kind of
postmaster gen-
eral in the French
and Indian War.
He had tried,
with young
George Washing-
ton, to influence
General B r a d -
dock, the British
commander, t o
fight the French
and Indians in
the right way,
but, with true
British arro-
gance, Braddock
scorned their ad-
vice, and he and
nearly all his sol-
diers were

slaughtered at Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Wash-
ington was then twenty-three years of age, and one of Braddock 's aides.
He became a leader in the military affairs of the colonies. He was also
elected a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, the first elected

Patrick Henry's Great Speech

'm^r

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

legislature in America. It was before this heroic body that Patrick
Henry made the great speech ending with the words, "Give me liberty
or give me death ! ' ' This speech rang like a war cry among the thirteen
colonies. A Continental Congress was elected and met in Carpenter
Hall in the city of Philadelphia. Here petitions were drawn up and
sent to the King of England. But George the Third, besides being a

stupid monarch, had
bad advisers. It was
stated that the minister
who had charge of the
atfairs of the colonies
could not even find the
principal American
cities on the map !

The Boston Tea
Party made the British
government very indig-
nant. The Massachu-
setts charter was re-
voked and the port of
Boston was ordered
closed. Regiments of
' ' redcoats ' ' were sent
from England to take
charge of Boston. The
people called the sol- .
diers in red uniforms
"lobster backs." The
British started the sing-
ing of "Yankee Doo-
dle" in derision, but
song. The Sons of
of Minute Men, who

Pulling Down the Statue of King George

the colonists adopted it as a sort of war

Liberty and other organized companies

were to be ready at a moment's notice, like a volunteer fire company,

were formed. Paul Revere was busy riding to and from Boston, New

York and Philadelphia with messages and notices of meetings of the

different colonies. The men we are now proud to call patriots were

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 93

tlien known as traitors and ringleaders in rebellion. The Britisli took
possession of Boston and drove out the patriots. A price was set upon
the heads of Hancock, Adams, and other leaders in the Continental
Congress.

When the Grand Union Flag was raised over the army quarters, Janu-
ary 1, 1776, it was the standard of the United Colonies. There were
thirteen red and white stripes, as there are in the flag of the United
States now, but instead of stars in the blue field in the corner, there
were the English Crosses, showing that the thirteen colonies were United
only to obtain their common rights from the British government. If
King George and his ministers had been disposed to treat the English
subjects in America with ordinary decency it is not likely that there
would have been a war. But the king sent governors to America who
inflamed the wrath of the people. A company of loyal Virginia plant-
ers once asked for aid in founding a college in their colony, for young
men, like Washington, who could not attend school in England. These
planters were treated so badly that one of them remarked that men in
Virginia had souls as well as Englishmen. This was the curt and in-
sulting reply :

' ' Oh hang your souls ! Go and raise tobacco. ' '

After the delegates from the different colonies began to meet, events
transpired rapidly. Washington was not one of the speakers, but for
knowledge and counsel, he was said to be the most important man in
the Congress. He had made an impassioned speech in the Virginia
House of Burgesses in which he stated in his great indignation over the
way the Mother Country was treating Massachusetts — in closing the
port of Boston, because of the Tea Party — that he would be willing to
equip and maintain an army of one thousand men at his own expense
and lead them to relieve blockaded Boston. Most of the other colonies
sent aid and provisions to sustain Boston in her hour of great trial. The
battle of Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775, roused the colo-
nies to a white heat of rage and sympathy. In less than two months
an army had gathered, and Colonel Washington of Virgina was elected
its commander-in-chief.

During all this time the people did not think of separating from the
Mother Country. The Mother Country seemed to regard America
merely as a market for English products. This attitude, shown through

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

many years, became irksome to the colonists, who had had a taste of
freedom. The governors, many of them, treated the people in a most
unreasonable and arrogant way. King George, instead of heeding the
warnings contained in the petitions sent by the Continental Congress,
issued a "speech" which was proclaimed in Boston on the day .the flag

Taking the Oath of Allegiance

of the United Colonies was raised in Cambridge. This pompons proc-
lamation showed such a lack of understanding of the rights of the people
of America that they began to see that the only way to secure the liber-
ties and rights of Englishmen would be to separate from such a govern-
ment and help themselves.

Not all the patriots of those early days remained as loyal and judicial

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 95

through all the years from the French and Indian war to the days of
the beginning of American Liberty as did brave Colonel George
Washington.

One of the earliest and most vigorous responses to the oppressions
of the L.amp Act and the revenue collectors came from Captain Abra-
ham Whipple of Providence, Rhode Island. As captain of a small
ship bearing the appropriate name of the Gamecock he captured twenty-
three French merchant vessels, during the French and Indian war. On
one of Whipple's cruises to the West Indies his little ship was caught
in a gale and it became necessary to throw overboard the guns and
heaviest cannon balls. Just after this a huge French ship hove in sight.
Too much disabled to cope with such an enemy, Whipple resorted to
stratagem. He cut up a spar into short lengths, painted them black like
cannon and stuck them out at the porthole. He ordered the men to put
their caps on the ends of handspikes and set them up to look like crews
all ready to fire the guns. With this harmless equipment, Whipple
bore boldly down upon the French j;)rivateer, which put about and soon
sailed out of sight.

Captain Whipple was soon given charge of a company of eighty vol-
unteers who went out in rowboats to the Gaspee, a British revenue ship.
He announced that he had come to arrest Lieutenant Duddington,
boarded the Gaspee, took Duddington and his men prisoners and burned
the obnoxious craft to the water's edge. The cool daring of this act
enraged the British. Captain Wallace, who commanded another Brit-
ish ship, wrote to Captain Whipple as follows:

Yon, Abraham Whipple, on the 17th day of Jnne, 1772, bnrned his Majesty's vessel,
the Gaspee, and I will hang you at yard's arm.

Whipple's reply was characteristic :

To Sir James Wallace, Sir:

Always catch a man before you hang him.

The day that Washington was elected commander-in-chief of the
Continental Army, Rhode Island purchased two sloops, the Providence
and a smaller ship, and placed Abraham Whipple in charge of them
to drive the British fleet out of Narragansett Bay. He did this effectu-

96 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

ally with his little fleet. Abraham Whipple fired the first shot on the
sea in the Revolution. He was recognized by the new government of
the United States before John Paul Jones and thus became the first
commodore of the American Navy. Commodore Whipple's many dar-
ing exploits placed him beside Paul Jones as a Revolutionary hero. It
is a curious fortune of war that his brave deeds have been so seldom
mentioned. It is sometimes stated that Whipple was in command of the
disguised Indians of the Boston Tea Party, but he had nothing to do
with that escapade. He conducted an exploit which required much more
heroism and shrewdness. This was the passing of the British blockad-
ing fleet off the coast of Rhode Island, in 1778, carrying important des-
patches to France. He chose a stormy night in April for this danger-
ous undertaking. Commanding his little ship, the Providence, he hurled
a defiant broadside at the British fleet as he passed through its lines.
With a voice stronger than the gale, he gave loud commands to his men
which confused the British, but he ordered the very opposite tactics in
lower tones to his men. So the Providence escaped to France with his
despatches to Dr. Franklin, John Adams and Arthur Lee, the American
commissioners in Paris, who finally succeeded in enlisting the aid of the
French for the American war for independence.

It was a strange looking navy of which Abraham Wliipple was the
first commodore. At his own expense he furnished uniforms for his
crews. With the little Providence he patrolled the coast to defend the
struggling commerce of the colonies against many and larger British
ships. While in Massachusetts Bay he was ordered to intercept a fleet
of one hundred and fifty vessels bound for the West Indies. Pretend-
ing to be a Halifax trader, he joined the fleet and by separating several
ships every night from the rest, under the cover of darkness, he took
possession of ten large vessels which he convoyed into Boston Harbor
in triumph. These ships, laden with food and provisions, afforded great
relief to the blockaded and nearly starving colony. His prize was val-
ued at more than a million dollars.

In 1779 Commodore AVliipple sailed under sealed orders to the aid of
General Lincoln at Charleston, South Carolina. But the struggle was
too unequal even for Abraham Whipple. Their combined land and
sea forces were too feeble to make much impression on the eighty-five
thousand men on the British side. Whipple was more brave than wise.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

**His not to reason why." He and liis small crews were soon swallowed
up in the general disaster to the Americans at Charleston, while Wash-
ington was bound to his post watching New York City, far away to the
north. Whipple and his men were held prisoners of war until they were
exchanged after the heroic struggle for independence was won. While
held a prisoner, in painful inaction. Commodore 'WHiipple was forced
to look on and see large, well-equipped French fleets doing the work in
aid of Washington, Greene and Lafaj^ette that he would have given so
gladly and well if he had had even half as many ships and men to work
with. But the dauntless captain
spent no time in repining. His men
were ill and suffering. From his
private purse he took a house, fitted
it up as a hospital and maintained it
for the benefit of the men of his
command.

Long after the war was over he
was forced to accept a small pension
— about as much as a private sol-
dier receives to-day. The redoubt-
able commodore died in Marietta,
Ohio, after the beginning of the Sec-
ond War with Great Britain. Here
is part of a quaint tablet placed
upon his tomb :

''Sacred to the Memory of Com-
modore Abraham Whipj^le, whose
fame, skill and courage will ever re-
main the boast of his Country. In the long Revolution he was first on
the seas to hurl defiance at Proud Britain and there to wave the Star
Spangled Banner."

But it was John Paul Jones who raised the first flag of the Revolution.
This was a yellow banner with a rattlesnake coiled at the roots of a
liberty tree, above which was written ' ' An Appeal to Heaven, ' ' and be-
neath it, ''Don't Tread on Me." This navy flag was raised even before
Washington's Flag of the United Colonies broke forth in the breezes
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on New Year's Day, 1776.

y—The Story of the Liberty Bell.

John Paul Jones

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

In union is strength. When the colonies came together and compared
notes the idea of independence grew rapidly. Thomas Jefferson, who
wrote the Declaration of Independence, afterward said of the sentiments
of the colonists :

„ miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiillliiiiiiiil^ iiiiiiiiifc,

Opening the First Congress

Before the 19th of April, 1775, I had never heard a whisper of a disposition to
separate from the Mother Country.

Washington went still further in saying :

When I first took command of the army (July 3, 1775), I abhorred the idea of inde-
pendence, but I am now fully convinced that nothing else will save us.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 99

After the Continental Congress met in the State House (now known
as Independence Hall), Philadelphia, the feeling grew stronger and
stronger for liberty. The work of many years of James Otis, Patrick
Henry, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel and John Adams and many other
burning patriots was now rapidly bearing fruit. The colonial dele-
gates were terribly in earnest. Yet a boyish spirit of playfulness pre-
vailed. This alone seemed to relieve the terrific intensity of the meet-
ings. Benjamin Harrison, the big, bluff, jolly man, whose son and
great-grandson long afterwards became President of the United States,
was a candidate for president of the Continental Congress. But little,
neat, well-dressed John Hancock, the merchant prince of Boston, was
elected. The giant Harrison, to show his good will, picked up little
John Hancock in his fat arms, carried him to the chair of the presiding
officer and seated him there amid the cheers and applause of the "most
potent, grave and reverend seignors" who composed that illustrious
body. That men are but '*boys of larger growth" was never better il-
lustrated than in the immortal Congress that brought forth the Declara-
tion of Independence.

It was George Washington's boyhood friend, Richard Henry Lee, of
Virginia, who arose on the 17th of June and gravely read the following :

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde-
pendent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and
that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought
to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming
foreign alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective colonies
for their consideration and approbation.

These resolutions were eloquently seconded by John Adams of Massa-
chusetts. The names of the mover and seconder of these resolutions
were omitted from the records of the Congress. This was wise, for
every leader in the movement for liberty was a marked man in Eng-
land, fie was declared an outlaw and an arch-traitor, and a price was
set upon his head.

Richard Henry Lee's son was then in school in England. An Eng-
lish gentleman, who, in spite of all precautions for secrecy, had learned
of Lee's motion, and putting his hand on young Lee's head said: "We

100

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

shall yet see your father's head on Tower Till." Tower Hill was the
British place for beheading traitors. The boy, true son of a brave
father, promptly replied : ' ' You may have it when you can get it. ' '
After a brief discussion of Richard Henry Lee's resolutions it was

Resolved, that the consideration of them be deferred until to-morrow morning, and
that the members be enjoined to attend punctually at ten o'clock, in order to take the
same into consideration.

The next day, Saturday, June 8, the discussion began promptly. It
was continued, with bitter opposition, all that day and resumed on Mon-
day the 10th. One delegate
who opposed the resolutions
declared that there was no
reason for passing them ex-
cept ^'the reason of every
madman," just for the sake
of making "a show of
spirit. ' '

John Adams made a great
speech in favor of the reso-
lutions.

On Monday, June 10, ac-
tion upon Lee's resolutions
was postponed until three
weeks from that day. Mr.
Lee had to go home on ac-

V/^y^^^Z^Y I ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ illness of his

__/____^ I wife. As journeys were
^*** — -^ I made on those days, on
horseback, or in coaches, he
missed the discussion of his own resolutions.

On Tuesday, June 11, a committee was appointed to prepare a state-
ment of the case for the colonies. This statement was afterwards named
the Declaration of Independence. This committee was composed of
Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin
Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert
R. Livingston of New York. Thomas Jefferson, as chairman of the com-

102 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

mittee, was requested to write out an appropriate statement. Jeffer-
son was staying in a brick house, out in an open field, only a short dis-
tance from the meeting place of the Congress. The report of this com-
mittee, written by its chairman, became the immortal Declaration of
Independence, one of the four great documents of history.

The three weeks were up on July 1, that year, when the report of
the committee was read and the discussion was resumed. The resolu-
tions were passed in triumph on July 4, and signed on that day
by the President and Secretary of the Congress. John Hancock, though
a small man, wrote a big, strong hand. He is said to have remarked
when he wrote his name, "There! King George can see that without
spectacles." When big, fat Benjamin Harrison signed his name he
said to Elbridge Gerry, who was a small, thin man, "You will be kick-
ing in the air long after I am dead." The men knew that if they did
not succeed in their struggle for independence they would all be hanged
as traitors. Dr. Benjamin Franklin humorously remarked, while he
and others were signing their names :

"We must all hang together or assuredly we must all hang separately."

Such was the spirit of the fathers who planned large liberties for
their grateful children.

As the sessions were held for a secret discussion the Liberty Bell was
not rung nor was the Declaration of Independence read to the people
until July 8. At this time John Adams, "the father of Inde-
pendence" wrote home to his wife, in Braintree. near Boston, the fol-
lowing true prophecy :

Yesterday the greatest q;:estion was decided that was ever debated in America; and
a greater, perhaps, never was nor never will be decided among men. The (fourth)
day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am
apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anni-
versary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn
acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pompous parade,
with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the
continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 103

FALSE FREEDOM AND TRUE LIBERTY

They bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,
And still revolt when truth would set them free, —
License they mean when they cry Liberty.

— Milton.

SLAVERY was mentioned in the draft of the Declaration of In-
dependence reported to the Continental Congress as **a pirati-
cal warfare against human nature itself. ' ' This clause was left
out of the Declaration, and omitted later from the Constitution
of the United States. Thus many concessions had to be made in order
to induce the people of all the thirteen colonies by vote, to adopt it. After
the War for Independence was over the people of the colonies went back
to their homes and began to look upon the other colonies as rivals if not
enemies. They were soon quarreling and in danger of going to war
among themselves. Washington, Franklin and young Alexander Hamil-
ton were among the strongest bonds that bound the thirteen colonies
together.

The States did not become really United States until the Constitu-
tion was adopted by them all and Washington was made President. The
last public acts of both Franklin and Washington were for the purpose
of doing away with slavery. In fact. Congress itself began to take
measures toward this result, and slavery would have died a natural and
easy death but for the invention, in 1793, of the cotton gin, a machine for
picking out the many tiny seeds from the fluffy balls of ripened cotton.
Usually a great invention helps along the cause of Liberty in some way
or other, but the cotton gin made the chains of black slavery stronger
and heavier than ever. This was because one slave, working with the
cotton gin, could take the seeds out of more cotton in one day than a
hundred slaves could pick out with their fingers alone. This made
slave labor far more valuable and their Southern masters, the planters,
became many times wealthier than before. It made Southern lands im-
mensely valuable for the raising of cotton. It is easy for people to
believe what they wish, and people too often wish to believe an^ihing is
right which will put money in their pockets. So, gradually, many of the
people in the South learned to think of slavery as a thing ordered of
God. The people of the North have no right to blame them for this,

104

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

for when New England's pocket-book was interested, tlirougli its cotton
spinning and weaving industries, abolitionists were mobbed in the
streets of Boston. Had cotton been a northern product the responsi-
bility for slavery might have been reversed.

Although Cornwallis surrendered to Washington in October, 1781,
and a treaty of peace was signed two years later between England and
the United States, at Paris, in 1783, the English could not understand
that the American people were actually free. British men-of-war kept
overhauling American vessels of all kinds, impressing or forcing sail-
ors and other men to work and fight England 's battles on English ships.
This of itself was a form of slavery, and the United States protested
repeatedly against it, but England paid no attention to these protests.
Meanwhile the French people began their great struggle for ' ' Liberty,
Equality, Fraternity." As France had aided the United States in gain-
ing freedom, the French, of course, expected independent America to
turn in and help France in her struggles. France professed to have
the greatest admiration for all things American and to be following in
the footsteps of the United States on the highway to Liberty. Thomas
Jefferson, Washington's Secretary of State, was inclined to agree with
the French and would have involved the newly formed government of
the United States in a foreign war but for the cool-headedness of George
Washington. His true ear detected the false ring in the popular clamor

for Liberty in France. He knew that
Liberty was not what the French people
really wanted, but the license, or reckless-
ness, of an unruly mob. Although many
Americans became enraged at Washington,
and claimed that for the United States to
draw back and refuse to help France would
be mean and ungrateful, he remained firm.
The way the French treated Lafayette,
that true lover of Liberty, proved to Wash-
ington that it was not Liberty the French
people were striving for. They had been
oppressed by extravagant courts led by
French monarchs from the days of Louis
Lafayette XIII down to the Reign of Terror.

106

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

Louis XIV had given expression to two ideas which proved
that he realized that the people would rise up in their fury
against the nobility and destroy the sovereign himself. Louis on one
occasion said, when some one spoke of the interests of the State, "The
State — that's I!" At another time he said of the future of France,
"After me, the deluge!" After he died there came a deluge of blood
and it was called the French Revolution.

The people murdered the nobles and beheaded the royal family merely

French Eevolutionists

because they belonged to higher ranks of society. They murdered and
guillotined one another, and the Reign of Terror and of blood continued
until Napoleon came and found one of the public squares of Paris filled
with a howling mob. He ordered cannon fired into the seething mass of
people and drove them out of the square. Even Madame Roland, a
heroine and a true lover of Liberty, was sent to the guillotine by a group
of men who pretended to be working for "Liberty, Equality and Fra-
ternity." Just before she was beheaded she exclaimed, sadly:

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

107

"0 Liberty, Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy
name ! ' '

Lafayette was confined in one prison and his wife in another. While
James Monroe represented the United States as minister to Paris,
Mrs. Monroe went, one day, to call upon Madame de Lafayette in
a great gloomy prison of Paris. Madame de Lafayette had been
marked for execution that very afternoon, but so great was the respect
of the French for American Liberty that they released her instead of
sending her to the guillotine.

There were heroes from other countries who came to America to
serve an apprenticeship to Liberty in the land of the free. One of these
was Kosciusko, the Polish patriot, who fought bravely and sturdily
against Russia and the other countries which divided struggling Poland
among them as they had no right to do. Campbell described the death
of Kosciusko in the following lines :

Hope for a season bade the world farewell
And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell.

Pulaski, another lover of freedom, died in battle in America, and
Garibaldi, the Italian hero, spent years as a candle maker on Staten
Island, in New York Harbor. No one born in America can begin to
comprehend what true liberty means
to those who have suffered for the
cause of liberty in other lands.
Napoleon followed the Reign of
Terror in France and, in conquering
Europe, he promised certain liber-
ties to some of the conquered na-
tion. But Napoleon did not ''make
men free" in Europe. He did
something for American freedom
by selling the French possessions in
America to the United States in
1803. This was called by Ameri-
cans the Lousiana Purchase, Na-
poleon did this not for Liberty's
sake, but to raise money for his own Pulaski

108

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

wars and to make the United States a more powerful rival of England,
the ancient enemy of France. When Napoleon was meeting his fate at
Waterloo the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain
was being fought, in which America at last convinced the Mother Coun-
try that she must keep her hands entirely off the affairs of her daughter
over the sea. Though this war gained America her freedom from
other nations, she was far from free, for she still permitted slavery
within her borders.

This slavery made slaves not only of the black race but even of the

First Eailavay Train

white masters, whose principles were enslaved by their pocketbooks.
The hand of barbarism lay heavy upon the shoulders of men both
North and South. Freedom of opinion was muzzled and freedom of
conscience was gagged, either through self-interest or fear. This state
of affairs developed heroes and martyrs, and a literature throbbing with
a passion for freedom. William Lloyd Garrison started his little paper,
the *' Liberator," in Boston, in 1836. He lived to see the black slaves set

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

109

The Birthplace of Lincoln

free. Elijah Love joy was murdered in Alton, Illinois, because he exer-
cised the right of free speech in his paper.

The invention of the steamboat, the railroad, the sewing machine, the
reaper, the telegraph and telephone, have all tended to the extension
of freedom in the earth.. It now seems strange that the United States
was the last of civilized nations to free the slaves within he;: borders
after even Russia, usually believed
to be two centuries behind the
march of European civilization, had
set the serfs free by a single ukase
or proclamation from the emperor.
But the negroes belonged to another
race of people and the Americans
seemed to think black men could not
have the same right as white
men.

The cause of Liberty had to wait
for the rising of another man who
should finish the work begun by Washington and the fathers. The
man was Abraham Lincoln. As Washington was the ''father," Lincoln
became the ''savior" of his country. Lincoln was able to do all this
because his heart was right and his own mind was free. He could not
bear to see anyone's rights interfered with. Angry tears came into
his eyes when he, as a little boy, saw some wicked fellows putting live
coals on the back of a mud-turtle. He snatched the shingle away from
the largest boy and began to punish him for his cruelty. His
first school "composition" was about "cruelty to animals." He stated
in this that "an ant's life is as sweet to it as ours is to us." He believed
that birds and beasts had a right to live and have Liberty. His religion
was that of love to all men and even to the lower animals.

Abraham Lincoln showed by his actions that

He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

His whole life illustrated his own saying: "With malice toward none;
with charity for all."

Abraham Lincoln was the "knight of the Nineteenth Century." His

110 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

chivalry was far in advance of that of Richard Lion-Heart. Richard
was brave and kind to those of his own rank in life. But he was cruel
not only to his enemies but to the poor and oppressed. Richard, like
Alexander the Great, never learned to control himself. Even the Black
Prince, beloved of all the people and a favorite in history, was self-in-
dulgent and cruel. After all the ages of knighthood and chivalry, it
remains for Abraham Lincoln to show the world a true knight "with-
out fear and without reproach, ' ' because he had moral as well as physi-
cal courage. In all his love of mankind and his exalted heroism Presi-
dent Lincoln really represented the high advancement of the people of
the United States along the grand highway of freedom.

If the people had not believed in Lincoln and with him — that is, if they
had not believed as he did, they would never have made him President.
So, when he, as ruler of the whole United States, proclaimed freedom to
all the people in the country on New Year's Day, 1863, he announced
freedom to many more than the four millions of black slaves in the United
States. It meant Liberty to all the white people in that they were at
last willing to give the same liberty to others which they claimed as their
own right. This is why Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is one
of the four great documents of Liberty — the others being the Magna
Charta, the Compact in the "Mayflower," and the Declaration of
Independence.

There is yet another great step to be taken in the way of Liberty,
and that is, a doing away of war. The United States has taken its
proud place in the foremost ranks of freedom by becoming a leader and
guide in the paths of peace. As people have been learning that dueling
between men is not the true way to settle differences or questions of
honor, so with war, which is only dueling between nations. The time is
coming when men will gaze in wonder upon cannon and swords and other
implements of warfare as relics of barbarism, just as we now look upon
racks and thumb screws and the implements of torture once used by men
to make others think as they did.

When Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation an-
nouncing true freedom to all the white people as well as the blacks of
the United States of America, he was simply echoing the prophecy in-
scribed on the Liberty Bell: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the
land unto all the inhabitants thereof."

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

111

THE STORY OF THE BELL ITSELF

Ring out the old, ring in the new !
Ring out the false, ring in the true !

— Tennyson.

Ring, ring for Liberty !

— Brown.

THERE are many larger bells in the world than the Liberty Bell
of Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, but no bell in all history
has come to mean so much to the world. It is only twelve feet
around its rim and seven and a half feet around its crown —
a small bell as bells go nowadays, but how much sorrow and struggle
and heroism and happiness the Liberty Bell represents! It was or-
dered by the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania in 1751, twenty-
five years before the Declaration of Independence, through Robert
Charles, the agent of that Province in London. It was to be cast by
Thomas Lester of London, to weigh about two thousand pounds, and to
have in it, ''well shaped," in large raised letters, the following inscrip-
tions :
X Proclaim Liberty Throughout All. the Land Unto All the In-
habitants Thereof, Leviticus XXV, V, X., and

BY ORDER OF THE ASSEMBLY OF THE PROVINCE OF
PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE STATE HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA.
The Bell was modeled after one cast by King Henry III, son of King
John of England, about the year 1250, in memory of Edward the Con-
fessor, a pious Saxon king who lived several hundred years before that.

112 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

The original bell was named ''St. Edward" and Imng in the clock tower
of Westminster, London, but the people called it "Great Tom of West-
minster. ' '

The bright new Bell, with its Scripture verse and other inscriptions,
arrived from England in the good ship "Matilda," in August, 1752.
It was hung early in September that year and the first time it was rung
"without any violence whatever — it cracked!" This was a great dis-
appointment. At first the people were undecided what to do about it.
It would take a long time to send the cracked new bell back to Thomas
Lester in London and have it melted down and cast again. So they
decided to have it recast by "two ingenious workmen" named Pass and
Stow, bell founders of Philadelphia. These men melted the English
bell and added an ounce and a half of copper to the pound to make the
metal less brittle. They made it the same shape as before, with the same
Bible inscription, but, of course, put their names in place of the London
founders. But when the American bell was hung, there was a certain
want of clearness in its tone, probably because too much copper had
been added, so the ingenious Pass and Stow asked permission to cast it
once more. As the mold had been preserved this was not difficult. ^

The third bell was hung in the steeple of the State House of the Prov-
ince, in June, 1753. Still many people did not like the sound of the bell,
because nearly everyone thought nothing could be done quite so well in
America as in England. So another bell was ordered from Lester, but
when it came, after a long delay, it was no better than, if as good as, the
American Bell. It is not known what became of this second English
bell, but it was probably melted and made over into a number of smaller
bells.

So the Bell which first called together the loyal Assembly of the Eng-
lish Province of Pennsylvania, August 27, 1753, had been cast by
Americans and was destined to "proclaim Liberty throughout the land"
twenty-five years after it was ordered with that prophetic inscription.
Yet it began very soon to be the Liberty Bell. When England sent word
to the colonies just what laws to make the Bell was rung to show that
the Provincial Assembly "would not make laws by direction." This
was in May, 1755. On February 3, 1757, the Bell rang when "Mr.
Franklin" was sent "home to England" to see if something could be
done to induce the English Government to show a little regard for the

8— The Story of the Liberty Bell.

114

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

rights of the American Colonies. On September 9, 1765, the Bell
called the Assembly together to arrange for a Congress of all the Colo-
nies, Less than a month later, on October 5, the Bell was "muffled and
tolled" when the British ship, the "Royal Charlotte," arrived in Phila-
delphia with the hated stamps provided by the English Government in
accordance with the Stamp Act which so roused the indignation of the
American Colonies. The stamps were not permitted to be unloaded,

but were sent back to Eng-
land on a British man-of-
war. Nearly four weeks
later, on October 31, the Bell
was muffled and tolled all
day long when the enforcing
of the unjust Stamp Law
was begun in America,
Some of the people spent
that day in their houses
' ' mourning the death of Lib-
erty," while others indig-
nantly burned hateful
stamped papers in a Phila-
delphia restaurant known
as the London Coffee House,
The Bell called the people
together on April 25, 1768,
to protest against the Acts
of Parliament which were
intended to stop planing
mills and other lumber mills
and to put an end to the
manufacture of iron and steel in Pennsylvania, The king had ordered
his arrow affixed to pine trees, claiming them as his own. This prob-
ably led to the adoption of the pine tree as an emblem of Liberty on
colonial flags, sometimes with the rattlesnake coiled about its trunk,
and oftener with "An Appeal to Heaven" lettered above or below the
pine tree, which was sometimes called the "Liberty Tree,"

On July 30, the same year, the Bell called together a meeting of the

Franklin in the House of Lords

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

115

people in the State House yard to make the statement that * * the Parlia-
ment of Great Britain has reduced men here to the level of slaves."

December 27, 1773, shortly after the Boston *'Tea Party," the Bell
called together the largest and most indignant mass meeting ever seen
up to that time about the State House. The ship "Polly" was then com-
ing up the Delaware river loaded with taxed tea and other things from
England. The angry people voted then and there not to permit the
** Polly" to land her cargo. They appointed a committee to send the
captain and the consignee with the tea from the Arch Street wharf,
where it was about to land, back to its ' ' old Rotterdam place in Laden-
hall Street, London." Not content with sending a committee, the citi-
zens generally went down to see that the tea was not unloaded, having
said in the mass meeting that they would not have "the detestable tea
funneled down
their throats with
Parliament's duty
mixed with it, ' ' and
that "no power on
earth had the right
to tax them with-
out their consent."

After the "In-
dians" had thrown
overboard the tea
in Boston harbor,
the English Gov-
er'svment closed the
nort of Boston. So
Ihe Bell was muf-
fled and tolled
again when this
was announced, on
June 1, 1774, and
on the 18th of the
same month it
called a meeting to
express the pec- Draptino the declaration op Independence

116

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

pie's sympathy with the Boston sufferers. The Friends, or Quakers,
of Philadelphia, who did not believe in war, subscribed $12,700 in gold,
and other people contributed $10,000 more, besides eleven hundred and
sixty barrels of flour, and collected from the Southern States one hun-
dred hogsheads of sugar and one thousand barrels of rice, all of which
did much to save the shut-off city of Boston from starving as the British

Government intended.

On April 25, 1775, six
days after the battle of
Lexington and Concord,
the Bell called together a
great meeting at which
eight thousand citizens
pledged themselves to the
cause of Liberty.

As the discussions of the
Continental Congress
which adopted the Decla-
ration of Independence
had been held in secret
sessions, the Bell did not
ring for Liberty until the
Declaration was formally
read on July 8, 1776.

On July 4, 1777, the Bell
rang in the first anniver-
sary of the Declaration of
Independence. It a n-
nounced the surrender
of Cornwallis in October,
1781, and welcomed General and Mrs. Washington to Philadelphia
during the month following that great victory. In 1873 the Bell
rang again to proclaim the signing of the treaty of peace which had been
signed by Dr. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Arthur Lee at
Paris. This treaty formally ended the war. In December, 1799, the
Bell tolled during the funeral solemnities in memory of Washington.
In 1824 the Bell welcomed Lafayette to the city.

Thomas Jefferson

Signing the Treaty of Peace with England

118

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

On the Fourth of July, 1826, the Bell rang joyously to commemorate
the "year of jubilee" mentioned in the verse of Leviticus from which
the motto of the Bell was taken. It was fifty years that day from the
signing of the Declaration of Independence. On that day Jefferson,
who wrote the Declaration, and John Adams a prime mover of it, died
in their homes in Virginia and Massachusetts. The Bell tolled in honor

of those two great patriots and Presi-
dents, on July 24, 1826. On July 21,
1 834, the Bell tolled in memory of Lafay-
ette, who had recently passed away in
his native France. It is claimed by
.some that the Bell was cracked while
tolling for this great French patriot and
Iriend of freedom. Others say that it
(Tacked while being violently rung as a
tire alarm; but authorities generally
agree that its voice was heard for the last
lime during the funeral of Chief Justice
John Marshall, on July 8, 1835. Mar-
shall was the last of the giants and
friends of the heroes of the Revolution.
It seemed right and proper that the Bell
should be silent now that the voices of those who labored long and
well in the holy cause of Liberty were heard no more in Independence
Hall. Though the old Bell is now silent, it is more eloquent than ever
in behalf of freedom, as

The silent organ loudest chants
The master's requiem.

The Bell has made several journeys. The first was to save it from
destruction or sacrilege. When the British took possession of Phila-
delphia, in September, 1777, just before the battle of Germantown, the
Bell was taken down from the belfry over the State House, now called
Independence Hall, and carried away in a train of seven hundred wag-
ons, guarded by two hundred Virginia and North Carolina soldiers, to
Allentown, Pa., by way of Germantown and Bethlehem. The wagon
on which it was conveyed broke down in Bethlehem on September 29th.

John Marshall

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

119

The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell found a lodging place, like the Ark of Covenant in
olden times. It was safely kept in Zion's Church, Allentown, until
after the British left Philadelphia, when it was restored to its steeple,
June 27, 1778.

After it lost its voice one attempt was made to make it ring clearly
again. It was finally taken down and placed in a
glass case in the entry of Independence Hall.

The first of the Bell's journeys as a silent teacher
and example of patriotism was to the New Orleans
Exposition, in January, 1885.

It was on exhibition in the Pennsylvania Build-
ing at the World's Columbian Exposition at
Chicago, in 1893.

It went South to the Exposition in Atlanta,
Georgia, in 1895. It made the southern journey
again in 1902, to the Exposition at Charleston,
South Carolina. The following year the Bell went
north and its hoarse voice was heard on Bunker Hill, on the one hun-
dred and twenty-eighth anniversary of that early battle for independ-
ence. In 1904 it was taken to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at
St. Louis.

Everywhere, while on a journey, the Liberty Bell is received with en-
thusiasm by old and young. It is crowned with garlands and affection-
ately kissed by school children, while many tears well up in the eyes of
the older people who know more of the long, hard, sad story of Liberty.
Of course, none now recollect the days when its voice rang out clear and
strong, but there are many who remember the days of the later struggle
for freedom, when Abraham Lincoln stood in front of Independence
Hall on Washington's Birthday, 1861, and raised the Flag above the
Bell, saying, with reference to the principles laid down by the fathers
in the Declaration of Independence, that if the Union could not be saved
upon those pure principles he would rather be assassinated on that spot
than jro on with the struggle. It was then that Lincoln communed with
Washington, and the spirit of '76 met the spirit of '61 in the presence
of the great Bell of Liberty.

It rang for liberty, and round the world

The great notes traveled, and the hearts of men

120

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

Wakened and learned, and having learned,

They loved the now mute messenger whose mission was

To tell the world that Liberty means love.

And love of man for man makes nations free.

Who can describe the immortal scene wlien ciie Bell began to ''pro-
claim liberty throughout the land unto ail the inhabitants thereof "I It
was when John Nixon,

with a clear, strong voice,
stood out on the platform
commanding what is now
called Independence
Square. The place was
filled with people — a vari-
egated throng, relieved
now and then by the gray
garb of the Quaker. From
the iron-barred windows
overlooking the square
many prisoners listened to
the proclamation of Lib-
erty. Some were Tories,
or people who did not be-
lieve in independence.

In the throng stood a
man with a stern face,
lighted by a single eye,
for the other had been put
out when, as a little boy,
he was playing upon the
shore of his native France,
near Bordeaux. He had landed in Philadelphia only six weeks before,
driven up the Delaware by the British blockade. Though a French-
man of five and twenty, he was fervent in his devotion to the cause of
Liberty. He took the oath of allegiance and became a citizen of the
new-born republic as soon as it was possible to do so. That young man
was Stephen Girard, who afterward styled himself "Mariner and Mer-
chant." He could have added Hero and Patriot. He proved himself

Stephen Girard — from an Old Painting

122 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

to be both during the yellow fever epidemic in 1793, when nearly every
native born citizen fled the city, many deserting wives, parents and chil-
dren in the terror which prevailed, and the Government had to be re-
moved to Germantown. Stephen Girard and Peter Helm, two foreign
born patriots, risked their lives and stood by, caring for the sick, com-
forting the dying, and burying the dead.

In the second war for independence, the War of 1812, Stephen Girard,
then the richest man in the United States, offered his whole fortune to
the United States Government, if necessary, to save the liberties of the
country of his adoption.

Charles Brockden Brown has left a good description of the scene that
day, though he takes a poet's liberties with the dates and facts. The
old bellman was Andrew McNair, who had rung the Bell during those
troubled times for eighteen years. This is part of the poem:

THE LIBERTY BELL

There was a tumult in the city,

In the quaint old Quaker town,
And the streets were rife with people

Pacing restless up and down —
People gathering at the corners,

Where they whispered each to each,
And the sweat stood on their temples

With the earnestness of speech.

As the bleak Atlantic currents

Lash the wild Newfoundland shore,
So they beat against the State House,

So they surged against the door,
And the mingling of their voices

Made a harmony profound,
Till the quiet street of Chestnut

Was all turbulent with sound.

So they surged against the State House

While all solemnly inside
Sat the Continental Congress,

Truth and reason for their guide.

THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL 123

O'er a simple scroll debating

Which, though simple it might be,
Yet should shake the cliffs of England

With the thunders of the free.

Far aloft in that high steeple

Sat the bellman, old and gray,
He was weary of the tyrant

And his iron-sceptered sway.
So he sat with one hand ready

On the clapper of the bell
When his eye should catch the signal

The long-expected news to tell.

See! see! the dense crowd quivers

Through all its lengthy line
As the boy beside the portal

Hastens forth to give the sign;
With his little hands uplifted.

Breezes dallying with his hair, —
Hark! with high, clear intonation

Breaks his young voice on the air.

Hushed the people's swelling murmur

Whilst the boy cries joyously —
"Ring!" he shouts. "Ring, Grandpa,

Ring, oh, ring for Liberty!"
Quickly at the given signal

The old bellman lifts his hand.
Forth he sends the good news, making

Iron music through the land.

How they shouted! What rejoicing!

How the old Bell shook the air
Till the clang of Freedom ruffled

The calmly gliding Delaware!
How the bonfires and the torches

Lighted up the night's repose.
And from the flames, like fabled Phoenix,

Our glorious Liberty arose!

124 THE STORY OF THE LIBERTY BELL

That old State House Bell is silent,

Hushed is now its clamorous tongue,
But the spirit it awakened

Still is living — ever young;
And when we greet the smiling sunlight

On the Fourth of each July,
We will ne'er forget the bellman

Who, betwixt the earth and sky,
Rang out loudly "Independence !"

Which, please God, shall never die!

D N O

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