NO oR aS EO REP Bin heb Zor 5 
'. SPEAKER CHAMP CLARK is very optimistic as regards 
the outlook for the new year. He says: “All the signs 
of the times indicate that 1915 will be a great year for 
America and Americans. Anybody can see that business 
is picking up. The farmers are preparing to raise the 
biggest crops ever produced. The .railroads are putting 
on men. About the middle of the New Year there will 
not be a man idle in the United States who wants work 
at a good wage, This is a nation of optimists.” 
Tue WretcH Wuo First ConcelIvep the idea of 
placing sheet copper in the interior of cotton bales doubt- 
less has not felt any twinges of conscience, but he ought 
to. His ingenious evil has caused no little trouble for 
honest shippers. The innocent suffer while the guilty 
often escape the penalties of their ~wrong-doing. 
How Quickiy CHANGES come about! St. Peters- 
burg already sounds queer and Petrograd sounds as na- 
tural as can be. 
THE Eprtor oF THE TIMES wonders where the horses 
are in the Beverly Farms Fire Station and why they are 
not sold, inasmuch as the engine has an electric tractor. 
He forgets that there is a horse-drawn hose cart and a 
hook-and-ladder truck. Beverly Farms needs a library 
and if Beverly Farms were content to put up with the 
present structure it would be time to ask “Why.”  Pro- 
gress is the order of the day, not stagnation. 
THE Town oF MILTON is again after the Slater 
taxes. The tax-payers of three municipalities are inter- 
ested, for the taxes from the Slater fortune would be a 
find for any board of assessors and mean an appreciable 
lowering of taxes in the place fortunate enough to win 
the decision. 
THE Boston Licenstnc Board is having some 
trouble with its licensees in regard to “treating.” It is 
an evil that has taken generations to develop and pro- 
gress against it may be made slowly. 
Passing of the Old Bell 
THE Manchester Town Records tell us that in 1750, 
the town voted “To Repear the Meeting house.” 
In 1752, it was voted “To Build a Stephel.” It was in 
1754, however, that it was actually built “from the ground 
upward.” In the same year a,weathercock was provided 
by the town. This is the same as still surmounts the 
tower of the present church, having looked the wind in 
the eye for 160 years. Its cost was £7 10s. 8d. In 1785, 
a bell was purchased weighing 300 pounds, and costing 
£58 3s. 7d. This bell remained in the steeple until 1845, 
when it was replaced by the munificence of a citizen by 
a much larger one. This bell has continued to give ser- 
vice for 70 years, until some months ago it lost its sweet 
tone. It was thought the new duties imposed on it of 
serving for the tapper of the fire alarm, and striking the 
hours for the town clock caused it to crack. At a special 
town meeting the past fall it was voted to buy a new bell. 
This bell is now being installed, and by the time this 
is read is probably giving service. It was in 1809, that 
a new Meeting-house was built at a cost of $8500. This 
structure still stands. The interior was remodelled in 
1845, and again, to some extent, in 1895. It is one of 
the finest specimens (see front cover) of church archi- 
tecture of New England of the early roth century and is 
always admired by tourists from all parts of the country 
who visit the North Shore in summer. 
The old bell was presented to the town by the late 
Capt. Benjamin L. Allen. 
The new bell is bought by the town at a cost of about 
$1100, exclusive of the cost of installing. There will be 
a rebate allowed on the old bell, as old metal, at 22c. a 
pound. The new bell weighs 2032 pounds, against 1800 
pounds for the old bell. Inscribed on the new bell are 
the words: “Town of Manchester, 1914. Walter R. Bell, 
Frank G. Cheever, George R. Dean, Board of Selectmen.” 
Meneeley Bell Co. of Troy, N. Y., are the manufacturers. 
- Considerable comment is heard from all quarters 
and indignation is expressed as to the wording of the 
inscription on the new bell. Inasmuch as the bell which 
has done service for the town the last seventy years was 
@ giit of one of her sturdy sons, Capt B. L. Allen, a. 
direct descendant of the original settlers of the town, 
and inasmuch as the town receives more than one-third 
enough money from the sale of this gift to buy the new 
bell, it is felt that the original donor.of the bell should be 
honored by having his name inscribed on the new beil 
by some such words as “Originally presented by B, L, 
His name is inscribed on it. : 
(Written for the Breeze) 
No longer you'll swing in the old church tower 
Where you’re rang for years and told us the hour, 
Watchful sentinel day and night, 
Always ringing out for the right. 
For years you called the old church. choir, 
Rang out the alarm when our homes were on fire; 
Never tired or weary, never making complaints, 
Never failing on Sunday to welcome the saints. 
In mid-winter’s storms and the hurricane’s screech 
Gave the midnight alarm of a wreck on the Beach; 
For our loved one’s you’re tolled their funeral knell 
True to the last,—faithful old bell. 
We have heard your ring on the midnight air, 
And watched from our windows the flames red glare 
Lighting the sky for miles around,— 
Then heard the “all out’—that welcome sound. 
In war ever ready by day or night, 
Always proclaiming the cause of the right; 
Many dark hours we’ve waited in vain, 
But you rang out at last when victory came. 
Hardly a man’s alive today 
But has played you some trick in his boyish way, 
When the “night before” was his fondest hope, 
To break the church lock and pull on your rope. 
Year after year on your lofty throne, 
Summer and winter you’ve sat alone; 
If your tongue could but speak in the language we know 
What a tale you could tell of the Passing Show. 
But your tongue is now silent, faithful old bell; 
You’ve done your duty and done it well. 
Of your good deeds done let our children tell, 
But we'll cherish your memory Old Bell, Farwell! 
Allen.” The inscription of the names of a board of town 
officers on this or any other monument means~ little ‘to 
posterity—other than handing down names that mean 
nothing, perhaps, to generations 50 or 75 years from 
now, 
