Bells Concert July 4 Celebration

“Punctually, according to the announcement, Mr. James E. Ayliffe, the well-known artist of Trinity Church, caused these bells in the old steeple to send forth their rich melody. The air was light and pure, and the music from the bells in the tower never seemed sweeter or clearer. At early morning, and again at noon, the following national and other airs were played, to the great delight of all who were within hearing distance: [see above].

We have occasion to know of several families who traveled, some five, and others seven and even eight miles, for the sole purpose of listening to the melodies which came from those bells. Some of these people, it is true, were brought up in English towns, where a chime of bells is no unusual thing. They had never heard the bells of Trinity, and hence they left their homes before dawn to hear something which would remind them of their early days in Old England. All expressed much satisfaction at what they heard. One enthusiast declared that nothing so good was ever heard on English soil as the ‘Bould Sojer Boy.’ The cheering on the street after the playing of ‘Yankee Doodle,’ ‘Hail Columbia,’ and the ‘Red, White and Blue,’ was long and prolonged.”