Bells Concert July 4 Celebration

Includes program.

“As a relief from the boom and glare of war there was nothing more soothing, nor yet more delightfully grand, than the ringing of Trinity chimes. Even the more vicious bootblack, whose metaphoric soul was in a torpedo and clasped in his shoebrush hand, came out to the sounding of Trinity chimes and forgot to cheat in his change. There is nothing like music for soothing the otherwise savage bootblack breast; nor was there aught that was grander yesterday than the ringing of Trinity chimes. Mr. Ayliffe, who had taken a year from his accustomed devotions, in order to do a championship match on Trinity’s bells, did ‘Yankee Doodle’ vigorously, and rolled out every note.

When Ayliffe pounded out the ‘Changes on Eight Bells’ there was an instant cessation from business. Breakfast at seven was delayed and dinner at twelve was burned. The Fire Marshall reports that at the hour of noon the city was filled with an odor of over-cooked dinners which caused an alarm of fire, and the vital statistics man declares that if all his subordinates had not gone to Long Branch to see Grant and the races, he would have had the whole city raked and scraped for reports of the sacrifice. These are the effects of music when done on the tuneful bells; and, as an undeniable proof of music’s power, we have it from our weather man, who saw it through the clouds, that when ‘Columbia the Gem of the Ocean’ was done by the bells every bald-headed old gentleman in New Jersey rolled out, in full stomach accord, a small edition of the tune. ‘Hail Columbia’ found consonant voices everywhere, and when the ‘Scotch Airs’ were played the entire of the Seventy-ninth joined in, some even without their kilts. The ‘Bould Soger Boy,’ coming so unexpectedly out of Trinity steeple, set all the servant girls looking up for him, instead of, as usual, round the corner. ‘See the Conquering Hero Comes’ made a brigadier general of every little vagabond in the city; and when he banged out ‘Yankee Doodle’ the entire patriotism of the metropolis, young and old, looked, while whistling, as if cooling over-boiled porridge, with an awful, eye-startling blast. Such was the effect of Trinity chimes, and the effect was healthful too.”     

“At 7 ½ in the morning, the sweet chimes of the Trinity bells sounded out clear and far over the City. Fifty or a hundred people gathered in the church-yard among the grassy tombs to listen, but their number was as nothing to the thousands who heard the clang of the monstrous bells which, though it sounded so deafening to those below, stole through their distant windows in mellow undulations, striking deliciously in the half-sleeping, half-waking ear. Many a dozing patriot, no doubt, murmured as the soft sound of ‘Let the Merry Church Bells Ring’ penetrated his inner consciousness, ‘Yes, let ‘em ring,’ and, as the operatic strains died away, asked in an obfuscated sort of way for more. Nothing could be more appropriate marching music than ‘The Bould Soger Boy’ for the seven thousand and odd of that article who were contemporaneously splashing their white pantaloons in the mud of Madison-square, nor than the ‘Child of the Regiment’ for the boys and girls of the said transmogrified citizens who were running about the sidewalks or popping crackers at the same hour. ‘Hail Columbia’ struck the keynote of the tone for a population proposing to spend the next eighteen hours in doing precisely that thing. ‘Columbia the Gem of the Ocean’ was a sentiment which aroused no controverting discussion. ‘Yankee Doodle’ was appropriately played twice, indicating, no doubt, that there would be twice as much fun as solemnity in the national rejoicings. The same programme was repeated at noon.”