Ringer

“ Every Practitioner, that has judgment to beat his own time, has the advantage of ringing his bell true, whilst the rest of the notes commit faults; for the compass being once fixed, as many bells as do either rise or fall from thence commit errors.
The truest way of raising a peal of bells according to the best of modern practice, is, as quick as may be; every Ringer taking assistance to raise his bell, according as the going of it requires. In raising of them, the lesser bells as the Treble &c. ”

“ A peal, in technical language, is a performance on the bells of more than 5000 changes ; and it occupies the ringers a considerable period of time, generally more than three hours. But a touch or flourish on the bells, which is the ordinary method of notifying any joyful occurrence, is round ringing varied by changes at the option of the ringers, or according to the custom of the belfry. It is usual in the first instance to set the bells ; that is, to throw every bell, with its mouth upward, in a stationary position in the frame. ”

“ George, Devon, who from quite a young man has entered deeply and fully into all matters of interest relative to Church Bells and Ringing, and who now supervises that bell-ringing page in the interesting weekly paper called Church Bells, where from time to time much is given which is interesting to all who may wish to become ringers in practice or performance, with good and reliable information as the groundwork upon which they desire to ultimately place their edifice of knowledge of the subject in question. ”

“ It appears to us quite worth the consideration of the clergy whether the practice of hand-bell ringing would not do much to keep their corps of church ringers together and provide an antidote to the public-house. We find that a medium set of eight hand-bells, forming an octave, can be obtained for from four to five pounds; and the steps of the art present no considerable difficulty, even to rustic intellects. Many a young country curate would find it a pleasant thing to take the post of leader, and call his choir together for hebdomadal practices. ”

“ Change-ringing is, as we have already noted, an entirely modern introduction, and is, moreover, confined to England. In pre-Reformation days we hear of guilds of ringers, as, for instance, at Westminster Abbey, in the reign of Henry III, where the brethren of the guild appear to have enjoyed their privileges since the time of [Pg 68] Edward the Confessor. In smaller monastic or collegiate establishments clerics in minor orders were often entrusted with the duty of ringing the bells, as at Tong, in Shropshire (cf. Plate 30) . ”

“ But not only is there a general lack of knowledge upon ringing church bells on the part of the majority, even in this bell ringing isle—it can well be added that, as to change ringing, the really scientific, very useful, and interesting part of ringing is “dog Latin” or “double Dutch” to ninety-nine persons out of every hundred, or even more, the general impression being that it is all very easy, and only to pull—that anyone can do all that is to be done in a very short time ”

“ I only know that I sat with fixed eyes, not even blinking, for fear of even for a second shutting out the sane and visible world about me. A sense of deadness commenced in my hands and worked up my arms. My chest seemed flattened.
Then the telephone bell rang.
The cat leaped to his feet. Somehow I reached forward and took down the receiver.
"Who is it?" I cried, in a voice that was thin, I knew, and unnatural.
The telephone is not a perfect medium. It loses much that we wish to register but, also, it registers much that we may wish to lose. ”

“ Mr. Reed telephoned for a nurse at four o’clock from a store on Eleventh Street. Explained that his telephone was out of order.
Mr. Patton folded up the papers and thrust them back into his pocket. Evidently he saw I was determined, for he only said:
“Have you got your revolver?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know anything about telephones? Could you repair that one in an emergency?”
“In an emergency,” I retorted, “there is no time to repair a telephone. But I’ve got a voice and there are 12 windows. If I really put my mind to it you will hear me yell at headquarters.” ”

“ But you must not print either this article or a single word about this matter unless you pay three hundred dollars to Miss Branch. You understand that distinctly?”
He replied, “I understand. A man will be up to see you in half an hour.”
Fifteen minutes after the conversation there came a telephone-call; a voice, sharp and determined, at the other end of the wire, “Is Miss Branch there?” My wife was answering the phone and she beckoned to me. We stared at each other, uncertain what to answer or what to think.
“Miss Branch?” said my wife. “No! Certainly Miss Branch is not here.” ”

“ His hand moved slightly on his desk; she did not see him touch a button, but she heard behind her the almost inaudible buzzer on the other side of the wall in the waiting room; and she knew that the signal was given to show in the florid-faced, gray-haired man. Rinderfeld moved, in courtly manner, toward the farther door directly communicating with the hallway.
"At any time telephone me, in emergency, here or at my home number; some one always knows where I am." ”

“ That I have been living since my childhood in front of a show and that I never have been taken in for a moment by its tinsel and its noise or by anything that went on on the stage. Do you understand what I mean, Captain Lingard?"
There was a moment of silence. "What does it matter? We are no children now." There was an infinite gentleness in Lingard's deep tones. "But if you have been unhappy then don't tell me that it has not been made up to you since. Surely you have only to make a sign. A woman like you." ”

“ Porter, wrath getting the better of her judgment, and laying an imperious hand on Dorothy’s arm she conducted her from the room.
Mitchell turned back and paced up and down the library for over five minutes, then paused in front of the telephone stand. “So the old lady is hostile,” he muttered, turning the leaves of the telephone directory. “And Pope isn’t back yet—” He ran his finger down the list of names and at last found the one he sought. Hitching the telephone nearer he repeated a number into the mouthpiece, and a second later was talking with Beverly Thorne. ”

“ I was, at first, unable to answer her. When I did speak, my voice was shaken.
"What number, please?" she repeated, in a bored tone. There is nothing in all the world so bored as the voice of a small town telephone-operator. ”

“ Knowing neither the Alarian language nor any telegraphic or heliographic code, I did not bother to watch the flashes, but contented myself with looking to see whether he would be answered. He could only be sending a message about us.
34
It was, of course, from the white manor house that the answer came. It was the only building in sight. The residence of a superior officer, no doubt, and telephone service either disconnected or not trusted or not available. The under officer rapped suddenly on the table. ”

“ But my bell-ringing practice was shortened by a singular accident, which not only stopped my performance, but made even the sound of a bell terrible to my ears.
One Sunday, I went with another into the belfry to ring for noon prayers, but the second stroke we had pulled showed us that the clapper of the bell [Pg 88] we were at was muffled. Some one had been buried that morning, and it had been prepared, of course, to ring a mournful note. We did not know of this, but the remedy was easy. "Jack," said my companion, "step up to the loft, and cut off the hat;" ”

“ Mr. Griffin. Was there any possibility that this telephone call could have been made to you at home rather than at the radio station?
Mr. Knight. No; none whatsoever.
Mr. Griffin. Did Jack call you on a private line of any sort, or did he have to go through a switchboard to get you?
Mr. Knight. Well, no. Well, the switchboard would have been closed. We have two news lines which are supposed to be private but everybody knows them. Even kids call on them. ”

“ In the big billiard-room perspiring men in thin cotton singlets would stop the game, listen, cue in hand, for a while through the open windows, then nod their moist faces at each other sagaciously and whisper: “The old fellow is talking about his river.”
His river! The whispers of curious men, the mystery of the thing, were to Lingard a source of never-ending delight. The common talk of ignorance exaggerated the profits of his queer monopoly, and, although strictly truthful in general, he liked, on that matter, to mislead speculation still further by boasts full of cold raillery. ”

“ This girl, it was generally known, Lingard had adopted, was having her educated in some convent in Java, and spoke of her as "my daughter." He had sworn a mighty oath to marry her to a white man before he went home and to leave her all his money. "And Captain Lingard has lots of money," would say Mr. Vinck solemnly, with his head on one side, "lots of money; more than Hudig!" And after a pause—just to let his hearers recover from their astonishment at such an incredible assertion—he would add in an explanatory whisper, "You know, he has discovered a river." ”

“ The mate spoke with low distinctness from the shadows of the quarter-deck.
“There’s the breeze. Which way do you want to cast her, Captain Lingard?”
Lingard’s eyes, that had been fixed aloft, glanced down at the dejected figure of the man sitting on the skylight. He seemed to hesitate for a minute.
“To the northward, to the northward,” he answered, testily, as if annoyed at his own fleeting thought, “and bear a hand there. Every puff of wind is worth money in these seas.” ”

“ Lingard shook his head. He saw the narrow gleam of the woman's teeth between the parted lips of her smile, as if all the ardour of her conviction had been dissolved at the end of her speech into wistful recognition of their partnership before things outside their knowledge. And he was warmed by something a little helpless in that smile. Within three feet of them the shade of Jorgenson, very gaunt and neat, stared into space.
"Yes. You are strong," said Lingard. "But a whole long night sitting in a small boat! I wonder you are not too stiff to stand." ”

“ In the peaceful gloom of the verandah, with its lowered screens, they heard faint noises from the world outside in the blazing sunshine: a hail on the river, the answer from the shore, the creak of a pulley; sounds short, interrupted, as if lost suddenly in the brilliance of noonday. Lingard got up slowly, walked to the front rail, and holding one of the screens aside, looked out in silence. Over the water and the empty courtyard came a distinct voice from a small schooner anchored abreast of the Lingard jetty.
"Serang! Take a pull at the main peak halyards. This gaff is down on the boom." ”

“ Ringfield, ashamed and bitter, stood and watched this sad scene with folded arms and tightly drawn mouth. Was it true? Was this his work? This dishevelled, staring-eyed, sodden, incoherent creature, shrewdly wise in his cups, had taken the place of the elegant and easy English gentleman, the educated Oxford man, dabbler in high-class verse and prospective happy bridegroom, and what woman would care to have his arm around her now? ”

“ To ring, and to ring changes, on either church or musical hand bells, are three very different subjects. In order to ring changes, however, it is absolutely necessary to have a good knowledge of ringing, or the means adopted to make the bells sound in their proper time and place, whether it be in the church tower, on the large swinging bells with ropes, or in the parlour or drawing-room, upon the musical bells, held in the hand or hands. ”

“ She released her firm hold of that iron forearm which fell slowly by Lingard's side. She had regained fully the possession of her personality. There remained only a fading, slightly breathless impression of a short flight above that earth on which her feet were firmly planted now. “And is that all?” she asked herself, not bitterly, but with a sort of tender contempt.
“He is so sane,” sounded Lingard's voice, gloomily, “that if I had listened to him you would not have found me here.”
“What do you mean by here? In this stockade?” ”

“ When he thought it was quite safe, Ringfield shook himself free from the hay and straw that encumbered him, and prepared to descend the ladder, but he had scarcely enjoyed the luxury of stretching his long limbs (for he could not stand upright in the loft) when he heard footsteps approaching, and looking down, he perceived Father Rielle enter the barn, lantern in hand, and with thin, high-nosed, sour countenance depicting intense surprise, eagerly explore the place for Pauline. Ringfield held his breath, but had enough sense to lie down again in the straw, and feign slumber ”

“ Mechanical ringing is more common on the continent of Europe, especially in Belgium and Flanders; ringing by hand is more common in England, where the development of change-ringing (see below) has brought it into prominence.
(1) Mechanical ringing is effected by a system of wires connected with small hammers striking the bells, usually on their outside, and worked either by connexion with the machinery of a clock, so as to play tunes or artificially arranged chimes at definite intervals ”

“ She met the deepened expression of his solicitude with a look so steady, with a gaze that in spite of herself was so profoundly vivid that its clearness seemed to Lingard to throw all his past life into shade.—"I don't feel faint. It isn't that at all," she declared in a perfectly calm voice. It seemed to Lingard as cold as ice.
"Very well," he agreed with a resigned smile. "But you just catch hold of that rail, please, before I let you go." She, too, forced a smile on her lips. ”