Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 296, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1919 — The Bolls of Michael’s Mount [ARTICLE]

The Bolls of Michael’s Mount

Th* pealing of joy bells In the year 1919 has made up for many years of silence in the ancient belfries of Europe. Somebody deplores that on the occasion of the peace the one remaining bell of St. Michael’s Mount on the Brittany coast, should not have been rung. There would have been a certain piquancy in hearing the cling of that bell, the gift In 1711 of the abbot from across the Rhine who, be it said, reigned at the Mount only by proxy. But St. Michael’s Mount is without its , bells; even the abbot’s bell which used to warn and guide the fishermen out on the bay has ceased to ring. The old abbey’s pern was busy Indeed, during the Hundred Years’ War, warning the countryside of the approach of the enemy. In the Revolution the order went forth that the bells should be melted down, but it was never carried out In the intervening years all the bells have disappeared except the one given by the German dignitary.