Charleston (S.C.) News and Courier, January 19, 1902

St. Michael’s Bells to the Liberty Bell

Hail, Oh Liberty Bell!

All hail!  And all welcome!

We toiled at the news of the Stamp Act,

And glad at the birth of the nation

Our music re-echoed your ringing.

We have faced every form of misfortune,

Perils of fire and ocean.

Five times we have crossed the Atlantic,

Twice been the prey of the victor.

We’ve rung to the roar of the earthquake,

And quivered to battle-bolts screaming.

Yet peaceful we hung in our tower,

Ever performing our duty,

Telling the flight of the hours,

Telling of pain and of pleasure.

Twice we’ve toiled for a century dying.

Twice welcomed the birth of a new one.

How many brides blithely carolled,

How many funerals tolled for!

Washington’s eye has looked on us,

Lafayette heeded our music.

Lee heard us calling the people

To pray in a city beleaguered.

All men we first knew have vanished.

Most […] below us forgotten.

Dead is the singer who sang us.

But his music shall still keep its sweetness,

When we lie in darkness and ruin.

You, too, are mute, but your message

Has spread to the earth’s furthest limit.

Come then, oh Bell of the Northland,

We welcome and hail thee as brother!

George S. Holmes, in “The Exposition.”

Charleston, S. C., May, 1901