And underneath, Proclaim Liberty through all the land to all the inhabitants thereof. — Levit. xxv. 10. This is signed by Isaac Norris and the Committee. Then, after all their pains over the weights, casting, cost, and shipment of the bell, on the ioth of March, 1753, Mr. Norris " had the mortification " to hear " that it was cracked by a stroke of the clapper without any other violence, as it was hung up to try the sound. . . . Upon which two in genious workmen undertook to cast it here, and I am just now informed they have this day opened the mould and have got a good bell." Here is the bill for the hanging of this good bell : — Philadelphia, April 17, 1753. The Province, To Edmund Wooley, Dr. For sundrys advanced for raising the Bell Frame and putting up the Bell. A peck of Potatoes, is. yd., 14 lbs. Beef at 4s. 8d., 4 Gammons, 36 lb. at 6(/.-i8j.,£165 Mustard, Pepper, Salt, Butter ... 020 A Cheese, 13 lb. at 6d.-6s. 6d.; Beef 30 lb. at M.-os.; a peck Potatoes, is. yd. o 19 1 300 Limes, 14J.; 3 Gallons Rum, of John Jones, 141 180 36 Loaves of Bread, of Lacey, ye Baker 090 Cooking and Wood, 8s.; Earthenware and candles of Duchee, 13s. $d. .... o 11 4 A barrel of Beer, of Anthony Morris . o 18 o Errors excepted, Ed. Woolev. From the bountiful commissariat that this bill of the masons and carpenters reveals, it is plain that not Chief-Justice Chew only, but humbler citizens as well, fed richly, ac cording to their station, in the town of Phil adelphia. This aroma of flesh-pots hang ing over the city has more than once offended the chilly nostrils of those who hail from Massachusetts Bay, and has drawn from that quarter trenchant reference to a well known observation about plain living and high thinking. The Yankees have re
proached the Quaker town for being in Bceotia, while they allot their Puritan city a territory in Parnassus. The cause of this may be that Philadelphians do not write abou t themselves, or that New-Englanders do not read about anything but New-Englanders. But a fair look at Revolutionary times will show that high thinking went on in Pennsyl vania full as actively as it did in Boston; and that when it was over for the day, they sat down and dined well enough to draw the slightly contemptuous note from John Adams about Benjamin Chew*s " turtle and every other thing, flummery, jellies, sweetmeats, of twenty sorts." Mr. Adams would seem to have entertained the lean notion that think ers must not enjoy life. But, on the other hand, let it be confessed that plain thinking and high living are what the present century chiefly records for Philadelphia, to contrast with the stately achievements of Emerson and Webster and Hawthorne; and when it is recollected that among many other early progressive steps, the honor of starting the first medical school and the first hospital in the country belongs to Philadelphia, one is at a loss to account for that bovine spirit of unenterprise which later took possession of the community, caused solemn opposition to the introduction of gas in the streets, led citizens complacently to believe those who told them that one railroad in a town was better than two, and in general has made Philadelphia municipally and commercially the laughing-stock of East and West. In the autumn of 1776 Sir William Howe's threatening approaches, and the continual obstructions placed by the Quakers in the road of war, heartened the Tories up; and they took to loud singing of " God save the King," in taverns. The hand of Thomas McKean fell heavy upon these minstrels, and fourteen arrests of reputable citizens quickly followed. But the Quaker mind be came duly skilful to reconcile defence and peace doctrines. A member of the sect in after years found himself upon a vessel at tacked by an enemy. Peering casually over
