Liberty Bell Starts West
Source: New York Times, July 6, 1915
Escorted to Train by Military Parade After Patriotic Exercices
PHILADELPHIA, July 5. — Philadelphia bade good-bye to the Liberty Bell today. Escorted by the First Brigade, National Guard of Pennsylvania, composed of three Philadelphia regiments, and the First Troop, City Cavalry, the old Revolutionary relic passed between lanes of thousands of persons to the Pennsylvania Railroad station, was hoisted on a specially constructed car, and amid cheers left for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Six months will elapse before the bell is returned to its case in Independence Hall.
The Independence Day exercises were begun at 10 o'clock. They were of the same character as those held in the historic square from the early days of the republic — singing by schoolchildren, patriotic addresses, and prayer. Congressman William S. Vare of Philadelphia, Governor Martin G Brumbaugh of Pennsylvania, and Cone Johnson of Texas, Solicitor of the Department of State, delivered orations. Departing from his set speech, Mr. Johnson said:
"Picking up the newspapers and reading the headlines I am struck with the anarchism that is abroad today. With half the world deluged in blood, bombs placed to destroy our beautiful Capitol, and attempts made at assassination in the name of peace, it is a fitting time to come to this shrine of liberty to take sane and intelligent counsel of the men who wrought here and take fresh inspiration from them."
A shower hastened the end of the exercises. The Bell brought up the rear of the parade. As it left the historic precincts the bell in the tower rang out forty-eight times, once for each State in the Union.
The first stop of the special train was at Lancaster, Penn., where thousands of persons viewed the bell during the thirty minutes' stay. Harrisburg was the next stop, and then Altoona. The special train will pass through Pittsburgh early in the morning. Tomorrow the train will travel through Ohio and Indiana, and on Wednesday it will be in Illinois and Iowa. The trip through Kansas and Missouri on Thursday will be of especial interest, because on July 8, 1776, and not July 4, as popularly supposed, the Bell actually proclaimed the Declaration of Independence adopted on the Fourth.
