SOME TRUE STORIES ABOUT STEEPLES.

BY C. F. M.

A great many years ago a hurricane occurred in Utica, New York. Just as
it began it was noticed that a heavy swing sign in front of a store was
held out in a horizontal position for some time.

Before long the force of the wind increased to such a degree that
several houses on Genesee Street Hill were unroofed, and the spire of
the Second Presbyterian Church was thrown to the ground.

After the storm was over it was discovered that the rod holding the
weather-vane on the top of the tall steeple of the First Presbyterian
Church was bent so that it became nearly horizontal. It was unsightly;
but how to repair the injury was the question. It would be no easy task,
as there was a large ball, or globe, on the rod below the vane. After a
while a sailor offered his services. He ascended the steeple, and
climbed the rod until he came just beneath the globe. Then he threw a
rope out a good many times, until, after a while, the end looped around
over the rod, above the globe, long enough to reach to him. Twisting the
rope together, he let go of the iron rod, and trusting himself to the
rope, swung out free. By climbing it he now managed to get on the top of
the globe. Standing there, he succeeded in straightening the rod that
held the weather-vane.

Now how was he to get down? Again trusting to the rope that was fastened
to the rod above the globe, he swung free at a great height from the
earth; then lowering himself, and swinging back and forth, he managed to
grasp the rod beneath the globe, and soon reaching the spire, descended.

The steeple of Salisbury Cathedral is the highest in England, and next
to that of Strasbourg Cathedral, the highest in Europe. Every year a man
climbs to the top to grease the weather-vane. This is done by ascending
the inside as far as possible, and then going out of a manhole and
climbing the rest of the way by means of the brass staples fastened on
the outer wall.

Once on a festal occasion, when the King was present, a reward was
offered, as usual, to any person who would ascend and attend to the
weather-vane. A sailor agreed to do it, and ascended in the way I have
told you, until he came to the copestone, when, to show what he could
do, he stood on his head. Then performing the task he was sent to do,
that of greasing the vane, he descended, and claimed his reward. But the
King was so exasperated at the sailor for needlessly frightening