D S & A Inc

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In this year that has been so tumultuous economically, resulting in massive unemployment, foreclosures, personal despair suffered by many, and depressed business opportunities, we are struck by the story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in writing the words to the Carol, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The words originally were penned as a poem as a mood of intense personal anguish swept over him as he remembered his wife's tragic death in a fire in 1861, the outbreak of the Civil War in the same year, the severe wounding of his son Lieutenant Charles Appleton Longfellow in November, 1862, and six months after the Battle of Gettysburg where over 40,000 men died. As the bells of Christmas 1863 rang out continuously throughout the day, Longfellow recognized that though the conditions of life assail us; "God is not dead nor doth He sleep, the wrong shall fail, the right prevail." Sometime after 1872, the 1863 poem was converted into a carol when an unknown person decided that a 1872 processional composed by John Baptiste Calkin (1827-1905), which was was strongly reminiscent of the ringing of bells, would make an appropriate musical accompaniment. Through the years, several other tunes have been substituted, but most of us use the carol with the music of Calkin. May God bless each of you as you celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, 2009. I heard the bells on Christmas day

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