SUPERLATIVES AND A BELL
Do you know what the word "superlative" means? It means bigger, greater, more. When nations want to brag of their power they deal in "superlatives." Britain will boast the greatest Fleet; Italy the greatest Air Strength; Germany the greatest Man Power. America never wearies of reminding the world that, in Niagara, she has the greatest waterfall. Even we, in little Wellington like to say that our Government Buildings is the "Greatest Wooden Building" in the world. I don’t know if that is still true, but I know it was when my Grandfather used to tell me. Sydney insists that she has a "superlative" harbour-with a "superlative" bridge to go over it. And now we have our Exhibition. We talk about its miles of paving, its thousands of pounds, its gallons of water-its This and its That. How we'd love to be able to use. "superlatives" about it"Greatest," "Biggest," "Best’these are words that a great many people love to use. But many superlative things have come into being in a rather silly, or in a tragic, way. Through the whim of a man who is powerful. Or the despairing hope of a man who is not. One of these is a bell at Toledo, in Spain. The bell is swung in the Cathedral, and the men of Toledo say that it is so big that fifteen cabblers could sit at work under it. It can be heard for sixty miles. And this is how it happened. The son of a Count of Toledo killed a man in a duel, and to gain his pardon, the Count went to Madrid to plead with the King. The father was in despair for his son’s life. And this was the King’s extraordinary reply: "When there is a bell at Toledo that I can hear at Madrid, I will pardon your son." The King thought that this, of course, was an impossibility. He
was rather like the ogres and witches in the Grimm’s Fairy Tales, wasn’t he, who demanded that lakes be emptied with thimbles and mountains removed with spoons? It probably rather amused him to think of the frantic father’s task. But the Count set to work with the casting of the bell. And at last the great giant tongue swung out against the mighty sides in a chime that made the Cathedral itself quake. "What is that?" In far away Madrid the King heard it-faint and incessant on the breeze and wondered. But he had not to wonder long. The Count was again seeking audience. *A pardon! A pardon for my son!" And this time, he was not refused. Fee fecha
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 23, 1 December 1939, Page 34
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442SUPERLATIVES AND A BELL New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 23, 1 December 1939, Page 34
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