EHLER, CHAPEL CUSTODIAN, HAS RUNG BELL, 300,000 TIMES

Victor Ehler, who has been pulling the rope of the Chapel bell every morning since the building was built eight years ago, estimates that he has made the bell ring more than 300,000 times. He always wears gloves, he says, to avoid getting hemp splinters in his hands. A bellrope, extending from the Chapel tower to Ehler's room in the basement, lasts about five years on the average, and the present one, already black from glove leather, has been in use a year. In the event of a memorial service, Ehler has to climb up in the tower and toll the bell at close quarters. Most of the time he is on duty as janitor of Matthews Hall. Asked if he had no compassion for the Freshmen who daily are so rudely jarred out of their sleep by the five minutes of continuous bell-ringing, Ehler said, "Yes, I think two minutes is long enough, but Dean Sperry, he says nothing doing."