When They Ring the Golden Bells
When They Ring The Golden Bells
by Dion De Marbelle, public domain, arranged with added spoken material © 2013 Joel Mabus
There’s a land beyond the river,
that we call the sweet forever
And we only reach that shore by faith’s decree
One by one we gain the portals,
to dwell with the immortals
When they ring those golden bells for you and me
[SPOKEN]
This old hymn doesn’t get sung much anymore. But I still like it.
Has an unusual story. Wasn’t written by a preacher or bible scholar, but a banjo player -- and old-time show-man -- with an exotic name: Dion De Marbelle. But everybody called him “Dan”
A man of mystery – we have no pictures of him. Born in 1818 in the south of Spain but said to be French. (He did speak several languages.) As a young man he went to sea on a whaling ship, but somehow, out on the ocean, he wound up in the American Navy.
Dan was a man of many talents: It was said he could pick up any musical instrument and play it by ear. And at the drop of a hat, he could speak with great eloquence on any and all topics.
He was a ventriloquist, magician, actor, band leader & clown. He was a drum major in two great wars -- first for the US Navy in their Mexican adventure, then again for the Michigan 6th infantry when Mr. Lincoln called for volunteers.
After that, he worked in both opera and minstrel shows – the latter is where you would hear him play the banjo.
He was the head clown in the famous Bailey circus (before PT Barnum weighed in), and later helped Buffalo Bill Cody start his Wild West show, where Dan organized the music.
He made and lost his fortune several times. Wrote and published dozens of songs, but this is the only one anybody remembers – and it’s his only hymn, written in his old age. He ended up in poverty, living in Illinois, just west of Chicago, in the little boomtown of Elgin there on the Fox River. Those Elgin folks just knew him as poor old Dan, the civil war vet, who sang in the Methodist choir and called square dances.
Till one day in 1896, Buffalo Bill brought his Wild West show to Elgin. They paraded into town like they always did, Old Bill Cody riding high and handsome in his buckskin coat. He spied old Dan standing on the sidelines, stopped the parade and went over to shake his hand. Gave him the seat of honor at the show that day in a special chair in front of the band stand, then afterwards invited Dan to dinner and drinks in his private railroad car, along with Annie Oakley and the other stars of the show.
The people of Elgin were rightly amazed. That this no-account old man numbered his friends among the high and mighty!
Dan died just a few years later in 1903. There was no money for a fancy funeral. The veteran’s organization paid for a plot on the edge of the graveyard and the army provided a small stone that reads:
“Drum Major D.A. De Marbelle, 6th Michigan Infantry.”
And there he lies today in the Bluff City Cemetery in Elgin Illinois.
And there he would be forgotten, like so many others, if it weren’t for this one song. So I like to sing it with a banjo. And I like to think somewhere in that far off sweet forever, an old minstrel man just might hear my banjo ringing.
[sung]
There’s a land beyond the river,
that we call the sweet forever
And we only reach that shore by faith’s decree
One by one we gain the portals,
to dwell with the immortals
When they ring those golden bells for you and me
Hear the bells a-ringin’
Can’t you hear the angels singin’
That glory hallelujah jubilee
In that far off sweet forever,
just beyond the shining river
When they ring those golden bells for you and me
Can’t you hear my banjo ringin’ ?
Can’t you hear the angels singin’
Their glory hallelujah jubilee
In that far off sweet fo