Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.





Familiarity with Longfellow's poem was required when I was a boy, to my lasting benefit. And the date and place, as well as the name and character of Paul Revere, figure prominently in a great many memories because they figure so in the history of the fight for American independence. Christ Church, the Old North Church, in whose steeple the two signal lanterns were hung that night by the sexton Robert Newman, is a consecrated building still, with an active congregation. And the windows of the church are in need of repair.



Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced yesterday that the rules governing grants for the preservation of historic buildings have been modified so as no longer to declare religious structures inelegible. The decision has caused some controversy, but the arguments in favor of the new policy of religious neutrality seem convincing to most observers. And other American churches and synagogues have also been mentioned as appropriate recipients of historic preservation grants.