Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1868-10-16
The Railway Whistle.

A CORRESPONDENT of the New York
E0enS1g Post thus voices the sentiments of
very many people: Did you ever live
near railroad? No disrespect is meant
though if you have not, it might seem
to be inferred that you had not lived any
where, networks of railroads now cover
ing the whole country But did you ever
live near that particular point, that very
post, about hundred rods from the sta
ton, where the steam whistle opens its
dreadful throat? If you have not, you
may not care for what am going to say,
and perhaps will not print it. Touchwood
did not care for SaundersJ aup's jaw-hole,
till he fell into it. A boy with drum a
mile off is one thing, but a boy with a
drum in the next yard, as some people
know, is quite another thing. Now, the
sound of the railroad whistle, while it
lasts, is worse than all the drums in the
Great Frederick's army. Sam. Weller de-
scrlbes it as "that ERE frightful scream,
vich seems to say: Now here's two hun
dred and forty passengers in the very
greatest extremity of danger; and here's
their two hundred and forty screams in
vun." But it is worse than that. 1t is, as
it were, the last, shrillest death shrek of
al! those passengers. 1t is the most ear
splitting, nerve-torturing sound that ever
was devised. 1t is positively " infernal :"
i quote the word. Every family living
within ten rods of the road will know
very well what mean, and that I use no
exaggeration.
Is this abominable nuisance necessary !?
Not in the least. The whistle pitched on
low key relieves all the difficulty and
gives all the required notice. 1t is used
on the Hudson River Road, and answers
all the purpose; at least On the lower part
OF the road, at. Irvington, I have heard it.
Gentlemens houses stand thickly along
there, and think they have devised the
remedy. A deep booming sound is pro-
duced, which is perfectly we'll heard, and
gives comparatively little annoyance.
This is a matter of more Importance
than it may seem to many. Not only COM
fort, but health and life may be concerned
in it. Suppose a. person in a critical ILL
ness - suppose patient in nervous
fever, put with great pains into a hopeful
sleep, and awakened by this horrible dis
sonance-it may be as much as his life is
worth. We give up our land to the railroad.
1t passes through our grounds, perhaps
through our very gardens. 1t is great
sacrifice; yet we are compelled to make it,
and are willing to make it for the public
good. Ought not the public, on its part,
to relieve the inconvenience as much as
possible, and especially at as small a cost
as altering the whistles?
Some twenty years ago DR.. Dewey said
in lecture that the escape steam of our
boats at landings might be turned into the
pipes of rude organ, and give us music.
1t was caught up by the newspapers as an
oddidea, perhaps; but six or seven yearsago
an attempt was made to realize it, and a
sort of harsh music was heard from some
of our steamboats,, and railroad locomo-
tives also. I remember that some of the
papers then called it a Dewey-type; and
if it had been success, perhaps the ven
cradle doctor would not have been unwill-
ing to have his name associated with such
an agreeable improvement. 1t may yet
succeed and fill the land with music. But
if we cannot have musical notes, it does
not follow that we must have these MUIR
derOuS ones.