Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-07-11
The Misery of Street Music.


bands, accordeons, penny whistles, ant
so forth probably afford to some person.
large amount of qualification by the
sounds which they evolve. At least we
may venture to conclude as much from
the numbers of these instruments ol
torture that are found perambulating
our thoroughfares. We doubtless all
remember the lines describing the
effects of street music, and beginning
An Orpheusi an 0rpbeus. he works on the crowd;
He sways them with harmony merry and loud
He fills all their hearts with his power TO the briml
Was there anght ever heard like his fiddle and him
The piece ends with the touching de-
scription of how to the ears of the
patient drudge of servant paradise
seemed opened, and her heart and men,
DRY were carried far away to her home
in the country. Reflections upon the
enjoyment which some people are re-
ceiving from the hearing of street music
may make very charitably disposed per-
sons inclined to suffer a little for the
sake of others. But there are limits to
human endurance; and when, i'm a
''quiet" street, two organs and brass
band are pouring out their dissOnant
notes at one and the same moment, it is
possible that the patriarch job might
have found that there were things
which even he could not stand had he
been 4 dweller in one of the houses.
The sufferings of invalids are increased
by the music performed in the streets
to degree that none but doctors and
nurses can fully appreciate. Brain
workers, who cannot take up an inter
rupted sentence as seamstress can
resume a half-finished piece of work,
are distracted by the din. We remem-
Der the misery caused in one invalid's
room by an organ which repeated
"Home, sweet home" seventeen times
before the person who had been en-
couraging the musician had enough !;
and the fruitless efforts TO follow out a
special line of thought while the
'Marseillaise" resounded first in front,
then at the side, and then at the back of
the house. Street musicians when
warned off, even if they go to the
distance prescribed by the police, have
still an infinite power of annoyance,
and exercise it too when they have a
revenge to inflict on those who have
sent them away. practically as the
Lancet says. 1.-THE suffering ratepayer is
helpless against the imported foreigners
who perpetrate the outrage, and who
are notoriously to a very large extent
supported by persons not contributing
to the rates, whose occupations are
of a manual character, and
who are not therefore disturbed by
sounds which defraud the thinker of
portion of his working time, and are
simply destructive TO the nervous
invalid
\ paragraph in our paper Of May II
has already informed our readers that
a society has been formed which seeks
for the regulation of street music-its
abolition being impracticable. Mem
bers of the various professions are
themselves with the object of
pressing for legislation on the subject.
OF what use is it to pave our through
fares with wood, with asphalte and with
BUR noise-hindering materials, if day
and night are 10 be rendered hideous
Dy the sounds of street music? We
hope that something may be soon done
.oward the effectual mitigation of this
,vil.-LoRdoR Queen.