Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1880-12-30
Men Who Whistle.

or men who whistle, few proceed to ex
tremities Of tune. II can hardly be said
that they whistle for want of thought, be-
cause no habitual whistler wants to think
Whistling. with the plurality of whistlers,
merely serves as a signal which calls atten-
ton to their existence. fact otherwise at
some risk Of being overlooked. 1t is an
effect of automatic instinct rather than OF
conscious intentions and its motive might be
shared by the lower animals, il the lower
animals ever suffered from uneasy seif-esteem
complicated with a sort of defiant p,aurai Sc
hoase. There are whistlers who not only do
not whistle "at their own sweet will" but
who evidently do whistle against it. II a
sheep could refrain from baaing in circum-
stances which render it undesirable, in his
own interests. that he should baa, he would
not baa. Ii whistler could refrain from
whistling, when by whistling be makes him
self feel as painfully foolish as man in the
&c, of whistling always looks. he would no,
whistle.
Whlstling is intensely and peculiarly En-
glsh and it has hourished very much Of late
years which fact looks little awkward for
the intellectual character, as well as person
al manners of the nation. Let any elderly
person of good observation and memory try
to think what would have been the effect
upon roomful Of people in his salad days,
had steady. continuous whistle been set up
by any one in company. There we're no
railway carriages for people to whistle in !;
but fancy If any passenger in a stage coach
had ventured to whistle We all know that
habit spreads very quickly, and the habits
Of individuals become the habits of classes.
and in time the habits of nations There is
just the connection between an individual
and his country, through the classes with
which he is most familiar, that there is be-
tween the sentiment of egotism and the SEN
timent of patriotism through the middle
sentiment Of parochiality This peculiar
habit Of whlstling' therefore, may have spread
from potboy TO a people, passing through
many steps of class contagion by the way
Few Frenchmen whistle, and Italians
never. The French. indeed have a proverb
on the subject. which is not complimentary
TO their lively neighbors. ourselves. When
Germans whistle, and i, is not often they do.
II Is With melody prepense. They cultivate
odd gifts OF amusement; those convivial
Teutons. and whistling IS sometimes prac-
ticed among them as an accomplishment
But 1t is precisely because a German whistles
with skill that be keeps his endowment for
service and seldom Whistles In public or
without being asked The Engl,.hman who
cannot whistle does. DO we not ali know
the stold fat man Of few words. but of one
unceaslng sound, who il so entirely the
creature Of habit that he takes up the same
position at regular periods and # he cannot
get hls accustomed chair pines neryously in
another But in his place or out of IL. he
whistles softly and oleaginously. as if he
would never grow thin. His whistle is no,
the shrill piping Of the plcbian youth, who
suffers not the drowsy air to slumber. nor
the sharp winter wind to thrill him into 81
lence. IL is a fat. round, soft hard breathing
whistle, as of an elderly grampus overcome
by heat. Then there is the restless man
who whistles, and who. so far from gravi,at-
ing to one loved spot, never sits five minutes
III any. His whisi'r is the most irrating Of
ali; for he seems to be- perpetually suffering
from bad tune in the head which he is
vainly trying 10 whistle away The restless
whistler Is great at the devils tattoo He
beats that Internal rappel with his finger
nails on the table, on the crown Of his hat,
on ANYTHING responsive to the diabolical
drumming, A knife or poker will serve
him IN keeping up a steady tap-,ap-tap for
as bad quarter Of an hour as ever was
chimed on cracked bell If chance should
move him TO put his hands in his pockets il
Is dead certainty that he will whistle.
For he is the bird OF note; the prophet of
disturbance in the moral atmosphere the
Mother Carey's chick Of the yexed life sea.