, 1880-08-30
Street Noises in London.

The English metropolis, like all larg.
cities, is noisy place, and to get
wink of sleep in the early morning is
next to Impossible. One writer com
plains in the Standard that part Of his
life is rendered miserable by man who
is in the service of dairy company,
and who. early every morning, week
days and Sundays, makes q round of
the neighborhood. &C. His voice--which
is as powerful as M. Lassalle's, though
in other respects there is no resem-
blance between the two"-is heard
while he is yet great way off. and its
noise increases until he is actually un-
der the writer's window, when it is so
great that it is enough to wake the
Seven Sleepers." How great this may
be we have no means of ascertaining.
but the noise is made more disturbing
by its intermittent character. 1t is
impossible to get accustomed to it. as
one might to morning gun It be-
gins before seven, and goes op, with
brief and uncertain intervals of repose.
for two or three hours.
Who among us is there who does not
recall his own sufferings when wantonly
disturbed from "a first and much-cov-
eted sleep?" In one of the western
districts of London, some years ago, a
gentleman engaged in commercial pur-
suits, it may be supposed, was in the
habit of driving his phaeton through
the streets at an early hour, presum-
ably on his way to business. He was
constantly accompanied by black dog,
which gamboled round the carriage,
barking with bark which can only be
compared to the firing of small piece
of ordnance. This nuisance continued
fJr many years, and not only was moth
ing ever done to mitigate the nuisance,
but the police, and even the magistrate,
when appealed to, declared their ina
bility to interfere. That commercial
gentleman would have the deaths of
many of his fellow-creatures on his
conscience, if he had one. Many SIM
liar examples will occur to every one
| who has lived even a few weeks in Lon
don. It is certainly outrageous that
one vender of milk, or of anything
else, should have it in his power to
murder the sleep of number OF people
by the way in which he chooses to sell
| his goods.
A correspondent of the paper already
referred to, sums up his experience III
| few sad lines: Piano-organs OF
huge size and great power. accompanied
by q chorus of foul-tongued roughs of
both sexes, yelling milkmen and coster-
mongers, make the day unbearable
barking dogs and howling drunkards
make night hideous." The police, it
appears, feel themselves to be power
less in the matter. They would gladly
take action, but, so far as regards street
noises, their hands are tied. They
themselves are anxious as anybody else
can be to put some check on what
threaten to become intolerable nui-
sances. Not only do superintendents
and inspectors constantly receive let
ters complaining of grievances which
they would like to redress if they could
but also the noises of the night and the
early morning are, as may be imagined,
as distressing to members of the police
force, who are hoping to snatch few
hours rest or sleep between the inter
walls of duty. as they can be even to
hard pressed brain workers" The
things which we have described or re-
ferred to give a truly pleasing picture
of the state of London toward the close
of the nineteenth century. We seem
to be reading an account Of some work
of Hogarrh's a hundred and fifty years
old. Yet it is not in the slightest de-
gree exaggerated, and there is no rem
| edy.