Smyrna times., 1882-11-08
Ghe Smprua Times.
'fhe Art Of Whistliug.
ITS USE AND ABUSE-PECULIARITI
OF EXPERTS IN ALL GRADES.
Blessings on the, little man
Barefoot boy with cheeks of tan,
With thy turned.up pantaloOns
And thy merry whistled tunes

from the fiddle to the tOm-tOm, and II
nature, whilst giving thee q sensitive
membrane tympani, has withheld from
thee the gift of song, thou mayst re-
ioice and be glad that whistle is thine
inheritance, wherewith to treat the ear
in solitude to fragments of melody and
rare snatches of song, writes Harold
Van Santvoord in Outing" 1t is the
whistle, the crucial test Of melody, the
perfect organ, with no affinity for the
labyrinthian windngs of the classic .
tOurnOur of the symphony, the chaos
philharmonic rectals, the music of the 7
future THAT vast cataclysm of nOise) /,
that sketches our musical ideas in clear /
and vivid outlines, and sets forth /
melody undeiiled. 1t is the whistle
that popularizes current ballads, strips
them of their framework, as an anatO-
mist lays bare the bones and sinews of
the human system, and fills the air
with an epitome of the reigning opera
and skeletons of the latest songs.
How merrily ii blends with the voice
! of the lark in the first flush of the
morning, when old bachelors with
blue noses, who have no aptitude for
early rising, are mastering in bed; and
how the birds take it up and fashion it
into mathis with rouladcs and trills
How instinctively we fall into the re-
frain as we leave our couch and
hustle about for mug and razor; and
what man to whom music is Il strange
language can withstand the infection
of whistling, an influence as strange
and rcsiStless as the motion that cnticeS
his thoughts into rythm, the clanking
and clatter that makes the most matter
Of-fact man poet in railroad car !!
Find the man that does not whistle,
whose lips refuse to pipe the blithe
street minstrely, and point out to him
the swill-boy "a face familiar TO local
pedestrians, whose sunny smile, bright
eye and CHEEKY whistle. rs he trundles
along his swll-cart, convince the sour
hypochOndriac that the world is not SO
bleak and drear as j: appears through
the begrimed spectaCles of his philoso-
ply. Stop that notwithstanding
fellow over there, at cross purposes
with his own nature and bid him relax
the stern expression of his face and
whistle away his vapOrs; pitch the
key for him let it be Il quickstep, an(
Il lively one, too. Let us whistle Il
work or play, and take our cue from
' the feathercd songstcrs. When on tn,
; street, it times our PAGES until we jo:
into the military step, rs though in
spired by the wry-necked fife. Woul,
life be worth living were it not 70
whistling-wcrc we not at liberty +
vent our spirits as well as our spleen
Men with the whistling propcnsit.
are numerically in excess Of asccti
] whistlers is the singlc-spccch Hamilton
J who pipes but one melody. We kno,
another class of WhistleTs who hav
little sense of time and tune. They d
not effect more than one canticle, an(
like the music-blind poet and ESSAYS
who practised "God Save the Queen
all his life, they fail to arrive with
many quavers of it," The conf
aspect of men who pucker up the
mouths and can't whistle would NOV
o. one to pity did not their grimances PIT
one in mind ola Hogarthian caricatur,
But word to the bore-the whistle
|. who is always whistling and has con
y mand of all the keys, who no soont
finishes one tune than he starts u
another, and screwing his mouth into
keyhole trills out the Mocking Bird
and "ShOwer of Pearls in shrill al
piercing tones. He vies with the win
10 the screaming locomotive, the ear-spli
o. ting tootings of the fife. lie scars lii
n the skylark, initiates the boatswain al
~ mocks the liquid notes of whistlir
birds. Obviously, there is the use ~
~ abuse of the whistle; and if the viii,
n Ter be in merry humOr, and nature
ri a minor mood, his whistle sounds likt
musical instrument in an Orchcst
played out of tune. So strong is Il
Ill ruling passion for whistling, that
of old man whose soul had taken it's fig
+; was aroused from his deep sleep by
remnants of froZrG melody that Ii
gered within him, wh.stling it thrOu
his shrunken lips A. il" lay in the ca
embrace Of death.
!. If whistling were taught and made
study and the child were given instr
ton in the cradle, as Pliny the ell
nv received his first lesson in Oratory, til
is no telling how proficient he wo
become when he arrived at the est
of man. The whistler might deve
into silver-tOned flute and becom
valuable auxiliary of the much-abu
piano, or fill chink in an Orchestr
= even in the present state of mus
culture, music-loving people wO
eets, scarcely regret the fact were it sui
tuted for the shrill-toncd piccolo, wi
fails of its avowed purpose, the i'm
ton of birds. As it was custOmar
feudal times to retain q jester the m
ern baron, who has no taste for g
and gambols, might give emplOym
to the whistler and as natural co
. quence, whistling contests would c,
~' into vogue. But there is not deci
ewing taste among autocrats for whist
lbs; lbs; Whilst many are known to wet t
'o-. whistles on suitable occasions, {
show a disinclinatiOn to put it
RoUs musical test except when threading
senf -,
thy woods as solitary foot passenger
turning their thoughts in sequest,
places and lonesome paths.-BO
sn Globe.