Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-11-14


PIE WHO WHISTLE, PEOPLE WHO TRY TO
WHISTLE, AND PEOPLE WHO CANNOT AND DO
NOT.
From the Chicago Herald.
Whistlers are of many kinds. There is the
musical whistler, the whistler who thinks he is
musical, the nervous whistler, the juvenile
whistler, and the man who whistles for mere
wantonness The musical whistler is not al
ways a musician, in fact few musicians make
good whistlers. The best whistler is gen.
orally he who can neither sing nor
play upon an instrument. By some arrange
ment with that mysterious nature which de-
prived him of the power of practical vocal or
instrumental music, he has acquired somewhere
good idea as to time and rhythm and knack
OF picking up airs he hears. In measure this
goes to compensate him for the lack of voice
and in his solitude he can treat himself at will to
the music he fails to sing. Whistlers OF his
class are found in all walks of life and as their
abilities i'm this direction are generally developed
at an early age, they pass through life missing
but little the art possessed by so many.
There are thousands OfpeOple who never have
whistied in their lives. some because they can
not and others because they do not want to.
To be able to whistle and to use that ability
Is to be able to meet and overcome many of the
difficulties of every day life. A man who does
not whistle is man to be avoided. If ne has
not murder in his soul, then he has bank rob-
berry on hand. or he is ScrOOge and Gradyrind
in one person. Beware of him. He is close and
iillberal in his business; cross and Grabbed at
home; Il tyrant to his children and q mean man
generally. Just observe the whistler and see
II he has not the opposite OF these qualities. He
rises early in the morning and whistles Never
take the horseshoe from the door, while he ties
his tie and makes his toilet. If there is button
missing or he finds half of his wife's switch en-
tangled in the hair brush. Instead of tearing
around and saying cross words, he merely con-
tinues whistling probably changing the air to
something more lively. He goes whistling to
the market, stopping the tune occasionally to
say Good morning. maam," or Hello, bub -
in CHEEKY tone and then Immediately resuml-
ing the air at the precise point at which his salu
tatiOn interrupted it. He slams the basket on
the kitchen table and, taking up the backing
brush. gees out to the back steps and pOshes
away at his boots to the Royal Highland Schot-
tische. from the Passing Regiment " The pol
lshing done he returns, skipping through the
house with the clear notes of the .Oliyctte .'Fa-
randole" echOing in every room. His wife catching
the Infection. accompanies his joyful shriliness
by humminG the same air in her own sweet
voice. AT the table he can scarcely keep from
drumming out airs on the tumblers and glass
ware with his fork and knife. The meu DONE
he begins again. stopping to kiss his wife, and
then huriies off down the street to his office. the
houses on either side throwing back the sway
ing. insnuating notes of the Waltz Song from
''Oliyette." He bounds into his office nOdding
here and there to clerks perched on stools whist
ling as they work. He looks over the morning
papers still Whstng. and then begins his labor
his mouth seeming to be in one eternal puckcr
That man is happy at home and prosperous in
buSiness-because he whistles.
great part of the whstng heardi in the bust
ness part the city is done by business men and
telegraph boys. NeWsboys and bOotblacks for
some reason or other do not whistle much
Their taste runs to singing and dancing in tho
alleys adjacent to the newspaper offices till the
eNasperated editors lift the window sash and
send in their direction the festive electrotype
Business men and clerks are generally patrons
OF the theaters. and variety aud minstrel shows
where all these catchy tunes are first heard
claim many of the latter class every night. The
music OF the clerks generally runs to light opera
and the higher class of ballads, though occa-
sionally one may hear the Tilt of the minstrel
stage or the nasal chant of the Camp meeting
The music of the telegraph boy or the gamin
runs to the latest sentimental ballad. sOng-and-
dance air or camp-meeting tune Since last
winter. however, they have gone into the regions
of the upper-ten and come back with the air
which the racquet" is jumped at by the society
bellies and beauX. Some CT the telegraph bows
are trying to supplant the whistle by the intro
duction OF cheap mOuth-organs, and the imita-
ton. by an artificial reformation of the month
aided by pair of healthy lungs, of the steam
calliope which usually accompanies the glitter
ing fraud of q circus parade. A passer on the
street after nightfall will suddenly have his six
teen senses knocked galleywest by most I'M
earthly and terrific sound like nothing on top of
the earth or in the air below the earth, which
he soon discovers as proceeding from a very
small boy on his way to a newspaper Office with
dispatch. That is not right. Nothing so bar
barrie as that can ever rightly supplement the
whistler in the hearts, or rather the mouths and
ears. of the public.
The march from - FatinitZa' still holds its
own in sOlEe localities. but among the greater
favOritcs are the march aud waltz from :" Boo
cacio, the Turkish Patrol" the airs from
" Ollvette, the gobble song from "Mascotte,"
- Over the Garden Wall" THAT Little Girl of
Mine, "GoOd-by, My Lover, GOod-by," " Peek
a-b0o," Fritz Emmet's. Harrigan and Harris
songs and the camp-meeting and negro melO-
dies.
lt is surprising how proficient some become as
Whlstlers. There are hundreds of boys who at
tend the theaters and tramp peanuts in the
gallery, to learn the latest song and dance air.
They will listen attentively. and next day YOU
Will he treated to the air with all the variations,
whistied as perfectly as it could be played upon
musical instrument. OCCASIONALLY whstlers
become ambitious and attempt to render selec-
tons from grand opera or difficult and varied
instrumental pieces but these are few.
The man who does not know a tune from
screech of locomotive. but still persists in
whlstng. is indeed terrible bore. but even he
is preferable to the man who does not whistle at
ALL Occasionally poor whistler will board q
street-car. and the passengers will writhe for
mile or so under the fortunes he infiicts upon
them during about twelve slow repetitions of
the gobble song from the 'Mascotte" As he is
beginning the air for the thirteenth time COM
mittee will come forward and kindly but firmly
drive the switcl-hoOk through his liver and
drop him into the next sewer the car passes
Then, again, ianitor in building where
sleeps worker at night will master three or
four bars of some old and forgotten air contem-
poraneous with Rise Up Willie Reilly" and
go about the Railways of the building emitting
sounds like the wall of lost soul or the articu-
latiOns OF newly-beheaded rooster. It is then
that the reporter will arise in his might and his
undershirt. and, going into the hall, will say to
the whistler:
Farewell, Cassie. but never-lnore be ianitor
OF mine. do not know what others may say.
but as for lie. dod gas. ;i,. man who snits tic
ears OF the groundlings wii il such awful sounds
as these. Get thee 70 g 1Gnnery. CO.
Fungi a. Food.
From the Edinburgh Scotsman.
In spite OF occasional fatal accidents through
the inadvertent eating of poisonous species.
fungi are largely consumed both by savage and
civilized man In all parts OF the world. Among
the FuprianS certain kinds form with -f;cI,