The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-12
THE DECLINE OF WRESTLING.
Deep Significance of the Soothing
Sibilation's Decadence.
From the Netc 20. Press.

| OGCa00UC6s
From the Ne,o York Press.
Some measure of sylvan solitude is abso-
lutely required for the proper development
OF the whistliug instinct in man. One Of
the most striking impressions made by tins
metropolis on visitors from the wilds OF
Chicago, the arcadian fields OF Boston, or
the rural hamlet Of Philadelphia, is the
comparative absence from our atmosphere
OF the slbilant street music to which their
ears had been accustomed.
Well, what of it1 the grounding unused TO
| look beneath the surface OF things may
ask. After staying up several nights and
turning the problem over and over in his
mighty mentality, the Press philosophic
observer has come to the conclusion that
the fact is one of deep significance. Some
| people may imagine that the wight who
whistling wends his way whistles for want
Of thought. On reflection, it must be ap-
parent that whistling indicates an active
and not a passive mind. 1t is, 50 to speak,
musical diversion, and, in a measure,
IN entail gymnastics.
The man or boy who whistles is one to be
trusted, though there is proverbal author
ity for bewari of "wnistling girls aud
Growing hens" No man can whistle aud
whistle and be a villain. Nor can the whist
ling man be made unhappy long, no matter
far more cheerful and wholesome than the
wine cup for the poppy's fatally fascinating
essence
Whatever disturbing effect the whistler's
manifestations may have on listeners more
seriously absorbed, there is no doubt of the
deep delight in his own soul made more
intense with every swelling note emitted
How churlish, then, to clide the boy with
puckered lips, chilling his rhapsody and
dragging his soul to earth from elysium
with rude and sullen shock,
THE NATURAL MAN a WHISTLER
The real Importance of the decadence of
whistling as a popular recreation in this
great city will be see when we take into
The natural man is whistler. Remember
how Hiawatha
Whistled TO the birds, his brothers
And, after all, what man of us, reading
his Longfellow lovingly, does not admire
and envy Hiawatha! For most of us, what
is there In urban existence at all compare
bic with the fullness of life and intensity of
being attuned to mother nature in all her
various moods and in sympathetic touch at
all points with the living, breathing world
around them of the Indian youth and his
laughing Minnehaha?
Whistling is the outward and audible sign
of an inward and individual Joy. Repressed
by contact with ones kind or by dist acting
occupation, 1t is an instinct which finds free
vent only when man is alone, or thinks
himself alone. As the sweet strains are
poured forth only for ones individual ed-
ficatio /, so, too, whistling is not an art Gull
tivated il companies. Who ever heard of
band OF whistlers, or even of q whistling
quartet or duetl
there's Mrs. Alice Shaw, who whistled
before the crowned heads of Europe aud
there's that elfish and ebony-hued "Whist-
ling jack" who for some ten wears past has
charmed the rickels out of the pockets of
oelated passengers on late boats across Full
ton Ferry. But freaks are the exceptions
in nature-the abn Jrmal and occasional
that but emphasize the normal and regular.
SUBURBAN ''wHIsTLING JACK"
Many of our readers will no doubt re-
member another woolly headed "Whistling
Jack" who drove furniture truck in Will
iamsburg for it was not Brooklyn, e. D.,
THE Mocking Bird" and Don't You
Cry, Susannah," and "Way Down South
in Dixie" and "Annie Laurie" and the
'SuwSnnee River are among our sweetest
chlldhood's recollections AS he logged
carelessly homeward at the close of a sum
mer day from his stand near the ferry to
his home near East New York, how we
OoyS anu BlTIS VI One burg followed MIN
entranced, though he never noticed us, but
whis led away, his old black face uplifted
and shlni ~, ii very seventh heaven of
ecstasy Dear old Jack.
There's no more wool on the top of his head,
For he S gone where the good niggers GO
Whether it is because of a peculiar devel-
opment of the labial muscles, or because his
soul is nearer to nature than the white mans,
the negro excels in the art of whistling
But there IS young and sturdy coal cart
driver of Hibernian extraction in South
Brooklyn whose performance rivals that of
any of these Ethiopian minstrels. His
clear tremolo rises distinctly on the air of
tie quiet neighborhood he rraverses. All
the children Whereabouts know him. He is
the envy of the boys and the admiration of
the girls. The tunes he whistles best are
'The Night Before Larry Was Stretched, :"
and where Did You Get That hat!" But
his more ambitious efforts compass ''Home
Sweet Home" and 1.-THE Last Rose of Sum.
mer," with variations.
1t will be noted that for these familiar
examples we are obliged to cross over to the
suburban shore. The flute with which
Orpheus charmed the rocks, as that with
which the pied piper of storied Hamelin
drew the rodents from their dark retreats.
was but simple artificial adjunct of the
natural whistling faculty. But New York
is not Hamelin or the TheSsalonian shore.
THE EFFECT OF CITY NOISES.
The song of birds in the wildwood is re-
peated in the boys whistle on a country
road, and there is no doubt man learned
the soothing sibilant music from these
feathered denizens of the forest. But man
has bettered on his lessons and often taught
birds new melodies. Parrots, mocking
birds, starlings and thrushes are quick to
pick up tune. A prodigy in this direction
is a pet bullfnch in the aviary Of Fulton
street barber. This little warbler whistles
the entire score of the operetta of "Fati-
nltza" with marvellous accuracy and sweet
ness. Under the spell customer is tempted
to huger in the chair and be shaved and
shampooed and clipped till the melody
ceases.
The elevated railroads, with their roar