Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-10-13

| Greater
the Desire For Less Notes.-The Efforts of
City Authorities of Today Are Directed
Toward Reducing II.
There always comes a period in the
history OF progressive community when
a desire to keep down noise begins to
show itself. In the primitive stages of
culture-the savage, the barbarian and
the semibarbarian-the passion for noise
is always strong. All savages and bar
barlans love to make all the row they
can. Their JOY and sorrow both express
themselves in yells, walls and shouts
and the beating and blowing of loud re.
sounding instruments. more especially
the drum and the horn The noise of
primitive savage warfare almost equals
that of the gunpowder engagements of
modern arms, although it was, as we
might say, almost wholly manual or
vocal
The din of barbarian funeral, too,
was and is something appalling. The
practice of hiring mourners to make
loud lament on such occasions has come
down almost to our own time among
the Celtic Irish All African travellers
describe the noise of little merrymaking
in an African village as something which
no civilized man easily forgets. Those
who have passed an evening at Chinese
theater have probably never in their
widest dreams Thought it possible to
produce plays with musical accompani-
ments of such awful shrillness and in.
tensity.
In fact, it is hardly an exaggeration to
say that the progress of a race in civ.
ilization may be marked by steady re.
duction in the volume of sound which it
produces in connection with it's deaths,
births, marriages, feasts, merrymak
ings, its wars and peaces, trade, COM
merce and manufactures. The more cul
ture of all kinds it acquires the less noise
it produces There is no surer sign, in
fact, of an upward movement of the
tribal soul than the appearance of de-
sire to get along with less uproar. When
its leading men begin to ask themselves
whether this or that could not safely be
done with fewer yells or smaller drums
it shows that it is becoming self conscious
and is feeling the throbs of new life
After this comes change ii the charac
ter of the musical instruments, a general
lowering of the tones of the voice, the
substitution at funerals of the silent tear
for the half maniacal "keen," and the
exaction of silence in military drill
In cities this mental and moral growth
is of course displayed in the repression
of street cries, of street music, of all
noises made for mere amusement, such
as beating of drums, and blowing of
horns, and purposeless and persistent
shouting and yelling These are but
rudimentary steps, and we have already
taken them in New York. The next and
most important one, the reduction of the
noise made by the ordinary and legiti-
mate street traffic, we are only begin
ming. Its importance has been recog-
nized in the modern world pari passu
with the increasing interest in and care
for public hygiene.
There is no modern city health board,
and indeed no modern city doctor, who
is not well aware of the evil effects Of
incessant noise in the vast and increas
ing multitudes who in all the great cite;
now live, one might say, by their wits
but, more accurately. by their nerves
The amount of mental operations which
require silence, or at all events an ap
proach to silence, for their healthfulnes:
in cities like New York, London OF
Paris, carried on by merchants, brokers
bankers, bookkeepers, preachers, profess
ors, architects, designers, engravers
painters, students, judges, lawyers, ed
itors, ministers, is something enormous
and grows with all our material growth
The performance of this work in the
midst of tremendous uproar Of any kind
of course greatly increases the expendl
ture of vital force which accompanies
all mental exertion. Consequently the
reduction of city noise is now one OF the
most important elements in all city re
forms.
In New York we have as yet only
made beginning on it by the introduc
ton of the asphalt pavement, but this II
being RAPIDLY extended and must pro
duce a marked effect in sound reduction
before long. What this pavement doe
10 lessen noise in the streets in which !
exists everybody whV has passed alon!
them or lived on them knows. 1t make
conversation in cabs or carriages ana Il
: rooms facing on the street comfortaoi
: and makes sleep in summer nights VIII
! open windows an easy possibiity-fact
which are really complete answer .
: all the complaints of slipperiness
Better far that an occasional hors
should come down than that the nerve
Of thousands of hardworking men an
women should be continuously set o.
edge by clatter which Is all the NOR
wearing for being intermittent In Lon
don the hard grinding, coul penetratn
noise of the New York stone payemen
has been suppressed, or rather has bee
largely converted into a subdued' COZ
tinuous roar OF boom by means OF wooS
asphalt and macadam, and thong
horses fall much on them all huInanit
gains.-New York Post.
A Tribute to Horses.
= -. - fha faf.f thar more than na