The Globe-republican., 1893-09-22

| NOISE IN A BIG CITY.
PROGRESS FROM eAReARisM NAV De
MEASURED eY NOISE.
The Higher The Civlli..sion H. Greater
the Desire For Less Notes.-The Efforts Of
City Authorities OF Today are Directed
Toward Reducing Il.
There always comes 3 period in the
history Of q progressive community when
q desire to keep down noise begins to
show itself In the primitive stages Of
culture savage, the barbarian and
the semibarbarian-the passion for noise
Is always strong. All savages and bar
baxians love to make all the row they
can. Their Joy and SORROW both express
themselves in yells, walls scd 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 arns, although it was, as we
might say, almost wholly manual OF
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 almoet 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
thester 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 q race in civ
ilization may be marked by steady re-
duction in the volume of sound which it
produces in connection with its deaths,
births, marriages, feasts, merrymak-
ings, its wars and peaces, trade, COM
MERGE and manufactures. The more crl-
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 q q de-
sire to get along with less uproar. When
it's leading men begin to ask themselves
whether this OF 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 q new life.
After this comes change in the charac-
ter Of the musical instruments, q 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-
nised 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 cities
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 healthfulness
In cities like New York, London or
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 expendi-
tqre Of vital force which accompanies
all mental e1ertion. Consequently the
reduction Of city noise is now one Of the
most important elements in all city 70
forms
In New York we have az yet only
made beginning on It by the introduc- |
ton Of the asphalt pavement, but this is
being rapidly extended and must pro-
d. =" marked effect in sound reduction
b - long. What this pavement does
to .ssen noise in The streets in which it
exists everybody who has passed along
them or lived on them knows. It makes
conversation in cabs or carriages and in
rooms facing on the street comfortable
and makes sleep in summer nights with
open windows an easy possibihty-facts
which are really complete answer to
all the complaints Of slipperiness.
Better far that an occasional horse
should come down than that the nerves
Of thousands of hardworkino mon and