Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1893-07-05
NOISE IN A IIG CITY.
PROGRESS FROM BARgARlSM MAY BE
MEA2c9ED BY NOISE.

The Higher tho Civilization the Greater
tho Desire ror Less Notes.-The Efforts OF
City Authorities OF To-day Are Directed
Toward Reducing 1t.
There always comes a period in the
history of a progressive community when
a desire to keep down noise begins TIC
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
barians love to mako 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 nourners to make a
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. These
who have passed an evening at q Chinese
theater have probably never in their
widest dreams thought it possible to
produce plays with musical accompani-
me0ts of such awful shrillness and in
tensity.
In fact, it is harJlyan exaggeration to
say that the progress Of q race in civ
iliGation may he marked by steady re-
luction in the volume Of sound which it
produces in connection with its deaths,
births, marriages, feasts, mcrrymak-
iags. it's wars and peacos, trade, com
merce and manufactures. The more c,Il-
trare of al 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,
1t shows that 1t is becoming self conscious
and is feeling the throbs of a new life.
After this comes change in the charac-
ter of the musical instruments, a general
lowering of the tones Of the voice, the
substitution at funerals Of the silent tear
fer 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. It's 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 |
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
TORS, 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
IF course greatly increases the expendi-
lure Of vital force which accompanies
Ill mental exertion. Consequently tho
reduction of city noise is now ono Of tho
most important elements in all city re-
'orms.
In New York we have as yet only
made beginning on it by the intfoduc-
ion of the asphalt pavement, but this is
oeing rapidly extended and must pro-
luce a marked effect in sound reduction
before long. What this pavement does
% lessen noise in the streets in which it
Exists everybody who has passed along
hem or lived on them knows. It makes
in cabs or carriages and in
ooms facing on the street comfortable
nd makes sleep in summer nights with
pen windows an easy possibility-facts
which are really complete answer to
II the complaints of slipperiness.
Better far that an occasional horse
hould come down than that the nerves
f thousands Of Woodworking men and
women should be continuously set on
dge by clatter which is all the more
Tearing for being intermittent. In Lon
on the hard grinding, soul penetrating
oise of the New York stone pavement
as been suppressed, or rather has been |
argely converted into q subdued, con-
inuous roar or boom by means Of wood,
sphalt and macadam, and though
orses fall much on them all humanity
ains.-New York Post.