The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1893-08-23
NOISE IN A BIG CITY.
PROGRESS FROM BAReARlsM MAY BE
MEASURED BY NOISE.


MEASURED BY NOISE.
tho Desire For Less Notes.-The Efforts ..f
City Authorities of Today Arc Directed
Toward Reducing 1t.
There always comes q period in the
history of progressive community when
. desire to keep down noise begins to
lhow itself. In the primitive stages of
fulture-the savage, the barbarian and
The semibarbarian-the passion for noise
is always strong, All savages and bar
barians 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 a
loud lament on such occasions has come
down almost to our own time among
tho 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 a Chinese
thoater 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
1ay that the progress Of a race in civ
ilization may be marked by steady re-
iuction in the volume of sound which it
produces in connection with its deaths,
births, marriages, feasts, meIrynak-
Iings. its wars and peaces, trade com
jmerce and manufactures. The more cul-
iture of all kinds itacquires the less noise
lit 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 lessuproar. When
whether this or that could not safely be
done with fewer yells or smaller drums,
lit shows that il is becoming self conscious
and is feeling The throbs of new life.
After this comes change in the charac-
ter of the musical instruments, 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-
ni2ed in the modern world pari passu
with the increasing interest in and care
for public hygiene. ...-.
I There is 10 modern city health board,
land indeed no modern city doctor, who
ia not well aware of tho evil effects OF
incessant noise in the vast and increas-
Iing multitudes who in all the great cities
now live, ono might say, by their wits,
but, more accurately by their nerves.
The amount of mental operations which
require silence, or Mt all events an ap.
proach 10 zilence, for their hcalthfulness
in cities like New York, London or
4 Paris, carried on by merchants, brokers,
bankers, bookheepers, preachers, profess.
'lors, 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
IOf course greatly increases the ozpendi
: ture Of vital forco which accompanio.
? Iall mental exertion. Consequently th.
reduction of city noise is now one of TIN
most important elements in all city re
forms.
In New York we have as vet only
a made beginning on 1t by tho introduc
ton Of the asphalt pavement, but this i
DElllS Ihplull tSleIueu AEll must iEO
duee marked effect in sound reduction
!. before long. What this pavement doe
to lessen noise in the streets in which i
exists everybody who hes passed alon,
them or lived on them knows. 1t make
= conversation in cabs or carriages and Ii
rooms facing on the street comfortabl
md makes sleep in summer nights wit
& open windows an easy possibility-fact
which are really complete answer t
all the complaints Of slipperiness.
Better far that an occasional hoTs
should come down than that the nerve
of thousands of hardworking men AN
women should be continuously set o
: edge by clattcr which is all the NOR
wearing for being intermittent. In Lon
= don the hard grinding, noul penetgatin
noise of the New York stone pavemri
has been suppressed, or rather has Doe
largely converted into subdued, cor
20 tnuous roar II boom by means Of Woo
asphalt md macadem, and thong
h6rses fall much on them all huiuauit
gains. York Post.
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Work and Leisure should Re NIated