The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-07
L0NDON'S GREAT RACKET.
DECLARED TO BE THE NOISIEST
CITY IN THE WORLD.

Not Electric Cars or the Wheels of
Wagons. But the Street Bands and
the LOud-MOuthed Vendors That
Make the Great English MetrOp-
oils HideOus With DiscOrdant
SOunds-The COstermOngers and
the Singing Beggars-YeIIing Ven
ders of All Sorts of Wares.
From the Boston Herald.
That excellent prince, Albert the Good,
consort of her majesty, Queen Victoria,
conferred many benefits upon England
but he also introduced to it an infection
the German band.
Prince Albert was fond of music; so
the wonder is that he could do this thing
But he did it. and London suffers hideous
and increasing torment through his in
discretion
London is the noisiest city in the world.
Yet it has no electric cars buzzing and
crashing and ding-donging through the
streetsl London's excuses in noise do
not come from its streets traffic. Its
smooth wood pavement is the quietest
thing yet devised for flooring a city, and
rubber tires daily multiply. There are
two classes of noisy vehicles, the omni-
buses and the milk carts but it is not the
wagon wheel nor the wagon load that
makes London the noisest city in the
world-its the human voice and the hu-
man lung.
Anybody is free to make as much noise
in London streets as he likes. He may
1T
trumpets, and no one can prevent him. To
his vocal exercise he may add the shrill
clatter of the piano organ, and the dole
full drum. and none shall say him nay.
At this moment a German band splits
the air about my windows. The fat
trumpeters planted themselves before the
house ten minutes ago. and their feroci-
GUS brass squealihgs have driven me from
! the chapter on which / was fondly en-
gagged, and have banished forever the
struggling thoughts that were trying to
get themselves into some inky shape.
When the strong-lunged fiends have
blown out their repertoire they vii, move
| ten doors away and begin again. For an
| hour hence l shall hear them gurglinS in
| the neighborhood, melting all peaceable
persons to shatter commandment.
If the wretches would play well, some
| excuse cOulu De IOunu LOT luelE peISlSlGHt
energy; but they play vilely
This Identical group of harmony killers
will come four nights out of the seven,
and make night hideous.
An insolent ruffian with a fife is another
| terror in our street. You can hear him
for half a mile. He will murder any tune
he tries.
There's a varlet who comes at dinner
time three nights a week to yell Sweet
| Marie" and THE Jewel of Asia" proph-
esq sudden death for this man.
1t is impossible nowadays for any light
| sleeper to snatch forty winks in an after
noon. There are some lucky creatures
who have such stout nerves that they
could sleep through the slaughter of their
parish or through devastation by earth
| quake; but persons thus blessed become
fewer and fewer as civilization becomes
more acute. Any metropolitan doctor will
tell you that nervous diseases are becom-
ing deplorably common.
You can go into the street and command
| the clamorous musicians to move on IL
there is illness in your house, and you can
give the wretches in charge If they don't
obey; but suppose they move a hundred
yards! Their mighty blasts still roll along
the street. They can go around the cor
ner. They perambulate all the adjacent
passages. and keep within the law and
your hearing at the same time. You are
defenseless.
There's a cornet blower who comes o.
Saturday nights and performs an hour
| by the clock. He's the Mest knave at
the business 1 ever encountered. He
hasn't missed a Saturday for seven years.
and he hasn't changed his tunel
II once a week were all-but it Is not!
There's not a quiet hour from i'm the
morning till past midnight. The alleged
musicians stop their odious performance
before midnight. Whether It is law or
exhaustion that compels them, l have
never discovered.
When they have passed, the inebriatcd
coster and the roisterous apprentice go
home roaring. They come almost inva-
riably in fours, and bowling at the top
Of their voices. They stand on the street
corners and howl unintelliglble things
When a low-cass Londoner Is filed with
drink he bursts into song and kicks his
womankind Law can touch him for the
latter diversion, but not for the former
and yet the fellows singing is MS crutal
as his kicking. His bacchanalian ditties
are as clamorous as the 'yawp" Of Walt
Whitmans steam calliope. You need ex-
pect no sleep till this multitudlnous fool
has gone to bed
There is anothr terror beloved OF GER