The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-07-23
NOISES OF LONDON.
THE WORST OF THEM AMOUNT TO
ALMOST A PLAGUE.
No Electric Cars Buzz the Ear, but the
Voices of Street Fakirs, Drunken Men
and Women and stroiiing Musicians
Make More Trying Sounds.

London is the noisiest city in the
world. Yet it has no electric cars buzz
ing and crashing and ding longing
through the streets. London's excuses
in noise do not come from its street
traffic. It's smooth wood pavement is
the ouietest thing yet devised for floor
ing a city, and rubber tires daily multi
plv. There are two classes OF noisy
vehicles, the omnibuses and the milk
carts. but il is not the wagon wheel or |
the wagon load that makes London the |
noisiest city in the world-it's the hui
man voice and the human lung.
Anybody is free to make as much
noise in London streets as he likes. lie
may sing, bawl, cry his wares, tootle on
trumpets, and no one can prevent him.
To his vocal exercises he may add the
shrill CHATTER of the piano organ and the
doleful drum, and none shall say hlm
nay.
At this moment a German band splits
the air about my windows. The lat
trumpoters planted themselves before
the house ten minutes ago. and their
ferocious brass squealings have driven
me from the chapter on which was
, fondly engaged and have banished for
, ever the struggling thoughts that were
trying to get themselves into some lnky
shape.
Q If the wretches would play well, some
4 excuse could be found for their persist
= ent energy, but they play Wiley. All
! German street bands do.
s An insolent rufiian with fife is an
J. other terror in our street. You can near
y him for half a mile. He will murder
g any tune he tries.
l. There is q varlet who comes at DIM
o ner time three nights week to yell
Is "Sweet Marie and 1.-THE Jewel OF
II Asia" / prophesy sudden death for this
J. man.
y ANY metropolitan doctor will tell you
q that nervous diseases are becoming de-
1t plorably common. What are invalids TO
n do when the blatant Teutons come bel
30 lowing under their bedrooms? You can
=, 90 into the street and command the
ID clamorous musicians to move on If there
ell is illness in your house, and you car
give the wretches in charge IL they
don't obey. But suppose they move
hundred yards. Their mighty blasts
a. still roll along the street. They can e
ed around the corner. They perambulat'
al all the adjacent passages and keel
In within the law and your hearing at TIT
of same time. You are defenseless.
no There's not a quiet hour from II
nd the morning till past midnight. The al
ly legged musicians stop their odious per
lit formances before midnight. Whether !
is law or exhaustion that compels then
have never discovered.
When they have passed, the inebriate
coster and the roisterous apprentice &
home roaring. They come almost inva
riably in tours and bowling at the to
of their voices They stand Oh the stree
corners and howl unintelligible things
? When low class Londoner is file
4 with drink, he bursts into song an
z kicks his womankind. Law can touc
~ him for the latter diversion, but not IL
- the former, and yet the fellow s singin
is as brutal as his kicking.
There is another terror beloved OF
rlv certain kind of cockney, and it is nevel
in by any chance rampant in the daytime
~ A young coster, having finished his II
Mt Dor and completed the joyous rite
oer dumping on his mother" march'
q a through the streets squeezing the a
eos from a concertina. He is accompanie
,ed ! by a group of admiring friends, new
,he less than six in number. They marc
for heavily, these gallant Britons. Ye
hear their boot heels keeping time TO u
ON shrill instrument. Now and then tint
the whistle chorus. More frequently thu
yell it. Where they march from al
where they march to no man knowet
I know only that their nightly proce
r. sions torture my ears.
80 No policeman ever interferes wi
- these jewellers of the night. The blu
coat has no authority for REFRESHING {
- ardent choristers, for the police mi
49,, not interfere with the liberty OF {
On subject" and "the liberty of the su
,;oi ject" means that any fellow is permi
,ooI ted to make as much noise as he lik
. when quiet folk would be sleeping.
;r;o The singing beggars are the me
.oS odious of London's street nuisance
roc They are always greasy, shiny, Will
No., and out of tune. For the most pi
and they sing hymns, but no pen can Il
uoss you how they sing them; no words
ian convey the utter hypocrisy OF thu
sneaking manners. They are as bao
lot as you could find the world ov'
They trade chiefly on the sympathy
,,,,o the stranger and the credulous tow
e. man. They trade proftably, too. NOR
-; tho pity. One of them died the ott
.,'o day and left 81, 900 cash at his lodgir
The Begging is forbidden by law.
,,,o,, stand in the street and ask for aims i
,,,os crime, but to shuttle along the str
now whining in sharps and flats is to
.;na come an industrious subject. 1t is
,.as law that forces these repulsive imp
20 tors to make noise. There is nothl
,;oo more detestable than pair of these
and CRATES, dragging their slow feet ale
noo the muddy roads, rolling their eyes
asa screeching, "Jesus. lover of my sou
az As for the yelling vendors of wal