The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-08-29
STOP UNNECESSARY NOISES OF THE
CITY.

One of the great amictions of city
life Is the unnecessary noise people are
compelled to endure. Noise that could
be easily avoided and which If sup
pressed would add greatly to the COM
fort and health of the citizens, and es-
pecially to the sick. The ringing of
bells, theblowing of whistles and other
unnecessary noises could be easily
dispensed with without inconvenience
or injury to anyone. The Chicago
Chronicle, writing on this subject Of
fers some valuable suggestions
Some weeks ago, as the result of con-
ferences between several public spirit
ed citizens and the police authorities,
it was understood that orders were to
be issuedto local officers and patrolmen
to suppress as far as possible the un-
necessary noises which are the affliction
of city life. If orders OF the kind were
issued they have produced but little ef-
feet. The nuisance is as great as ever
in most parts of the city. Some reforms
have been accomplished by private eff
fort, but only localities were afflicted.
There has been no general Improvement
in the situation.
There is no nuisance of the city so
outrageous as the unnecessary noises.
In the daytime they are bed enough.
At night they are almost uncomfortable.
To the sick the terrible disturbances
created for no reasonable object and
in mere wantonness render every hour
in1 90 tnr ic oil yo1 .
often it is not impossible that at the
crisis of disease the racket in the streets
causes an unfavorable or fatal
change. The tired muscles and brains
seeking needed rest the roar, shouts,
rattle, banging and changing bring sur
cease of sleep or cause it to be a revel
in pandemonium-a picnic of night
mares.
One of the greatest nuisances is the
early Sunday morning cry Of the news
boys, beginning at daylight, an hour be-
fore anybody who would buy a news
paper is awake, and continuing
throughout the time when the morning
maps and dozes otherwise would be so
pleasant and healthful. The early
milk wagon, with every joint in the
structure rattling a devils tattoo that
can be heard blocks away-driven at
the full speed of foundered horse clat-
tering along the hard pavement and
churning the milk into premature but
ter, is another outrageous nuisance
too exasperating for description. But
space is lacking to name even a part of
the dissonant noises, entirely unneces-
sary, which produce discomfort during
the day and make the night horrid for
all but those of cast-iron nerves or the
deaf.
A few days since a well-known ply
sician visited the high authorities of
two railroad companies whose trains
are switched near a choice residence
portion of the city. The night noises of
the trains, with the hullabaloo of the
trainmen while at their work. woke all
the echoes of earth and sky, making the
almost uninhabitable.
By argument illustration and pursua-
sion he convinced the railroad officials
that the work on their tracks could be
conducted with comparatively little
noise and orders were given to that eff
feet. The orders were obeyed better
than similar police orders and the resi-
dents of the neighborhood in question
now know of sound sleep, to which they
had been strangers for years. This
case is cited to show with how little eff
fort rightly directed a seasonable re-
form may be effected.
A New York inventor has devised
plan to muffle the mighty rattle and
roar of the elevated railroad trains. He
has taken out no patent on the device.
He only asks that a small selection of
the elevated track may be placed un-
der his control, so as to use his appli-
ances and make test if their efficacy.
1t is a ripe time for all demonstrations
against the unnecessary noise nuisance
and outrage. Every man and woman
should be considered a crusader in the
cause of this reform.
True, Canton has no levated railroad
trains and perhaps no"foundered horses
along the hard pavements,"
but it has as much noise to the square
inch as cities of larger proportions and
greater magnificence.