The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-24

unnecessary noises. From all these the
dweller in the country Is free Stiffness
has ever been recognized as one Of the dis
tinctive characteristics Of the country, and
silence as a grateful and soothing change
from the noises of city life. Poets and
prose writer's nave written Of the delights
of stiffness. the pleasures of silence. The
restful feeling that it conveys is indeed
one of the principal charms Of the coun-
try for those who live in cities. No doubt
country people enjoy in a way the noises
of the city during their occasional brief
visits. but even they must find relief in
a return to the country, where Silence.
like a poultice, comes to heal the blows
OF sound,' and where "the cocks shrill
clarion or the echoing horn is about the
most pronounced noise that is heard. ex-
cept when the threshing machine, in the
performance of its annual work. brings a
clatter and clang that can be heard across
many fields. Gray. in his celebrated elegy.
conveyed a good impression of the stiffness
of a country churchyard when he said:
Now fades the landscape on the glimmer-
ing sight,
And all the afr a solemn stiffness holds.
Save where the beetle wheels its dronlng
fight,
And drowsy tinklings lur the distant
folds.
The phrases Solemn stiffness and
"drowsy tinklings' are very suggestive of
the stiffness in the country at twilight.
When little noises are heard a long way.
1t is pleasant to be in the country at that
hour, or, I'm fact, at any time. and listen
to the distant roar Of a passing train or
the whistle of a locomotive a mile or two
away that comes almost as a muffled
sound, and reflect that one doesn't have to
take that train. Dwellers in the country
are apt to find during their brief visits
to the city that it's noises prevent sleep.
So city people going to the country some
times find the silence oppressive at first,
but they soon get used to it as one does
to any normal and healthy condition.
Noises act on the nerves and I'm connec-
ton with other causes help to produce
nervous diseases. Neurasthenia is a city
disease. A case of nervous exhaustion is
a rare thing among those who live in the
country. OF course, other conditions of
city life conduce to nervous exhaustion,
but noise helps. No physician would think
of sending a neurasthenic patient to a city
sanatorium for treatment. He prescribes
a complete change of environments, includ-
ing, If possible, the seclusion and quiet of
the country. OF course, the noises in a
city can never be wholly suppressed and
never should be, as in a large degree they
are a necessary part of city life, but
they can be reasonably restricted. Unnec-
essary noises can be prevented, and those
which are absolute nuisances can be pro-
hibited. In the country nobody minds a
barking dog or a Growing rooster; in fact,
stiffness. But the courts nave held that in
a city they are a nuisance. A dog may
be a necessity, but a barking dog is not,
and a person has M more right to keep
a dog which habitually banks at night to
the annoyance and distress of %neighbors
than he would have to maintain an auto
matte 'horse fiddle" in his back yard that
would annoy a whole neighborhood with
out doing any good whatever. 1t is a ques-
ton whether church bells and chimes in
cities do not come under the head Of nuis-
ances. They certainly are unnecessary
noises. Street cars might be made much
less noisy than they are, and the time is
not distant when public sentiment will de-
mand that they be. All vehicles might be
constructed SO as to make much less noise.
The cries of various kinds Of hucksters.
peddlers, collectors of "old clo', old iron,
old Shoes" etc., who seem to traverse the
same routes and deliver the same ear
splitting message day after day might be
curtailed If not abolished. The Chicago
ordinance Classics noises as tolerable, in
tolerable and necessary. The success of
the attempt to so differentiate them will
be watched with interest by other cities.