The age-herald., 1900-11-27
SKETCHES FROM
 EVERYDAY LIFE

The penny" said gentleman yesterday, ''has never been a popular coin in the south. No gentleman who happened to owe another five cents would dream of offering him five pennies in payment. It would al- most amount to an insult, unless a very elaborate apology was rendered, al the same time, with a good and valid reason why the pennies were offered. Sometimes a man will drop five pennies in the fare box of a street car, but he always does this with a guilty conscience as if he was taking a mean advantage of the company, and in doing 1t he tries to look as innocent as pos sible while he knows the terrible noise made by the coins as they drop from one glass precipice to another in the box, is proclaiming his meanness to other pas sengers.
 This contempt of the penny in the south is said to be a heritage of caveler extrav- agance. The penny-wise Yankees, who are not pound foolish, have always>treated the penny with more respect believing that if they took care of the penny the penny would take care of them. In recent years the adoption throughout the South by the dry goods stores of the Northern habit of marking goods worth a dollar at 9S cents, and the establishment in Southern cities of numerous fruit stands has brought the penny Into more. general use. Personally 1 find the penny of great convenience I often want an apple and can get one for 2 cents. They are generally sold at for 5 cents, but do not want to carry two ap- pies around in my pocket. and thus the penny comes to my aid. It is the same thing with peanuts, chestnuts, taffy, ha- nannas, chewing glffn, peanut candy and all the various articles sold at fruit stands Five cents worth of peanut candy, or chestnuts, will give you stomachache, but you can eat cents worth with impu- nifty.
 "The coming generation know the value of pennies better than the generation which has already come, and which grew up at a time when pennies were almost unknown. Every school boy or girl as well as the modern merchant knows that penny Is not to be -despised. I was at- tending public meeting the other day in a small town which had met to consider matters of great importance to the com- munity. The meeting was held at the principal store in the place which sold everything from a shoestring to locomo- tive. The storekeeper, who was a promi- nent citizen, was presiding at the meeting. The meeting was at night and the clerks had all gone home. In the midst of the proceedings small boy about ten years old suddenly appeared before the chair man.
 Mister" he said, q want ter buy one cents\worth of chewing gum"
 The chairman went behind the counter, sold the gum, and resumed his seat and the meeting continued"
 'The Medical Journal of Philadelphia" said nervous gentleman, recently pub Hshed an article on the subject of noise which every person in the United States should read The chief of polce,' says the Journal, has classified noisas into the tol- erable, the intolerable and the unavoidable. We should be inclined to exclude the first and third classes and classify all noises as intolerable. Certainly all noises injurious to health are intolerable and avoidabe. But our modern American cities are pandemo- niac with avoidable noises. It is perhaps not far from the truth that 'nervousness' and waste energy of our people are due to the nerve-shattering noises of our life. The few nervous systems that can withstand such ceaseless shocks are blunted into stupid dullness. Every physician and sani- tarian should use all justifiable means to lessen the noise nuisance and to bring such influences to bear upon executive officers of the city and town as may abate 1t.
 We have taught the young for a hun dred years that making the most .frightful noise is the way to express joy, How long will it take us to teach the healthfulness of quiet? How soon shall We learn that one has no more right to throw noises than he has to throw stones into a house? Every physician knows the baneful effect of noise upon his patients, and every physiologist understands its pathogenc effect upon the nervous system. Above all things, unnec- essary noises at night should be merciless- ly stopped If all the physicians and medi- cal societies of city should use their in- fuence upon the city governors, the greater part of such noises could be eliminated.
 Tn Birmingham there is constant blow ing of engine whistles and ringing of bells all night. Sometimes lie awake>and posi- lively suffer listening to these whistles. There Is one in particular which l think must belong to a shifting engine. This engine whistles as continuously and with as little melody as a schoolboy, only tts whis- tie is a thousand times more powerful If you can conceive of a schoolboy engine, you will have some idea of what 1t is like. Railroad officials ought to turn down a whistling engineer as they would a whis- ting office boy. An office boy who once applied for position was asked if he was a good whistler. The best on the block he said. Well, you won't do,' said the boss. Gee said the boy, he must want pro- fesslenal' I think this railroad has got a professional whistler"