The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-08

crate Of our ~neighbors. In the daytime one
may grin and bear it, but at night II often
becomes a sore trial. Pullman sleepers af-
ford an excellent test Of manners upon the
road" and the results are anything but
fiattering TO our national vanity. / have
slept-or tried 10 sleep-at least a hundred
nights in Pullman cars, and L do not re-
member one in which 1 was not awakened
once or oftener by persons coming In late
at this or that station, and bawling away
at each other at the top Of their voices,
just as If they were in their private bed
rooms; utterly regardless of the two dozen
persons whom they disturbed. Women, L
regred to add, are usually the worst Of
Tenders, and / have often wished the porter
would hand to each of them, as she en-
ters the sleeper, a card with King Lears
tribute to Cordelia:
Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle and low, an excellent thing in wom-
an"
To sensitive persons, there is, however,
something even worse than the fortissimo
small talk by which nine persons out of
ten usually betray their lack of manners
and refinement. l have known women
who claimed the privilege of voting as a
right, yet who had so little consideration
pie that they allowed their boys to make
a perpetual nuisance of themselves by
their shrill loud whistling without ever
q word OF protest. But IL Is not only the
boys who whistle; grown men are con-
stantly whistling all about me, and nearly
every day l AVE to go from one car on
NA4O SACNa aAANdN 4AAO dAlgLAAIA 0AaA2
some fellow is entertaining himself at the
expense of all the other passengers. Amer
lea has been called a country of whistlers,
and nothing worse has even been said by
our bitterest enemies. Europeans do not
whistle. Boys may, but well-dressed adults
do not, and, as a rule, 1t is only cobblers'
boys and street Arabs who indulge in this
vice. During my recent trip TO Europe,
which covered parts of ten countries, L
always said to my wife when we heard
anyone whistling: There's an American"
and nearly always L found L was right.
There are doubtless a number Of persons
who cannot understand why whistling
should be considered offensive and vulgar.
1t is offensive and vulgar for the same
reason that the use OF musk and other
villanious perfumes" is considered often
sive and vulgar. When L was a boy, in the
days when Dickens painted American man
ners in such an unpleasant color, no OBJ
lection was made to the use of these vile
and obtrusive smells. But we nave pro-
crossed in refinement, and to-day it is con-
sidered very bad manner to use loud
perfumes in public. The time will come
when loud whistling-from which il is as
impossible TO escape as from the odOr of
muSk-will also be frowned on. 1t is in
the hope of accelerating the advent of that
time that L am writing this jeremiad.
What a~ggravateS the offenSe is that in
the vast majority of cases the whistlers do
not even give us a tune, but just maunder
along in a chaotic. idiotic succession of
tones. 1 suppose this sort Of inane noise
gives one a good idea Of what goes on in
the brains of persons who never think. To
unsteady refined persons it is a torture
that might have been used during the In
uuisition. Paderewski. though passionately
fond of billiards, used to leave the hall in
the Windsor Hotel in the middle of a game
if any one began to whistle. He once re-
marked that a man ought to be allowed to
shoot at sight any one who whistled in pub
lie. He was not joking, either. At least,
l hope he wasn't.