Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-06-20
THE wHIsrLING AMERICAN.
q Habit That Is Not Found
Among the People ef Any
Other Nation.

"AASN4lAS HAUL Is PECULIARLY
american" said an obser5ant citizen
VINO has recently toured Europe, re-
ports the New Orleans Times-Demo-
crat, and after having watched the
peoples of other countries with refer
ence to the habit Ihave concluded that
1t Is not only distinctive in its Ameri-
canlsm, but that it is a positively DOM
lnant characteristic. When the Amer
lean has nothing else to do he whistles.
we are a race of whistlers. The puck
cred mouth is an American institution.
Men whistle, boys whistle and women
whistle. There is whistling in the high
ways and the byways, whistIing in the
homes, whistling everywhere and on
all occasions. Some men whistle while
they work. l know a bookkeeper who
Whistles a jerky sort of tune whenever
ne adds a column of figures. and he
seems to beat a sort of time for the
mental processes through which he
passes. L have observed many in
stances OF idle, unconscious whistfing
when the mind set on the perform
ance OF some task; but the habit is
probably more noticeable in the public
streets thai elsewhere. Take New Or
leans or any other American city, and
1t is almost impossible to get beyond
the whistler's range. He is on every
corner and traversing every street.
The gray-haired bank president, busy
ing himself with discounts and per-
centages, whistles idly as he walks
down the street. The dignified lawyer
whistles over his pleas and proceden-
dos, and the urchin strikes a ragtime
with his puckered mouth as he darts
around the corner. Butcher, baker and
candlestick maker all whistle, and the
time always varies with the bent of the
whistler, striking all the moods in mu-
sic, from the dirge to the ~quickstep.
1t is a curious habit and L nave often
wondered what relation il bears to the
really fundamental things in the
American nature. OF course, it is a
manifestation of nervousness. in some
instances. In others it is probably an
acquired habit or a case of Unconscious
imitation, very much like the respon-
siveness of the violin to the notes of a
piano. One man whistles a certain
time. The scale is photographed, as it
were, in another mans mind. and uG-
consciously he initiates the sound, and
the scale is handed TO the next most
impressiOnable person, and thus it
passes on with its moUth-puckering
tendency from one person TO another.
In the case of the NOR popular and
more catchy airs we find an unbroken
chain of effects in the jerky, synco-
pated ragtime echoes that are thus
transmitted from one TO another.
Il have often wondered" continued
the observant citizen. IF there was
anything peculiar to American life that
would afford a rational explanation of
this almost universal habit. In Ger
many it is a rare thing to hear a man
DR. even a boy whistling in. a public
street. The streets of Berlin are prac-
tically free from the sound. The Ger
mans are great singers, and the beer
gardens literally ring with the Groom
ing melodies of the FatherIand as
Mein Herr munches his pretzel and sips
his beer. But they never whistle in
Berlin unless some fellow happens to
have a strong percentage of American
blood coursing in his veins. In on
don 1 observed practically the same
condition. The Englisman does not
possess that morose austerity of the |
Teutonic type, but he is nevertheless
opposedto the whistlinghabit as a rule, |
and the indulgence is rare. In France
the practice is INDUCED in TO some ex-
tent, but even in Paris, supposedly the
very heart of all thai is frivolous and
tickle, and where men and women are !
always believed to be strung up to a
high nervous tension, the whistIfng is /
nothing when compared to the extent
of fha ha hif in A m erica Eopa sion n lx !
a boulevardier will whistle a bar from
the opera comiqhe in a moment of men,
tai idleness and personal disassocia.
lion, put the ocialinstinct is so strong
Iy i~ntrenched in the French natur
that he Don ecover from his musical
reverie and begins to indulge the polite
Vocations peculiar to his countrymen.
So l nave concluded that whistling is
not altogether the result of a highly
tensioned nervous energy. Races of a
nervous temperament whistle more
than races that are less nervous in
their nature. But there are certain
other manifestations of
that are common to all countries and
all highly developed people, such as
The practice of humping the fingers
against a desk or a table. the habit
of walking the floor, fumbling with a
watch chain, an inordinate use of the
handkerchief, the practice of pulling
the hat down over the eyes and then
showing it back on the head, a shutting
of the feet or a stroke of the face with
the hand, and countless other things of
this character which tend to indicate
acknowledgement. But with
the whistling habit it is different. and
the practice seems to be peculiarly
American. 1t does not argue that the
Americans are more nervous than the
neople of other countries. 1t does
not mean that they are less dignified
or that they are mental 1oafers. They
are simply Americans. That's all. The
American is not discriminative in his
whfstling. for he whistles when he
pleases and what he pleases. He will
whistle a Tie Deum Laudamus' one
minute and a 'Possum a La or 'Googoo
Rves' the next, without the fear of
pubIic criticism and without much re-
snect for his fellows who are forced to
listen"
Extreme Case.
"Young Mr.. DinYte tells me that he
l. extremely fond OF the poetry of