The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-10
Mrs. Rice. who stopped sirens of Taboat., rurns Her Attention to the sunday Morning Chimes-Rynn
 |. Motive Power Behind Isthmian Canal contract.
BY sEwrLr HAGGARD.

New York. Feb. 9.--(Special. )- Mrs Isaec L.. Rice. the woman who founded the Society for the Suppress sion of Unnecessary Noise. has turned her. attention to the church bells of this city. Mrs. Rice's intention Is to abolish them.
 With her victory over the footing tugboat captains. and several of the many varieties of street noises in mind, church folk are somewhat alarmed. A bill to stop the wild screaming of the siren tug whistles on the river is about to be passed by Congress through her efforts.
 Mrs Rice thinks that the church bells are unnecessary and. to empha- size her~argumeut when asked about her lateN anti-noise war. she produc- cd a number of protests written to her by suffering citizens. One of them was from Dr. S.. Weir Mitchell. the famous author and physician of Phil- adelphia. who has taken the matter up In that city. Another was from Archbishop Farley, who has become a member of the advisory board of Mrs. Rice's organization. One citizen who lives in the neighborhood of The Little Church Around the Corner" wrote. J
 "The ohuych has loud and most
 
 times each day
 He said that many thousands of persons living in the vicinity of the church were awakened every weekday morning as well as on Sunday. Mrs. Rice considers particularly obnoxious the new even-thousand- pound bell just put in by the College of the City of New York. winch is guaranteed to throw sound waves twenty miles. She said:
 Tt seems to me that people newa- days strive with each other to see who cam produce the higyeJ- screechiest. e'otiest and horridest noisemaker and nerve destroyer. Out in St. Louis they boast of the biggest steam whis- tie, which. like the City College school bell. can be heard twenty miles"
 Mrs. Rice doesn't know just how the society Is going to stop the ringing of the church bells. but she says method will be found. She declares that people should not buy things from noise makers. As for herself. she is going to notify her milkman that unless he puts rubber tires on his wagon, and quits shouting ''whoa Bill"' to his patient horse. she will take her trade away from him. Tn her crusade for stopping noises she has been absorbing some of Schopenhau- CTS :deas on the subject. It seems that schopenhauer did some noise pre- vention work. In the little German town where he lived he was much disturbed by the loud cracking of whips, which he said, "cut his brain in two at every snap"
 Persons outside of New York are likely to look upon a woman engaged in Mrs. Rice's work as something of a crank. But in reality the useless noise nroblem has become a serious one. For years there has been an effort making here to have wooden block paving in the streets and to have fac- tory whistles abolished. Before long It Is expected that ordinances will be introduced in the Board of Aldermen to stop all kinds of foolish noises. the honking of automobiles. the little Ger man band, and even the street hurdy gurdy. fS
 Far from being a crank Mrs. Rice IS most sensible woman. She is somewhat old fashioned, especially in the bringing up of her children. She believes that all of them should be taught to do something worth while !. Already among her children have de- Veloped a poet. sculptor. an athlete. and couple of machinists Her house on Riverside Drive is one of the snow places of the city. In 1t IS noise proof room where her bus- oand and his companions play chess MT. Rice is the President of the Hol- land submarine Shipbuilding Company and 's widely known for his knowi. edge of marine engineering.
 Bryan is Behind Diver.
 AS predicted in this correspondence lhomas Fortune Ryan now appears as rue financial power behind Colonel w. ;. Oliver who has made the lowest bid TO get the contract to build the Pana- ma Canal. This seems to have been .naoe certain by the announcement that John B.. Mcdonald had become The president of the Panama Construc- tion Company. Mir. Mcdonald is the man who built the New Yohk Sub- way and is now associated with the Ryan Belmont interests which operate The underground railway.
 If 1t costs $200,0OO.OOO to build the canal. as many persons predict Mir. Ryan and his associates will pull down profit of $12.000.O00 This estimate does not inplnda tha nrofft tho4 ..,o ,.