South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-12-30
Noise Increases as
World Progresses

That there is more noise 70 the
square yard in life today than in
former tinles cannot be denied. If
the human ear were not the robust
piece OF mechanism il is, all dwell
ers in cities, doubtless, would be-
come deaf-an anliction not with
out cOmpensating advantages.
why the absence Of any particu
lar street noise should be a source
of regret seems inexplicable never
theless there have been sounds-no
longer heard - which memories
clothe with a sweetness perhaps be-
yond their merit, but which l, for
one, would be glad 10 hear again.
Cannot you whose years go back
TO the time before trolley wires dis
figured city streets. recall the tinkle
of the distant horse car as. late at
night. you stood peering up and
down the avenue for the delayed
vehicle that was TO get YOU 10 your
little bed? No brilliant searchlight
kind of a contrivance advertised its
coming when a mile away; only the
faint glimmer of a lamp seen now
and then as a fire fly is seen in the
grass. Your spirits wavered be
tween hope and despair, but pres
emily it was heard-that little tink
le-tinkle of the bells attached to
collars of the still remote and un-
seen horses.
Surely Edgar Allen Poe never
could have heard this heartening
sound while waiting on a roadway
between two small towns. uncertain
whether the last car for the night"
had passed, otherwise he would
have included it among his wonder
Gus illustrations of music in The
Bells"
There was something comfortable
and homelike about the horse car
bell IL was a soft, continuous mu-
sic that never made you jump, as
does the gong of the approaching
trolley. The sound was not pro-
duced by the impatient. stamping
foot of a man, but by the natur /
gait of a patient horse. 1t was Mt,
as Is the clang of the gong, a sud
den, brusque warning TO get out of
the way of the car, but a friendly
! invitation to get into it.
Like the horn Of the automobile,
the gong Of the trolley is not musi-
cal. 1t is mere noise brutally de-
claring the unfitness. Of the nearer
to be at large on a public thorough
fare We obey il cause refusal
means death, but it is and ev T
must be abhorrent to the human
ear If life could proceed without
( il. no one would bemoan its alb
! sence.
} do not think the same can be
said OF sounds associated with
travel by steam. Have you never.
at night, in some unfamiliar village
hotel. heard the distant voice of a
locomotive that is traversing some
wooded stretch of country? Alter
nately distinct and faint, il comes
TO you across miles of field and
meadow as the breeze swells or
fails, or as the train emerges from
Hasn't il an eloquence that dis
pels your loneliness?
The sound of a locomotive
whistle at night often has seemed
10 me a sort of guarantee or pleas
ant reminder of the actually OF
life. In the midst Of darkness and
almost ominous silence, when the
realities Of the daylight grow thin
or fade away as though gone for
ever, the long salute of the night
express TO some village it is ap-
preaching, may come like a glad
proclamation of stability.
Perhaps by and by we shall lose
entirely. as we have already lost in
part through the electrifying OF
railroads. the deep, r-echoing
voice of the steam locomotive. Per
haps this is not to be regretted. but
think it will take many a year be-
fore the shril falsettO whistle of
electric motors can bring 20 mind
such pleasant memories Of distant
friends or of happy Journeys as
arise at sound of old No. 2O1 pro-
claiming her swift passage across
moor and dale.
Modern progress has robbed US
almost completely Of another Of
those old-time street sounds that
some Of US would not be averse TO
hearing again the melodious
strains OF Hear Ne Norma" and
tba oroa eaD,i1iar gernc from pEr-