The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-24
NOISES OF STREET
Sounds Have Undergone Great
Changes in Topeka.
Clack-Clack of HOOfs Succeeded
by Motors Exhaust.
CARUSO HEARD IN EVERY BLOCK
Young Romeo Always Karin
To Go With His Juliet.
Machine Gun Chatter of Motor
cycles Heard Now.
CARUSO HEARD IN EVERY BLOCK

The voice Of the city. with its deep
throated, mysterious compelling allure.
pregnant with the hint Of an irresisti-
bic. mighty power, is sound that
never leaves ones memory. It is al
most tragical to attempt to remove
one who has lived soothed by the vast
familiar cultural, 10 a place where the
stlences are so thick that the very air
seems a force that must be fought
against.
It is at night, when the air is still
and one approaches the city from the
still, quiet. outlying districts of the
country, that the rumbling. growing
diapason of the city's voice is most
pronounced.
From the distance it appears as a
deep, rumbling passionate voice OF
some mighty being Like a mother il
talks to is children. Even to those
far from the city home, who hear the
heart tones of the mother voice
To those who have lived mostly in
the silent places. il is a fearsome
dreadful menace. Il is a frightful
warning OF a grinding. crushing power
that stops at no form OF destruction
But its tones are kindly to those who
have learned to know and understand.
Like a mother disturbed by petulant
unruly children. the voice Of the city
calls out a warning. constant and in
sistent TO its turbulent children, free
from a long days work. ready 70 play.
fight love. dance, murder, steal Run
ming the thousand phases of human
nature. each in his own way adds to
the night notes found in the mighty
voice.
Voice OF Topeka Changes.
But the voice of Topeka has changed.
It has become bigger. vaster. more
fascinating In the beginning there
he n
roar Of such vehicles between the
rock walls on either side of Kan
sas avenue did not reverberate in the
man-made canyon The screaming,
grinding cry Of the steel wheels graf
ing their way around a curve in the
tracks was a note unheard in the days
Of the city's youth.
The staccato, machine gun chatter
Of hundreds Of motorcycles never in
terrupted the philosophy of curbstone
seers The heavier. fiercer roaring OF
high powered motor cars never came
to break into the peaceful slumbers OF
the citizens. The raucous, blatant
whirring blast of warning from the
electric horns of the motor cars was
blessing they did not have thirty years
ago
Caruso did not sing in every block
F.sthetic musical persons were not
driven mad by the notes Of grand
opera coming from one small resi-
iarEer-Tnore palatIal home came the
mad syneopation of the latest jazz
strains. No one sat in drug stores
drinking "cOkes' where the phono-
graph music is used 10 deaden the
sounds made by otherwise thoughtful
and considerate young women sucking
on straws, and young men splashing
around in swiss chocolate
Listening for Dobbin.
ThosA Wera the DAYS when along
about o'clock in the evening the fair
young things listened anxiously and
eXpectant1y for the hOOf beats OF pa
tfent Dobbin on the cobbiestoneS. The
iron bound carriage wheels were soon
TO come creaking up the street. A
buggy with rubber tires was a sign of
absolute affluence- There were
phaetons, surreys and buggies of all
kinds The lines could be wrapped
around the whip stock. Dobbiu did
the rest. He usually went as far as
some grassy plot. and there he stopped
TO dine. The noise from these bug
Eies was always conspicuous by its abb
seuce.
Now-about $50 O'Clock. the mod
ern Romeo dashes up to Juliet's
home in a high powered motor car.
As the car stops abruptly, there is a
grinding. shrieking scream of brakes
hurriedly applied. The motor is
turned off in one nerve racking roar
course, the electric horn adds its din
10 let Juliet know that Romeo has ar
rived and is ''rariu' to GO
The Night GaIlop.
The motor cars gaIlop around the
city until the wee, little hours Of the
morning. They can scarcely be called
silent caravans. either. The laugh
ing, historical notes of high pitched
feminine tones and loud masculine
voices watt up to the rooms Of those
attempting to slumber. The cut-out
mufflers OF cars driven al high We
loctty make battle royal OF the
streets.
There was a time a few years ago
when the exhaust OF one OF the old
double opposed two luuEers could
keep every one awake within a radius
Of six blocks. Dozens of bigger. more
powerful cars bark forth their notes
on the night air now almost IN
needed.
But II out OF the silent streets comes
the steady, clack. clack. clack of the
iron shod hoofs of a trotting horse
people say Il wish they would keep
those noisy animals off the streets"
observation-disclosures J. Reid, storm center
Of a high rent inquiry here over notices