The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1921-12-08
NOISE AND OTHERWISE
(By NJ. II. j.


sense enough TO do anything else, he
can still whistle; and if he is an utter
damphool he will whistle in the house
Noise marks the difference between
the modern world and the ancient; for
instance, the clamorous boiler-maker;
the shrieking locomotive-engine; the
nationwide whistle-screaming on the
announcement Of the armistice; the ar
rival of Foch; the thunder of factory
machinery; the blare of Broadway; the
firing of the Big Bertha on Paris; the
explosive bombs of the anarchist-has
the world gone daft?
1t was not always so. Our convicted
first parents with tear-stained faces,
slipped from the garden in silence;
they stepped timidly, we can believe,
inte a new and strange world before
4hem where to choose" They had sin
nedl How they suffered! God ha We
mercy on US all for we are sinners.
The big world was in the quiet of its
first, great, open-eyed dawn; the
beasts Of the jungle come into the open
with the cat-like tread, not yet, tempt
ed by hunger; and the answering roar
Of the King of the forest was suppress
ed. Man and the beast were as vet
unsuspiciOus. They had not yet learn
ed to fight; they had the innocence of
the new birth. By and by they were
20 pass through the probation of the
ages of savagery and return again to
ha
eat straw like the OK.
As man advanced, he moved in con-
sonance with the silent world of which
he was a part. Noise was not essentiaI
No enemies anywhere. AS he develop
ed, the latent beast within him flashed
forth internationally. Antagonisms
bred like the loeusts in Egypt, but still
the Satanic forces within him were
partially dormant. When he finally
went TO war. the battle gave forth
neither smoke nor noise, emily the
srumpetings of the thick of the fight,
as used by Alexander the Great and
Cyrus of Persia.
1t is a curious reversion to the traits
place Of the elephants, the fighters
dropped the so-called scientific
method and used the caterpillar-tank
to gain the victory by main strength
an awkwardness rather than by brain
work; and so, as Solomon says, there
IS nothing new under the sun, that
what we have now, the world possess
ed long ago-eXcepting the noisel
The school as taught by Socrates,
was conducted in whispers; now at
the Normal, the recitations are
punctuated by the yells. of the foot
ball fans. The modern world cannot
get along without noise all the way
from battleships to popguns.
When fighting afoat, with triremis,
there was nothing louder than the
dripping oars unless they were raised
10 crack the skulls of the foe.
There was one attempt. when the
world was young, to make a noise
which was promptly choked off. A
gang Of the brethren got chesty and
said, Come, let Us make US a name; +;
then they began TO build a wireless
station to communicate with the celes-
tial world; but they made so much
noise about it, that the Master got
wind Of it, and came down and broke
up the party. Silence prevailed for
a long time after that
There is something appealing about
the world when it was young and sill
ent; before it got bad and was drown
ed as the quickest way to get rid of
It. Sure thing; in Abraham's day, the
grasses were of a deeper emerald, and
tn diamonds of the dawn, flashed
from their blades with a brilliance
surprising the opals of the gravel
beds; and Eve-the queen of the gar
den-the worlds fair young mother,
we are persuaded was spared the
beauty of her lost estate.
Tradition says, that Cain-the till
er of the soil-in the worlds happy
go-luclly age, had the good fortune to
''come back" after his bad break, he
went forth with the mark of identifi-
cation upon him, to make a second
effort, to live down the past, to tri-
umph over what seemed a hopeless
future. Like a burst of sunlight
through the threatening clouds this
discredted adventurer stood forth an
architect; and the folks were so sur
prised that they questioned one an
othr-whence hath this man a know
ledge of blue prints, having never
learned? All the same, the news
papers accuse him of having designed
ao5 L,,sfA a. a-Ao,,,, H.. %ev,nIa 81