The Noises of a City.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 15, 7 October 1908, Page 38

The Noises of a City.

In London there are hundreds of quiet streets where you can get rest and sleep at all times, but in New York, in nearly every street, there is a tramline, and each tram-car is equipped with a Big gong which the driver clangs

incessantly, remarks a writer in a London paper, comparing the noises in the two cities. In some streets there is an underground railway, then a tram-line on the surface, and an elevated railway overhead, each having its distinct note. There is the tremor of the underground traffic, the clanging and clatter of the tram-car, and the rush and roar of the elevated train.

Being surrounded by water, with a great deal of shipping, there is an incessant shrieking and bellowing of steam sirens on the tugs in the New York rivers. I may mention that Chicago is just as badly off as New York in this respect. I once visited that city with an English friend, and stayed at the Auditorium Hotel. The next morning he said : “ I firmly believe all the horrors that I read about in ‘ The Jungle.’ I

was kept awake all night by the bellowing of those poor animals being slaughtered in the stockyards. They must have very inhuman slaughtering methods.” His horror gave place to indignation when I explained to him that the bellowing came from the numerous steam tugs in the Chicago River.

So terrific has been the noise in New York that some time ago Mrs. Julia Burnett Rice started an anti-noise crusade. She has succeeded in having a law passed forbidding steam-tugs making unnecessary noises although the nuisance still continues. The New Yofk authorities have also passed laws prohibiting all noises, including. those made by trams and motor-cars, near hospitals. Large signboards are now set up in the hospital districts bearing the words, “ Hospital zone ; be quiet under penalty of the law.”