Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1910 — NOISE OP CITY’S STREEPS. [ARTICLE]

NOISE OP CITY’S STREEPS.

Subways Afford Some Relief from tbe Kar-Spllttln* bln. _ Horse transportation is but one factor in the total passing of the city. Cable and trolley cars rattling from slda to side, motors with their fiendish variety of whistles thread their way In and out; while the overhead trolley wires, like the strings of some huge, discordant violin, never eease their vibrations. Thoreau speaks of the sounding of the telegraph wires, ''that winter harmony of the open* road and .snow-clad field.” Grateful as that song may be In the quiet of the country, in the city the noise of the racked trolley wire above adds a peculiarly trying factor to the pounding from the rocking cars below, the Atlantic says. When corporate officials desire to economize on traction lines they not uncommonly equip- the service with poor rails and wheels. The rails toon wear away. The wheels assume the shape of polygons instead of circles, and, as they turn, strike flattened angles against the Irregularities of the Iron rail. This Is a particularly effective jnethod of adding to the total noise. Fortunately, there is one way of relief in sight. Few devices In transportation have done more for the quiet of tbe city than have the Increasing use of subways. Though the reverberation within the subways proper may be greatly increased, the relief on tho street is marked. Only in our greater cities and along main trunk lines, however, does the subway yet exist The elevated, so far as noise is concerned, gives practically little advantage over the -surface car save for ihe lntermlttence of stopping and starting and the absence of the sound of the bell.