Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 142, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1911 — Whistle Takes Place of Curfew Bell [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Whistle Takes Place of Curfew Bell

KANSAS CITY, Kan. —Curfew must ring in Kansas, and its sounding must be hpeded. The W. C. T. U. has determined that 100 little attention is paid to the curfew law, particularly in Kansas City, Kan., and asked the city commissioners to see that it is enforced, in this city, where the sounding of a steam whistle on the packing plant takes the place of the old-time bell, it is alleged that it is no longer “the curfew whistle," but is generally spoken of as "the nine o’clock whistle," from the fact that it sounds at that hour in the evening. Ten years ago the W. C. T. U. took np the matter of the boys’ remaining out late at night and determined to put a stop to it They secured the adoption by most of the city councils of the Shin flower state of ordinances similar to the New England curfew laws. In this city, which was far too large for any bell to be heard in every

section, a grave question arose as to how the boys were to know when to “make it home.” After some discussion the packing houses solved the problem by agreeing to blow the whistle at nine o'clock. All was well, and when - the loud blast of the big steam siren, which can be heard forty miles on a clear day, sounded at nine o’clock the boys scampered home. If they did not the policeman took them to the station and they were warned “never again to be oat after curfew." The women were satisfied and all went well. But the boys grew up and neglected to impress on their younger brothers a dread of the curfew. The brothers did not scamper home at the flbund, and the people began to think little of it. Meantime the housewives had become accustomed to regulate their clocks by the sound, and at nine o’clock they went to see if the timepiece lost or gained. The habit spread, and one by one the men grew accustomed to regulate their watches by the whistle. Now every night the watch of each man who works in the city comes out of his pocket almost by force of habit at tne first sound of the whistle.