Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 198, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1917 — City Youths Hear Better Than Their Country Brothers. [ARTICLE]

City Youths Hear Better Than Their Country Brothers.

That the country youth is not able • to hear so well as his city brother, and that only about one in five of the former possess the aricular acuteness of the city-bred lad is the opinion of the officers at the head of the Marine Corps recruiting in Washington. Their deductions are based on the number of country lads rejected for poor hearing. \ Many persons believe that the constant jarring noises of the city have a tendency to dull the sensitiveness of the nerve centers. However,, that is not borne out by the figures of the Marine Corps officers, who believe that the quiet of the country life, free from noises, has a tendency to weaken, through disuse, the responsive nerves of the ear. Scientists point to the innumerable parables in nature where the disuse of the organ gradually reduces its functioning power or eliminates it altogether. The blind fish in the dark pools of Mammoth Cave are a notable example.