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444 ILLUSTRATED WORLD
more fierce, until at the
end the whole room—
the customers, the
waiters, the maitre
d'hotel — will all be
shouting at the tops of
their voices, and the
band will be playing like
demons."
Little is heard nowadays
of the cries of
London. The once familiar
phrase has almost
passed out of use. It is
not because the cries are
obsolete. The other day
by the attentive ear the
cry, "Who will buy my
sweet lavender ?" was
discernible. There are
many left of the old
And on the Street the Teamsters, the Trams, the
Elevated, the Small Shopkeepers . . .
cries but amid the all
prevailing riot of sound
they are no longer audible.
Little is heard now of that grievance
of former times, the street hawker's
traffic to residents on the main thorough­ raucous bellow. That also has become
fares, have so multiplied vehicular traffic inaudible, except on Sunday mornings
that the noises are a thousand times and at other quiet traffic intervals. The
worse than before.
cats' meat man still calls out, "Meat,
How silence creates noise is explained meat", in the suburbs, but with double-
by the director of a fashionable restaudecker tramway cars clanking down the
rant. "A good restaurant", he said, "will road, even the cats cannot hear him.
be established in a quiet place. The floors A special chapter might easily be writ­
will be softly carpeted, the well instructed ten on the noises of Holland. At 6 A. M.
waiters will learn to make as little sound you are awakened by the banging of the
as possible, and everything will be done bakers' and butchers' wagons; the men
for silence. And then we find it is so slam the lids of their little carts after they
silent that our patrons can hear one an­ have delivered their orders. It is like
other talking. More, it is so silent that the continual popping of rifles. Then
every little sound outside disturbs them. the dogs begin to bark—they are
"So in order to cover these sounds we strapped under the various vehicles both
must have an orchestra which will be for draught and protection purposes.
soft or loud, according to the varying The beating of rugs and carpets in the
degree of noise which the patrons will streets and open squares follows. It is
make in eating. But when the orchestra the custom of centuries.
plays the patrons must then talk more As man advances in culture he invents
loudly, and the more loudly they talk the melodies, Dr. Frank Crane has declared.
more loudly the orchestra must play, for Still further along he makes harmonies,
they are artists and desire to be heard. sequences, applying mathematics to tones,
Thus you have a contest which grows their relation and duration, and bringing