_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_.
Sir,--It is essential, and, according to my instincts of decorum,
necessary, to call the attention of those charged with authority in
such matters, and the public generally, to the growing misuse, in the
hands of engineers, of the locomotive steam whistle, the employment
thereof having especially in town districts, grown to be out of all
dimensions of private service, injurious to those whether officially
called, or who, pending the pleasure of mercantile circumstance, are
publicly obliged to pursue abstruse mental occupation, necessitating
labour and much concentration of though[t]. A reasonable use of this
means, or instrument, of signal and alarm, must be conceded to
those in whose hands resides its use, but at the same time a firm
directorship or jurisdiction ought to repress its extravagant or
wanton employment.
To warn passengers of the starting and of the approach of trains
only a moderate application of the whistle is needed, whilst for the
diplomatic the discreet purpose of practical manoeuvre, namely, to
draw the attention of signalmen to the passing of points by trains,
extra power is requisite; but the gruesome display, I maintain, of
vocative sounds tuned to an intellectual point of mood is needless.
Those daily engaged upon manual work only are not in a like manner
affected, though for all reasons of civil and common honour the
supercilious cry referred to should be deprecated. Rather tune and
sound the whistle to two simultaneous notes in sharp, brief accent
than that the chambers of the minds of the hearers of those sounds
should be so continuously, remorselessly entered. Anything lengthy
aggravates the auditory crisis. The stream of daily occupation with
the set purpose of sedentary exploit is competent to regulate itself
without an articulate "voice" from the railway companies.