“In our railroad trains, for instance, we permit youths to pass backward and forward through the cars vociferously attracting attention to the wares they have for sale… Automobiles dash through our streets sounding their horns when there is no reason whatever for their doing so, while the machines are permitted to disturb the public through the failure on the part of chauffeurs to silence the ‘mufflers.’ Church bells are rung without real need, street car gongs are sounded incessantly without occasion…”

Add to that milkmen and their noisy clanky bottles, kids playing in public, and bells on business doors. Is it the noise that makes people crazy? Or is it crazy to let every little noise get on your nerves?

ARE WE ALL GOING CRAZY BECAUSE OF THE CITY’S NOISES? Doctor’s Include This Among Causes of Insanity — This City Said to be the Noisiest in the World — Most of the RAcket Is Needless and, All of It Is Injurious to Health. (PDF)

From August 20, 1911