CHAPTER XXVI.
street nuisances.
Various Classes injured—Instruments of Torture— Encouragers; Servants, Beer-shops, Children, Ladies of elastic virtue— Effects on the Musical Profession—Retaliation—Police themselves disturbed—Invalids distracted—Horses run away—Children run over—A Cab-stand placed in the Author's street attracts Organs—Mobs shouting out his Name—Threats to Burn his House— Disturbed in the middle of the night when very ill—An average number of Persons are always ill—Hence always disturbed—Abusive Placards—Great Difficulty of getting Convictions—Got a Case for the Queen's Bench—Found it useless—A Dead Sell—Another Illustration—Musicians give False Name and Address—Get Warrant for Apprehension—They keep out of the way— Offenders not yet found and arrested by the Police—Legitimate Use of Highways—An Old Lawyer's Letter to The Times—Proposed Remedies; Forbid entirely—Authorize Police to seize the Instrument and take it to the Station—An Association for Prevention of Street Music proposed.
During the last ten years, the amount of street music has so greatly increased that it has now become a positive nuisance to a very considerable portion of the inhabitants of London. It robs the industrious man of his time; it annoys the musical man by its intolerable badness; it irritates the invalid; deprives the patient, who at great inconvenience has visited London for the best medical advice, of that repose which, under such circumstances, is essential for his recovery, and it destroys the time and the energies of all the intellectual classes of society by its continual interruptions of their pursuits.
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