Passages from the Life of a Philosopher

by Charles Babbage

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. {338}

• Instruments of torture permitted by the Government to be in daily and nightly use in the streets of London.
  • Organs.
  • Brass bands.
  • Fiddles.
  • Harps.
  • Harpsichords.
  • Hurdy-gurdies.
  • Flageolets.
  • Drums.
  • Bagpipes.
  • Accordions.
  • Halfpenny whistles.
  • Tom-toms.
  • Trumpets.
  • The human voice in various forms.
    • Shouting out objects for sale.
    • Religious canting.
    • Psalm-singing.

I have very frequently been disturbed by such music after eleven and even after twelve o’clock at night. Upon one occasion a brass band played, with but few and short intermissions, for five hours.

• Encouragers of Street Music.
  • Tavern-keepers.
  • Public-houses.
  • Gin-shops.
  • Beer-shops.
  • Coffee-shops.
  • Servants.
  • Children.
  • Visitors from the country.
  • Ladies of doubtful virtue.
  • Oc­ca­sion­al­ly titled ladies; but these are almost invariably of recent elevation, and deficient in that taste which their sex usually possess.

The habit of frequenting public-houses, and the amount of intoxication, is much augmented by these means. It therefore finds support from the whole body of licensed victuallers, and from all those who are interested, as the proprietors of public-houses.

The great encouragers of street music belong chiefly to the lower classes of society. Of these, the frequenters of public-houses and beer-shops patronize the worst and the most {339} noisy kinds of music. The proprietors of such establishments find it a very successful means of attracting customers. Music is kept up for a longer time, and at later hours, before the public-house, than under any other circumstances. It not unfrequently gives rise to a dance by little ragged urchins, and sometimes by half-intoxicated men, who oc­ca­sion­al­ly accompany the noise with their own discordant voices.

Servants and children are great admirers of street music; also people from the country, who, coming up to town for a short time, often encourage it.

Another class who are great supporters of street music, consists of ladies of elastic virtue and cosmopolitan tendencies, to whom it affords a decent excuse for displaying their fascinations at their own open windows. Most ladies resident in London are aware of this peculiarity, but oc­ca­sion­al­ly some few to whom it is not known have found very unpleasant inferences drawn, in consequence of thus gratifying their musical taste.

Musicians.	Instruments.
Italians	Organs.
Germans	Brass bands.
Natives of India	Tom-toms.
English	Brass bands, fiddles, &c.
The lowest class of clubs	Bands with double drum.

The most numerous of these classes, the organ-grinders, are natives of Italy, chiefly from the mountainous district, whose language is a rude patois, and who are entirely unacquainted with any other. It is said that there are above a thousand of these foreigners usually in London employed in tormenting the natives. They mostly reside in {340} the neighbourhood of Saffron Hill, and are, of course, from their ignorance of any other language than their own, entirely in the hands of their padrones. One of these, a most persevering intruder with his organ, gave me a false address. Having ascertained the real address, he was sought for by the police for above a fortnight, but not discovered. His padrone becoming aware of his being “wanted,” sent him on a country circuit. I once met, within a few miles of the Land’s End, one of these fellows whom I had frequently sent away from my own street.