Pulitzer was so upset that he
would pass a sleepless night. This in its turn meant a day during which
his tortured body made itself master of his mind, and plunged him into a
state of profound dejection.
Like most people who suffer acutely from noise Mr. Pulitzer was very
differently affected by different kinds of noise. To any noise which was
necessary, such as that caused by letting go the anchor, he could make
himself indifferent; but very few noises were included in this category.
What caused him the most acute suffering was a noise which, while it
inflicted pain upon him, neither gave pleasure to any one else nor
achieved a useful purpose. Loud talking, whistling, slamming doors,
carelessness in handling things, the barking of dogs, the "kick" of
motor boats, these were the noises which made his existence miserable.
At the back of his physical reaction was a mental reaction which
intensified every shock to his nerves. He complained, and with justice,
that, leaving out of consideration an occasional noise which was purely
the result of accident, his life was made a burden by the utter
indifference of the majority of human beings to the rights of others.
What right, he asked, had any one to run a motor boat with a machine so
noisy that it destroyed the peace of a whole harbor? Above all, what
right had such a person to come miles out to sea and cruise around the
yacht, merely to gratify idle curiosity?
He applied the same test to people who shout at one another in the
streets, who whistle at the top of their lungs, or leave doors to slam
in the faces of those behind them.
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