Whistle

“ The mountain whistler is of the size of an English lark, and is remarkable only for its loud charming whistle, which resembles the human voice in the melodious notes; but which this bird varies in a most astonishing manner. ”

“ A whistle, a touch, a shout—anything, in fact, suddenand unexpected—will 'set them going.' Some will stiffen their limbs, make hideous grimaces, and waltz about as if they had no joints in their body. ”

“ One man told us, among other things in a memorable address, to “whistle when you’re happy and whistle when you’re in danger of feeling mad. Whistling gives courage, like yells at a football game. Whistle, boys, whistle. It’s a sign that your courage is good!” ”

“ When they had been stooping down the whistle had sounded like the distant bellow of a bull.
“I’m glad it wasn’t,” said Rose.
“If it had ‘a’ been I’d ‘a’ hit it with a club,” boasted Russ.
“An’ I could throw a stone!” declared Mun Bun.
“Mother, did you notice how funny the whistle was?” asked Rose. “First we saw the smoke puff up, and then we heard the sound. Why was that?”
“Because light, or sight, travels faster than sound,” said Mrs. Bunker. “You can see something much quicker than you can hear it. ”

“ The mouth-piece of a trumpet has been fixed against the aperture of the rock, and the waves dashing against it with force enough to crush a ship to pieces, blows the whistle. This fog whistle ceases entirely at low water, and its loudness at all times depends upon the force of the waves. ”

“ For myself, I probably stand alone in owning to a sentimental weakness for the night-piercing whistle—judiciously remote, as some men love the skirl of the pipes. In the days when streets were less wearily familiar than now, or ever the golden cord was quite loosed that led back to relinquished fields and wider skies, I have lain awake on stifling summer nights, thinking of luckier friends by moor and stream, and listening for the whistles from certain railway stations, veritable “horns of Elf-land, faintly blowing.” ”

“ Teaching to whistle may be done in much the same manner, either in a large room or in a yard. Blow the whistle when he is some distance from you and call his name immediately after. He will be attracted, but will come at the sound of his name and not the whistle. ”

“ Frogs whistle in the marshy ground so loudly that men new to the country believe they are being regaled by the songs of millions of birds. There is no mistake about their whistle. It is not merely like a whistle, but it is a whistle, shrill and continuous ”

“ At one time a sound like a whistle was heard in one direction and again in another, and the men got utterly fatigued by their protracted search, a fresh breeze springing up and adding to their discomfort. ”

“ He had such a cheery way of whistling, she had told me, it had always brightened her at her work to hear him whistling, and when he whistled he stood with his legs apart, and his hands in the pockets of his knickerbockers. I decided to trust to this, so one day after I had learned his whistle (every boy of enterprise invents a whistle of his own) from boys who had been his comrades, I secretly put on a suit of his clothes, dark grey they were, with little spots, and they fitted me many years afterwards, and thus disguised I slipped, unknown to the others, into my mother’s room. ”

“ The principle of the whistle, and, indeed, of all instruments of the flute and flageolet type, being that certain of the holes in different combinations should be left open in order to give the different notes, and that the expression should be given by the modulation of the wind strength, it follows that the fingering is merely mechanical. ”

“ Whistles of all sizes and sorts, from the child's tin whistle to the huge and powerful steam whistles used on board the American liners, are made in this town, and it might be imagined there could be but little novelty in any new design. ”

“ In a letter to a friend in 1779, Franklin tells the story, "The
Whistle." "An Ax to Grind" is from his autobiography.
THE WHISTLE When I was a child seven years old, my friends on a holiday filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children, and, being charmed with the sound of a whistle that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then ran home and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. ”

“ I said, "that we are each supplied with 'one armlet.' What's an armlet?"
"A badge that goes round your arm."
"Of course! How stupid of me! Just like a bracelet goes round one's—no, that won't do. Just like a gimlet goes—no, that doesn't either. I can't think of a simile, but I quite understand. Then we have 'one whistle.' What's that for? To whistle on if I feel lonely?" ”

“ In some districts of North Germany the villagers say that if one whistles in the evening it makes the angels weep. Speaking, however, of ladies in connection with whistling, it is a widespread superstition that it is at all times unlucky for them to whistle, which, according to one legend, originated in the circumstance that, while the nails for our Lord's cross were being forged, a woman stood by and whistled. ”

“ They are great astrologers, predicting the different changes of weather almost as accurately as an almanac; they are moreover exquisite performers on three-stringed fiddles; in whistling they almost boast the far-famed powers of Orpheus's lyre, for not a horse or an ox in the place, when at the plough or before the wagon, will budge a foot until he hears the well-known whistle of his black driver and companion. ”

“ Just as you are deciding for the twentieth time that you never will hunt elk again, there is a long hollow whistle among the pines below you. The whistle is faint and far off, and if you had not been sitting down and at rest you would never have heard it. ”

“ One has one's own distinctive whistle. Some of them are quite elaborate airs. One soons learns to recognize the signals of one's friends. A knock merely informs you that some one wishes to enter; a whistle tells you the same thing and also reveals the identity of your caller.
My signal, which is very simple, consists of two short low notes followed by a higher longer note; and as I stood before the door of Duare and sounded this, my mind was not upon the princess within but upon another girl far away in the tree city of Kooaad, in Vepaja. ”

“ The primary idea of a whistle lies in the making of a column of air to vibrate, in whatever condition. As there is no lack of means or methods for doing this, the infinite diversity of the forms of the apparatus for producing the vibrations and the resultant sounds is a matter of course. The most general form is the human whistle, which one can make sound—after a fashion—without much preliminary training ”

“ If you had even been watching you would have have seen me shift, and then, coming on at the speed you did, it was your place to warn me by a whistle, so that I could keep straight on until you had passed me. ”

“ WHISTLE, the shrill warbling sound made by forcing the breath through the lips, contracted to form a small orifice, or produced by means of an instrument of the whistle type; also, generally, any similar shrill, hissing or warbling sound, as of a bird's note, of wind through trees, ropes, &c. ”

“ It may be, next morning when they hear the shrill sounds of the whistle, and the officers' voices ring {210} out in the dawn, and the blare of the trumpet stirs them to preparation and action, that the morbid thoughts of the night, and the memories of the terrible dreams, will be effaced for a time. ”

“ Holding up your hand open means "down," or "Toho," where another dog is pointing. A whistle solus to come in "to heel"—that word for them to get behind you; a whistle and a wave of the hand to the right for them to quarter that way; ditto whistle and wave to the left to quarter to the left. Avoid shouting as much as possible. Nothing is more disgusting than to be bawling all the time. If your dog don't heed your whistle, get him to heel as fast and as quietly as possible, and administer a little strap, whistling to them sharply to impress it on their mind. ”

“ Lots of 'em!" exclaimed the man. "Here is a finest whistle what ever was. Listen to it!"
He took one from the show case and blew into it. Not a sound came out.
"Ach! I guess that one is damaged," he said. "But I got other ones. Here! Listen to this!" ”

“ We might make a distinct and legitimate study of numerous forms of sounding apparatus, constructed on the theory of the whistle, whose peculiarities consist in the manner in which the air is sent over the tongue, the vibration of which produces the sound. ”

“ Meantime, the Friar stood watching keenly for what might come to pass, holding in his fingers the while a pretty silver whistle, such as knights use for calling their hawks back to their wrists, which whistle always hung at his girdle along with his rosary. ”

“ One man thumps his chin with his fingers, and draws from it pure and agreeable musical tones, and another whistles a melody in parts; while men in general might thump and whistle till their teeth fell out without producing any music worth listening to. ”

“ They go on whistling after they are dry. You see, the trouble with the whistles other people [Pg 36] make for me, is that they shrivel all up by next day, and there isn't a bit of whistle left in them."
"That's the way with most of my whistles, too, Namesake. And then I throw them away and want new ones. Heigh-ho! What's the use of a whistle when all the whistle has gone out of it? I must ask Mr. Frank Morton how he makes his."
I gave a jump and a little squeak.
"Oh, Cousin Molly Belle! there's a great, big race-horse on you!" ”

“ And she gave him a whistle.
"And what's this for?" said the private. "I can't play on the whistle."
"But you can blow it," said she, "and whenever you blow it out will come a regiment of armed men that will do whatever you tell them." ”

“ In the former (13) the extremities A and D may be regarded as mouths, and the sounds are also modified by closing alternately or in succession the openings B and C. In the second (13) , by leaving all open, we obtain a quite characteristic mixed and false sound. Special modifications are obtained with the roulette whistle (1) and the bird whistle, with which the songs of various birds are imitated. Fancy has run rife in devising typical whistles, like the dog's-head whistle (10) for hunters, and many-ended whistles, like the army whistle with compass (11) , the match-box whistle ”

“ This [Pg 36] once accomplished, tests can be made with sounds of different kinds, different pitch, and different volume, varying the distance, the instruments, and the vowel when the articulate sounds are reached. He can be shown a whistle, then, when it is blown behind his back, he will hold up as many fingers as the times it was blown, if he perceives the sound. He can be asked to distinguish between a whistle, a little bell, and the clapping of the hands. When he is successful in that, the vowel sounds may be uttered not far from his ear, but behind him. ”

“ As an Æolian harp is a stringed instrument sounded by the wind, and a whistle belongs to the very distinct class of musical things sounded by human breath, I can only suppose that the reviewer has misunderstood the poem. ”

“ Just how Haw-Haw learned to whistle Rick never found out. Certainly the boy did not cut the crow's tongue, and perhaps whistling came natural to the black bird. And it may be that it was not a regular "whistle" at all, but merely a sound like that. Of course a bird has no lips to pucker [Pg 153] up and whistle with, as boys have, and some girls, too. But many birds utter whistling notes when they sing, or give their calls. The quail, or Bob White, seems to whistle, and so does the Whip-poor-will. And I have heard many men who can, by whistling with their tongue and lips, imitate many birds. ”

“ Contestants are lined up facing the crowd. If they can whistle it is infinitely funnier to use the whistling contest. If they cannot whistle let them sing a high note. In either case, at a signal, they start to whistle or sing, and the one who can hold her note the longest without taking another breath gets a toy balloon as a prize. ”

“ Many of these tests I have repeated over and over with the same results, and, noting the conditions at the time, I am thoroughly convinced that the sign and sound mean "no." I have observed that this sign is always made in the same manner; but sometimes it is accompanied by a clucking sound, while at other times it is a soft whimpering sound, almost like a low plaintive whistle. ”

“ They alight with a sort of half-scream half-whistle just over the window, flap their wings, and whistle again, run along the ledge to a spot where there is a gable, and with another note, rise up and enter an aperture between the slates and the wall. ”

“ The same thing is repeated until there are two people left to one chair. It is very amusing to watch these two cautiously moving about this chair, ready to seize it the instant the music stops.
Find the Whistle. All the children but one sit down in a circle. The one that is left standing, must be the one who does not know the game. Some one takes a string, fastens a whistle to one end of it, and a bent pin to the other, then quietly and secretly attaches the [72] string by the hook to the person’s back. Every time he turns his back toward any one, the whistle is taken and blown. ”

“ The whistle is a feather-weight one of cylindrical shape, and is fastened to the pigeon in such a way that the wind, rushing through it as he flies, makes him and his few whistle-bearing companions a perpetual orchestra. The Chinese purpose in all this seems to be partly musical and partly to gather other pigeons, which flock about the whistlers like children about 452the Pied Piper. ”

“ Whistles to imitate the songs of birds may be readily made in different ways. Remove the spout from a small toy teapot, make a whistle at the lower end of a quill, and fit that end to the hole of the teapot left upon the spout being removed, then fill the teapot rather more than half full of water, blow the whistle, and clear bird-like notes will be sounded. ”