Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1872-04-12
From the London Saturday Review.
VOICES.

| vi tnC ~ ssc s'ASsS ~"
ton of character, is the quality of
the voice and the manner of using
it. 1t is the first thing that strikes
us in \ new acquaintance, and it is
one Of the most unerring tests of
breeding and education. There
arc voices which have certain
truthful ring about them-a certain
something, untorced and spontane-
Gus, that no training can give.
Training can do much in the way of
making a voice, but it can never
compass more than bad imitation
Of this quality; for the very fact of
its being an imitation, however ac-
curate, betrays itself like rouge on
a woman's cheeks, or wig, or dyed
hair. On the other hand, there are
voices which have the jar of false
hood in every tone, and that are as
full of warning as the croak Of the
raven or the hiss Of the serpent.
They are in general the naturally
hard voices which make themselves
carcssing, thinking by that to ap-
pear sympathetic; but the funda-
mental quality strikes through the
ovcrlay, and a person must be very
dull indeed who cannot detect the
prctcncc in that slow, drawling,
would-be aff'ectlonatc voice, with its
harsh undertone and sharp accent
whenever it forgcts itself. But,
without being false or hypocritical,
there are voices which puzzle as
we'll as disappoint us, because SO
entirely inharmonions with the ap-
pearance Of the speaker. For in
stance, there is that thin treble
squeak we sometimes hear from the
mouth Of q well-grown portly man,
when we expected the fine rolling
utterance which would have been in
unison with his outward seeming;
and, on the other side Of the scale,
where we looked for n shrill head
voice or a tender musical cadence,
we get that hoarse chest voice with
which young and pretty girls some
times startle us. In fact, it is one
of the characteristics of the modern
girl of a certain type; just as the
habitual use of slang is character
istic of her, or that peculiar round
ing Of the elbows and turning out OF
the wrists, which are gestures that,
like the chest voice, instinctively
belong to men only, and have to be
learnt and practised by women.
Nothing bctrays SO much as the
voice, save perhaps the eyes, and
they can be lowered, and SO far
their expression hidden. In mo-
ments of emotion no skill can hide
tho fact Of disturbed feeling, though
q strong will and the habit of self
control can steady tho voice when
else it would be failing and trcm-
ulous. But not the strongest will,
nor the largest amount of selfcon-
troll, can keep it natural rs we'll as
steady, 1t is deadencd, veiled, COM
pressed, like wild creature tightly
bound and unnaturally still. One
feels that it is done by an effort,
and that if the strain were relaxed
for a moment the wild creature
would burst loose in rage or despair
and the voice would break out into
the scream of passion or quiver
away into the faltcr of pathos. And
this very effort is as eloquent as if
there had been no holding down at
all, and the voice had been left to
its own impulse unchecked. Again
in fun and humor, is it not the voice
that is expressive, even more than
the face? The twinkle of the hollow
in the under lip, the dimples about
the mouth, the play Of the eyebrow,
are all aids certainly; but the voice!
The mellow tone that comes into
the utterancc of one man, the sur.
prised accents Of another, the fatu-
Gus simplicity of q third, the philo-
sophical acquiescencc of fourth
when relating the most outrageous
impossibilities-a voice and manner
peculiarly Transatlantic, and indeed
one of the Yankee forms of fun-do
not we know all these varieties by
heart? have we not veteran actors
whose main point lies in one or
other of these varicticsp and what
would be the drollcst anecdote il
] told in voice which had neither