Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-05-22

The VOICES OF AMERICAN WoMEN.-A
good deal has been said recently in the
public prints about the voices of our wo-
men. and their highness. harshness and
shrillness have been ascribed to various
causes. To attribute vocal unpleasanlness
to the fact that children and girls are
taught in primary and grammar schools to
strain the organ by reading above the nat
ural pitch seems to be a mistake. This
may he true in New England, but it is not
elsewhere. Nor is it true, as is assumed,
hat our women have, as a rule, the most
disagreeable voices known to civilization.
They are far higher, far less soft than the
voices of the English women, the best
voiced. on the whole, of all the nations;
but they will often compare flvorably with
the organs of the French. Germans and
Russians. The American voice is discord-
antly recognizable ut the tourists centres
abroad; but it should be remembered that
there are always many American voices
there which. not being so recognized, are
supposed not TO belong to the republic.
In other words we imagine, when we hear
English spoken in well modulated. win
ming tones, that the speaker is not an
American, just rs many of our British
kinsfolk believe that none of us when on
the other side. can be Yankees unless we
make great noise and brag about the bird
of freedom. The pleasant toned Ameri-
can women, and the quiet, self. contained
American men are commonly presumed to
he English, owing to preconceived ideas
of the traits of our people The unwel-
come voice of so many American women
is questionably due to climate-especi-
ally to catarrh-almost exclusively a ma
tional disease. To suffer from chronic
catarrh and to talk like Miranda is simply
impossible. Catarrh afflicts New England
the eastern part parlicularly-andt there
voices are the worst. In the interior of
of the country, and in the Southern States
notably, educated women have agreeable
dulcet tones, coming from the chest instead
of the head. The reason is that the climate
is better. Many of our wives and daugh-
ters have voices that cannot be surpassed
for sweetness. Still, it must be confessed
that they are rather unexceptional than
regular. The unpleasantness of the nation
al voice is largely owing to the extreme
nervousness of our women, to their want
of discipline and self-restraint. 1t is not
the voice so much rs its pitch and man
agement which make it attractive or re-
pellant. The most melodious voice, when
raised or excited sounds barshly, while a
small thin voice, kept within bounds and
used in the lower register, has a winning
quality. If our women would speak more
in Roman and less in italic they would
confer favor on the cause of euphony
They have begun to do so and its effect is
apparent. Their voices are much less
strident and grating than they have been.
AS people, we are toning down; we find
that it is not necessary to cry out to attract
notice. to shrek in order to be heard. Our
women have made this discovery, and are
acting upon it. With more culture and
more repose, the tones are deepened as
we'll as lowered; and we mistake if we
shall not in a few years lose much of the
unenviahlo distinction of initiating the
American eagle in its disposition to
scream.-N. Y. Times.