The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-05-26
THE WAIST.

discussed the causes oil the rarity oil good OPP
cratic singers.
'Some time in the dim past-like many
other great events, the date is buried in OBJ
scurity--it was found the thing to create
waist in womln. Up to that time the female
| figure was left to nature for development.
The dress, falling from the shoulders was, in
fact, drapery. loose and flowing, so that the
( form, left Free remained as nature intended it
should be. After, it was drawn in precisely
where The vital organs called for the fullest
liberty. While the stomach was pushed out
Of place, the lungs and heart were reduced to
the smallest space for life TO exist at all. This
is death to good deal, but especially to the
voice."
81 never hear man discoursng 50 learn
eddy on tight lacing that don't feel sorry for
him. The goose don't seem to know that
the practice is obsolete"
eyes, madam, Blu, the waist remains, and
wearing apparel is adapted to it. The weight
of clothes carried there instead at the should
ers, as nature designed is enough TO perpet-
uate the evil Besides this, nature, that is
logical as we'll as economical, says: We'll,
if you don't want full lungs and hearts, and
natural stomachs, we will dispense with them,'
and so women come into the world half made
up, and men too, for that, aud we can bid
adieu to sweet singers.
at is all nonsense. The sweetest and
most powerful voices | ever knew came from
girls with slender waists aud narrow should
ers-there now"
"My dear friend don't mean to say that
full lungs and a healthy, well-developed
heart or a digestive apparatus in the best Dr.
der, make voice. That is affair pertain
ing to the vocal organs. What | do say is,
that the voice cannot be maintained for the
trying work OF public singer without these
organs. How long would your slender
wasted, narrow-shouldered girl last in work
such as we have here to nightY What
Madam Furch-Madi is doing for our enter
tainment tonight would knock over and lay
ny 81 of our girls in one performance. No
one has an adequate idea, unless in the bust
ness, of the strain prima donna has upon
her in an opera such as this or, indeed, any
opera. Rail-spltting is less exhausting."
"They seem delicate enough"
"Do they? Fairest of women, did you
over see a prima donna eat? have. There
= is no daily laborer who takes heartier food,
or with more relish, than these song-brds of
the opera. In my younger and more veally
days IL that were possible) | had the verdant
turn, common to very young men, OF affecting
n opera singers and ballot dancers. To see
i such feed delroys all the poetry of the thing.
. Beer and roast beef, salads OF all sorts, and
d sweets that prove their appetiles healthy"
4 "Sweets ?"
. 40 be sure. The tastes for sweets indi-
Gates a natural and healthy condition OF the
system. Women, children, negroes, savages,
and all animals are fond OF sweets. 1t is only
: when we have vitated the stomach through
. unnatural food and excess that we scken on
g | sweets
). ''But tell me about these singers and their
- private lite. That is interesting. There is a
mystery and romance about them that is
extremely fascinating"
: eyes, the sweetest music and the highest
i poetry seem to envelop them; and then We
u see aud hear them only when giving utter
:; ance and life to the highest artistic creations
Z Hence the mystery. But, my fair friend, the
= glamor soon disappears when you come in
, contact with them. They are no better nor
worse than other people, but we unreasona.
e bly, expect more. 1t IS the same with actors
l. and actresses | had the honor once OF sup
% ping with Rachel. had worshipped, almost,
e the wonderful actress, but | must confess that
lie my admiration received shock that night
e. from which it never recovered"
sr And opera singers are the same p
"VeIy much the same. only a little more
n so. There is Clara Louise Kellogg, who
d would he a famous prima donna If she had
e little voice and could act at all. | sat at the
ii same table with her at the Arlington, WASH
lie ington, for some weeks. The healthy appe-
Is lite Of that popular murderess of good music
or excited my envy and admiration"
tn "Where do The opera singers come from,
err ,hen ?"
"The lower classes of Europe-from races
who never knew what waists were. The
music OF those lands is as common and free