The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1886-10-28
A HEALTHFUL CALLING.
SINGING AND ACTING SAID TO BE
CONDUCIVE TO STRENGTH.

Professional Singers Might BE Long-Livcd
If They Would Only Live Like Civilized
Beincs-Action of the Lungs-EfTects of
Training.
They were talking about the healthfulness
of different occupations the other evening Mt
an uptowr club. at which two or three bright
young doctors are occasional attendants
@Other things being equal" said one OF the
disciples of Alsculapius, there's no occuPa-
ton so conducive to general good health and
long living as singing. Itdoesn't make a par
ticle Of difference that lots of professional
singers die early in life. The hard lives they
lead, travelling about from place to place,
keeping all kinds of hours, eating all kinds Oh
food, and enduring all kinds of exposure,
would break them down anyway, If they had
constitutions of steel In fact, it IS only an
argument for the truth Of my theory that
professional singers are able TO live as long as
they 90 and be as healthy as they are. II
they stayed in one place, kept regular hours
and lived like civilized beings they would be
the longest-lived class of people IN the world,
and the healthiest, too; though, OF course, as
long as there were other singers alive they
wouldn't be the happiest.
FILLING OUT THE LUNGS
seYou see. if person is taught to sing prop
erly in the beginning, and then keeps 10 up
regularly, the effect is certain to be very bene-
fetal to all the vital organs. For instance, to
begin with, the pupil is taught to breathe as
he should, and as very few people do; that Is,
by the deep, abdominal method lifting and
lowering the diaphragm and filling ont the
entire lungs below the chest. That develops
the lungs. brings all their surface into action,
insures pure blood and a strong andregular
action of the heart Then the act Of singing,
bv which the lungs are filled to their utmost
capacity in the way | have described, and
then slowly emptied over and over again, IS
splendid exercise for those organs. Nothing,
in fact. could be better. Then the action Of
the diaphragm being pressed strongly down
ward. and the walls OF the stomach being
pressed outward, have certain effect upon
the digestive organs and help to keep them in
tone. Added to all this, the public singer, If
he or she be endowed with the true artistic
instinct. has a kind of physical frenzy in
singing that throws off great deal Of mag
netism. OF course it often leaves the per-
former weak and exhausted at the end Of the
programme, but it is like the athlete on the
bars. The exhaustion is good sign if it Is
not carried too far After rest and recrea-
ton the performer always feels the better for
it,
1T would be the same way with actors if it
were not for the severe mental strains they
often undergo, and the fact that many OF
them work entirely too hard and too long.
Think Of a season of forty weeks for a man
who plays the exacting line Of characters
performed by the late John Mccullough!
With the exception of Mr.. Booth and Mr.
jefferson, who will not play more than ten or
fifteen weeks in the year, there is scarcely an
actor in America who knows how to take
cora of himself