Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-02-19
THE HUMAN VOICE.
DIFFICULTY IN DESCRIBING THEM ALL SATISFACTORILY.

>onPafeo io the stops Of an Organ-Th< Glycertns and Sucking Dove Stops and
 Their Uses-vocal PecuIiarities of Pro. fessional Actors and Speakers.
 The human voice is one of those tan. taiizing things which can never be ade. quately described, and yet which are constantly tempting people to describe them. The poets perspire in vain, and the novelists pant long way after them, put nothing comes adequate to the sub 1ect. Even the musical critics, whose ! use of language is marked by an audacity which the rest of the world trembles at, do not succeed. Nevertheless, there are ) few remarks which may be modestly } made on the outskirts of the subject. : COMPARED TO ORGAN STOPS.
 The human voice, in the first place, is not simple instrument, but very com
 plcated organ, with great variety of
 stops. You hear the glycerine stop, for
 instance, when man is trying to sell a
 horse he doesn't want to part with" or
 IS persuading a friend to invest in the 500
 Woe Mary James he happens to have
 to spare."
 Then man has another very useful
 stop, the sucking dove stop. When &
 mans wife had to sit up for him he meets
 her with the sucking dove stop full on;
 you would think as he comes along the
 passage, humming a psalm tune in it.
 that he had just descended from the com
 pany of an innocent band of seraphim.
 This stop is also made some little use of
 in business, though the majority of men
 have not sufficient face to play it suc-
 cessfully. Bold cabby very often has a
 try at it. when he assures the stranger
 in London, with tears in his eyes, that
 the proper fare is five and sixpence; and 1 the skilled restaurant waiter turns it on 1 when he assures the doubtful guest that l the wine supplied is actually what is l named on the list. There are also other varieties of masculine stop; such as the
 mad bull stop, which comes into play | when the buttons off again or the meats
 underdone
 Ladies voices possess most of the mas
 culine stops and few others besides. They, however, make a little different
 use of some of them. A lady, for in- stance, talks politics through the glycer- inc medium, and keeps the sledge ham, mer for her domestic affairs, and for training mankind in the way they should go. She never uses her sucking dove stop in matters of business, but keeps it exclusively for affairs of tender nature, At the approach of any eligible man out comes this stop at once, and all she has to say to him has the seductive intona- tlon of innocent candor. An exclusively feminine stop is the woodpecker, spe- cially designed in those crises in the female economy known familiarly as being out of sorts." This stop gives a shrill, snappy timbre to the music of the lady's voice, which is much admired by the hearers, when they have acquired taste for it.
 Another feminine stop, and a pecu- liarly beautiful one, is the Minnehaha, or laughing water stop. It is not every lady who has it in her organ, but when she has, and plays upon it, the nearer at once imagines himself under a green canopy by the side of sparkling Till. and if he is not careful he sits there and forgets his train. The Minnehaha is the queen of all stops, but, unfortunately, has terrible habit of changing into the woodpecker late in life
 PROFESSIONAL VOICES.
 The above remarks are inspired by or | dinary private voices. A more extended l view of the subject may be obtained 1 from professional voices. The former play on one organ of many stops, but the 1 latter have the run of great variety of | different instruments, natural and artifi- l cial. The stage, to which one looks for l the ideal of what the spoken voice l should be, supplies us with some charm ing examples. One especially beautiful | stage voice is that usually described as | 'bird like" The bird voice is especially | affected by the young and innocent dra- matic maiden, whose pride is to remind | you of all the sweet songsters of the l grove in turn. While she Is heart free, | she hops in cheerful manner round the | scene, and emits little chirps, something like healthy sparrow devoid of care.
 When the inevitable young man makes his appearance, she puts on the swallow | and begins to twitter continuously; and when he arrives at his declaration she sinks into his arms with the true night ingale gurgle and ends pathetic scene with cadence of ''jug-jug-jug." Then when things get little mixed and he is thought to be faithless and to have taken money from the till, she comes out strong as ''pee-wit," and shrieks faintly over her blasted hopes, much as that plaintive bird does over a wormless moor. By and by there is a prospect of things coming right, and she drops the pee-wit for the canary.
 When she gets letter from him you near sounds as though canary were 'ondling fresh root of groundsel, and when all is explained and he arrives with the marriage license by the D. m. rain, there is no more nightingale, and he curtain comes down on final 'siug." The we'll trained jeune premiere runs he gamut of the whole ornithological ribe, and the experienced playgoer can ell what the situation" is from the 'ird she is representing, even though he 8 too poor to pay for a place where he an see anything.
 In the public meeting you hear the turkey gobbling in explanation of the bject of the gathering, the bray of the ss in moving the first resolution, and he duck quacking in support, while 4