The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-04-22
He Points Out Some Faults that
Mabel Jenness Has Over
looked.
On the Other Hand, He Pays Glow
ing Tribute to Their
Charms
They Are Beautiful and Engaging. but
They Walk With Ungainly Gait and
Pitch Their Voices too High.

The lectures of Miss Mabel Jenness on
the preservation and cultivation of the
beauty of women contain nothing that is
novel; but they serve a valuable purpose in
provoking renewed discussion of very i'm
portant subject, says writer in the New
York Sun.
Not many years ago the mere appearance
of a woman as speaker on q public plat
form was looked upon as unwomanly and
unseemly. Now it has become so frequent
that it is taken as matter of course. No
body thought that Miss Edwards unsexed
herself, to use the old expression of re-
proach, when she lectnred in Chickering
hall on Egyptology and Egyptian anti
quities. Nobody suffered in mind lest her
example might lead other women to 20 be-
yond their proper sphere, another can't
phase of the past, but the whole audience.
men and women both were delighted by
the lucidity of her style and the grace and
precision of her elocution. Il was pleasure
to listen to her voice. sweet, flexible, of
agreeable meditation, land reaching to every
part of the house, though never overstrained;
and her pronunciation was we'll nigh fault
less.
The young people of this generation can
have no conception of the extent and rigid
ity of the prejudice which had to be over
come before woman like Miss Edwards
could receive respectful attention as public
lecturer. Forty years ago she would have
excited hardly less disapprobation it she
had appeared on the street in mans Co.'S
tune. She would have been avoided as a
blue-stocking. fit only to be the associate of
fanatics and come-outers. The prevailing
notion in those days was that women's
sphere is confined within the narrow limits
of purely domestic duties, and that any
thing approaching full intellectual develop
ment is unfeminine and monstrous.
As a consequence, women suffered both
physically and intellectually. They were
treated as hot-house plants, to be kept un-
der cover and timidity vas accounted
to shrek at the sight of a mouse or cater
pillar, and they joined with men in no 9th
er amusements than dancing and small
variety of indoor pleasures of conventional
approval. Riding was very uncommon
among the women of this region, and they
ally. They wore shoes with the thinnest of
soles, thought that beauty lay chiefly in
face and complexion jealously guarded
from the sun, and looked upon delicate
health, feeble appetite, and weak muscles
as becoming to a lady. Alas! alas! what
cellar plants they were; and yet how en-
trancing!
Now all that has changed. A woman
glories in her strength of both body and
mind, and her sphere includes the whole
world of activities. She is more graceful,
her movements are more free, her figure
is better rounded, her face blooms with
health and intelligence, and in this part of
the union she has grown appreciably in
stature. The superior height and SYM
metrical proportions of the girls of this
generation are unquestionable. They are
strong, enduring, supple, courageous and
hardy. In all respects they are more beau
tiful and more engaging.
Yet there are points In their development
which they have neglected, and Miss Jen-
ness does not seem to lay due stress on
them. Very few of them carry themselves
with real grace, and fewer still walk grace
fully. They stumble along as if impeded
by ill-ftting shoes. They cultivate every
other faculty and capacity, but they leave
their speech unframed. They have not
beautiful voices. A sweet voice, clear, soft,
distinct, we'll modulated, melodious, from
the chest and not the head, how rare it
is among American women! How rare,
too, it is to hear really correct pronuncia-
of Miss Edwards or Mrs. Kendall, and a
pronunciation as pure and cultivated.
But the accomplishment is attainable. It
is necessary only that children should be
taught to speak properly, that their voices
and their language should be trained with
something of the care and attention be-
slowed on teaching them to play on the
piano or conduct themselves gracefully in
dancing. The teachers of elocution as ap-
piled to oratory are usually humbugs, but
teachers of the art of using the voice, actu-
ally acquainted with the scientific methods
of training the speech, are prime neces-
sity. It is possible to get rid of the discords
we hear so frequently; the fairness, the
shrillness, the indistinctness, the nasal quail
ity, the false meditation, the distressing
emphasis.
Here is a reform which demands the at
tention of everybody. It is infinitely more
important than the reforms which consti-
tute the usual stock in trade of the reform
ers Of the day. How lovely, how faultless
would our beautiful girls be if only their
speech were always melo lious, and they
moved with easy grace and litheness.