The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-08-30
A SOFT SWEET Voice.
American Girls, Says Oil
yer Wendell Holmes,
Lack This Greatest
of WomanlY
Charms.
RUSKIN ON ELOCUTION.
How to Teach Children to Get a
"'Ring" to Their Tones-An
Old Greek Axiom.
RUSKIN ON EL0CUTI0N
"Then wo talked!
That voice SO cadenced in the TALKING,
Made another snging-of the so1il

Made another singing-of the so1il
A music without oars"
The Persian poet, Saadi, tells us
that a person with a disagreeable
voice was reading the Koran aloud,
when a holy man, passing by, asked
what was his monthly stipend. He
answered, Nothing at all" But
why, then, do you take so much
trouble?" He replied, II rea d for the
sake of God" The other rejoined,
For Gods sake do not read; for if
you read the Koran in this manner
you will destroy the splendor of Is
Iamism.n
Emerson relates the foregoing, and
l quote it as a fair exemplification of
the effect produced by a harsh. dis
cordant voice, even if the most charm
ing thoughts, beautifully expressed,
be the theme. And what says Oliver
Wendell Holmes. the genial Auto
crat of the Breakfast Table" than
whom NO gentler critic ever lived:-
The great trouble-with the charm
ing American girls with her voice.
1t is pitched a full note too high. 1t
is aggressive, disturbing and would
wear out a man without his
ever knowing what was the matter
with him" In. his usual humorous
way, DR.. Holmes thinks that O very
sensitive man would live from two to
three years longer with a woman who
hos a warn oyroaahla u0iaa ,.o,,,J
mellow aud CHEEKY, with a charming
articulation, than with the other.
The evil begins where most evils do
in the cradle, or as soon as the child
is able to make its wants known.
How often we hear the baby of three
yelling literally, not crying, but sim
ply voicing its mirth in ear-splitting
sounds; screaming it's replies to the
simplest questions; shrieking its
Joy alike with its anger; using
the highest pitched tones its lungs
can command in its plays. And the
schoolboy speaking a piece" what
painful efforts and experiments he
tries with his vocal organsl He scars
Ito heights unattainable by human
throat and insupportable to human
ear - He becomes lost to all
save the consciousness of making a
noise" and the effect, like that of the
Persian's reading, is to destroy the
splendor OF his discourse.
THE CHARM OF A BEAUTIFUL VOICE.
The old Greeks set it down as an
axiom that a loud and harsh voice
betokened bad breeding, and classed
a soft sweetness of tone with personal
beauty. 1t is a grave mistake to i'm
QOinn that nnrfanf hO hits Of C,0na11, ~ 40
natural. Ruskin called elocution a
moral faculty" and says that mo one
is fit to be the head of a children's
school who is not both by nature and
attention a beautiful speaker A di-
ploma with a special medal for the
s~oftest, most musical rendering of
prose and poetry in speech, not song,
might be beneficially granted upon
commencement day, and in time
our pretty maids from school and our
jeunesse doree would charm eve and
ear equally. The gaudy peacock,
trailing his gorgeous piumage in
splendid array, with iridescent colors
flashing jewel-like in the rays of the
sun, has been for all time the symbol
of discordance in voice and appear
ance, and so it is when children's O
lips deafen us with shrill, penetrat-
ing, perturbing cries.
Full, vigorous health gives richness
and volume to the voice; there is a
generous ring" to the tones of a per-
fectly healthy set of vocol organs that
is a fair criterion ofthe general physi-
cal condition. There are six hundred
millions of air-cells in the lungs of a
full-grown man, and If the blood
courses through the veins, rich with
pure, fresh oxygen from perfect
respiration, the voice becomes
Indeed the organ of the soulin
Athenian youths were trained
as deliberately as a race horse in the
present day and generation, for their
calling of orators, and their perfection
of physique was a natural result. AS
a means of identifying our sons and
daughters we should give them the |
advantage of knowing how to use the |
vocal cords; teach them the value of |
perfect inhalation, and how to utter
those sweet, melodious sounds that |
charm the listning ear,
THAT SING SONG HABIT.
Children should not be allowed to
fall into the singing habit of reciting o:
this tone proceeds from the larynx'
which can be as well made by an
Indian rubber larynx, being nothing
more than a ''squawk.n 1t lacks the
fine, resonant power, 1.-THE human and
mind-expressing qualities of the tone
that is given by the sympathetic
resonance of the cavities of the head
and chest"
An authority or voice culture gives
the following simple directions which
any child can comprehend and prac-
tice intelligently:
Whisperthe word .'up" rather vigor-
ously. If you hear a sound as of a
bubble OF air being burst, there is too
much stiffness in the larnyx. If the
sound becomes aspirated, the cock
ney's s'hup" is produced. But if the
sound comes clear and distinct, with
out aspiration or broken bubbles,
there is reason to believe you have
produced the tone properly.
AVOID STOPPING.
1t is reprehensible in teachers to
permit children to stand or sit will,
bent shoulders and downcast head