The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-12
The Guinea-Hen- Under-a- Woman.
 From the San Francisco Impress,l

tFrom the San Francisco 1mpress.1
 There is living in one of our eastern cities a physician so distinguished that his name is known and honored abroad hardly less than at home, and whose speciality Is the treatment of nervous diseases, chiefly those of women. Twenty or thirty years of this order of work have resulted in a series of gen. eralizations as to causes-hereditary climatic and otherwise-as we'll as a classification of types, innumerable gradations of which have passed un- der his hands. There are moments in his practice in which the extremity of aggravation has been brought about, when he promises detailed historysof hysteria with illustrations drawn, from life. and warming for womankind at large to shut down the gates leading into this land of nightmare and delu- sion, and from which even the rarest find escape problem. With one or two of his reasons as to why nervous prostration and the overworked, over wrought American woman are necessa- rily synonymous, the "Art of Living" is in good time to deal. To-day 1t is with one of his types. at the mention of which he has been known to shut his eyes and put his fingers in his ears, and dance wild war-dance about his office; the type recorded ih notebook, clearly not medical in it's nature, as "The Guinea-Hen-under-a-Gate Wo- man." There was no need of explana- ton. From Maine to Michigan, wher- ever the New Englander has wan dered, what has come to be known as '"the American voice" has perpetuated itself, and if in any degree recognized by the hearers thereof, set down as the natural effect of American climate. But the traveller recalls that through out the entire south, from the poorest cracker up to the stateliest of southern danes there Is 8 quality of tone, less distinct and rich than that marking the beautiful voices of English women, but no less musical. Evidently, then, American climate is not the only cause:
 
 a difference of several degrees in the pitch, it becomes evident that however this has been brought about, it stands as chief cause for the result accom- plished. The human throat and all the complex mechanism of the vocal or gans are practically the same for all, and for daily uses can be compelled to render a satisfactory result.
 T am ashamed to confess" said a Boston woman, discussing these facts "that till I lived in London, never re- alized in full the terror of many of our New England voices. Cultivated peo- pie do not shriek, and one is 50 unac- customed to even think very much whether a voice is agreeable or not that had let this phase of life 20. al- together, and this in spite of the fact that we were a musical family. But those rich, smooth voices, that clear. pure articulation that you get from the really cultivated Eng!1shwomar,, was revelation. Their methods of life meant part of it-their out-of-door life and all that; but, on the other hand, it struck me that we too were rational at points, and more so than they. We were keyed to a higher pitch in every way. and I made up my mind at once that there was less wear and tear in their method than ours, and that, as far as temperament would let me, their way should be mine"
 My friend paused and looked refiec- lively at me! That was twenty years ago" she went on, land I look back upon the struggle with wonder that ever undertook 1t. had used nothing but head notes since was born, and if I grew excttsd I am perfectly aware that bagpipe, at it's worst, could not 1 hold a more ear-piercing rasp. How I | did 1t I don't know: but you Bee I did it, and, if there had been anybody in | my youth with q gleam of sense, not l only might have been spared the trouble in my own case, but transmit | ted ! better thing to my children. For the New Ehglander, I count 1t the apologetic wall for being alive at all | that marked the Puritan era, and lin- gers still. For the rest of. us, the most | of us Americans, 1t is partly obtuse- ness, party ignoIences and we are just