The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-02-05
THE AMERICAN VOICE.
Iarper's Young People.


There is one criticism which is inva>
riably made upon us even by our own
country people, who, if they happen to
have been abroad few years, como
home with eyes and ears keenly open to
impressions, and that is that our voices
are bad. We have some excuse for
speaking loud. Our large cities are
said to be the noisiest in the world,
and one realizes that fact after being
in the country several months. In the
street, then, we must holler, literally.
There is no other word to express it.
What with the cable cars. the elevated,
and the noise of the trucks on our
stone pavements, life is simply bewild.
ering.
But why we should scream in the
house is unanswered Die. Go to a wom-
ems luncheon, if your nerves arc
strong enough to stand the wear and
are all pitched high, they are too often
nasal in tone, and the result is deplor-
able. We could remedy this Cf we
stopped to thinl) in ourselves, and we
certainly ought TO stop it in our
daughters, whose speaking voices
should be cultivated. A low-voiced
woman is charming. Poets have sung
of her and writer's have praised her,
but where is she to be found? Only
occasionally is there one out of our
large acquaintance. An old lady who
had been blind for thirty years not
long ago had an operation performed
on her eyes, and recovered her sight
It was like a resurrection from the
dead, and her experiences as she tells
them, are wonderfully interesting and
pathetic. She had. of course, trained
her ears to supply what her eyes
lacked, and voices meant everything to
her. One person of whom she was very
fond. and who had a beautiful, full,
soft. rich voice, was rather taken aback
when she was presented to her old
friend for inspection. The old lady
looked at her carefully and then said:
''My dear, your face doesn't match
your voice.
If our faces did match our voices,
how dreadful most of them would be!
Loud, coarse, and unrefned in the
main. 1t is somewhat easy to Judge
persons character by the voice. A
thin voice may be strengthened and n
loud voice modulated and nasal
twang cured. and there is no doubt but
that we need much education in this
direction. Another curious fault or
habit which almost all Americans have
is clipping their words and using SLOW
emily English. The simple little word
yes" is rarely pronounced distinctly
or clearly. All sorts of curious modes
of expression are resorted to to denote
assent, yep" being the one most COM
monty heard. Slang OF course is the
inevitable consequence of the famili-
arity with which school girls and boys
play their various games together, the
girls easily adapting the modes OF ex-
preston used by their male compan-
ions. Americans. however. are no
more guilty OF slang than are the Eng
lish, although they are commonly ac-
cused OF so being. Not having been
brought up in a family of boys, my
own repertory is limited. and so / was
completely at loss to understand my
LnS4isn He4Snpor at d eAhhe4 pai - IL
London who insisted upon using the
most curious slang Upon explaining
to him that he was speaking foreign
tongue 10 me, he expressed much sur
prise. and said: Why. l thought all
Americans talked slang" The partic-
ular lingo, as / discovered, which ne
had treated me TO. out Of compliment
,oossihiv 20 my limited knowledge of
the English language. was what ne
had learned from friends who had
lived on ranches in the far west