The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-08-31
DO YOU SPEAK soETLYi
You Can be taught to Control Your v0ic
and Adapt II to the Room You Enter.A

You Can DO taught to Control Your voics
and Adapt II to the Room You Enter.A
Do you speak softly? Has your voice
precisely the proper pitch, and can 1t
adapt itself on the instant to the room
you suddenly enter? Have you learned
that you must never whisper In a
:hurch-for whispering is always very
audible there--but speak In a low, firm
tone? Can YOU laugh properly and
aalntily, as an ideal girl should? Can
you control your voice. using one tone
Tor one occasion and another for an
other. at will? Can you talk ami
matedly and with enthusiasm, without
throwing your arms about. your head
too far back and without moving your
body?
For II you cannot say yes to all these
questions you are not a perfect and
properly modern girl. There have
been many criticisms, as well as
praises, leyelled at the American girl,
and one Of the chief of these has been
for years that she talked too loud and
too often did not modify her voice
when occasion called. Now, Ameri-
can fathers and mothers say the time
has come for reform, and the new cult
of speaking softly has been started.
A foreign woman. continental to her
finger tips, who has the softest, pref
TEST voice hersef-Mme. Mendosez--
Is the apostle of this new cult, and to
her Studio" on Fifth avenue, come
each day troops Of girls, singly or in
classes of six and eight, that they may
be in the fashion. 1t Is, in fact, a rage
In a mild way. Only those girls blessed
by nature or by very early training
with voices that are properly fashion,
able can afford to keep out of the pro-
cession, and all the others of the sets
wend their way daily to the Studio"
1t is not alone by example-though
example has great deal to do with it
that the cult Of speaking softly 10
taught. The girls ranged about her,
Nine. Mendosez asks each of them to
speak In her ordinary conversational
tone. Then, stepping to the piano
near by, she strikes note If high
in the treble 1t Is meant for a girl
whose tones are naturally harsh and
cultural; II down in the bass, for a
girl who speaks shrilly and in half
scream.
THAT for you." she says, singing
put girl. "Now try and see how close
you can pitch your voice to that"
No exact point of meeting is there
and no similarity Of tones sought af-
Ter, but the deep voice and the shrill
one. the nasal voice and the voice that
seems to come from the bottom of the
throat. are cajoled and pulled along
Until they commence to lose their dis
agreeable peculiarites and are on
common ground.
Now, this Is but the preface. 1t is
lot so much the object of the cult to
,hange voices as 1t is to control them.
And yet the two 60 together in
measure. Once by this plan of nasal
a girl can alter her tones
It will. it is simple thing for her to
earn to speak softly. She comes to
earn that by raising her voice hardly
t all she can make her tones carry"
o marvellous degree. She is taught
he difference between rooms, how
here is one tone for public assem-
lagos, another for parlors, a third for
till smaller rooms and yet another
Dr. the street.
As completely as If she were taking
nging lessons does this system of the
ew cult of speaking softly range her
dice up and down. keeping 1t mean
lille Qf there is tendency either
'ay), out of her throat and her nose,
ntil she is complete mistress of her
'nes, all the while holding forward as
lie main object soft speaking