Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-06-10
STUDYING ABROAD.
THE GREAT DIFFICULTIES AMERICAN
ARTISTS MUST OVERCOME.

Miss Attalie Claire says That If American
Girls Would Devote Themselves to Home
Teachers the Result Would be Far More
to Their Personal Good and Happiness.
Miss Attalie Claire has, since her
last appearance with Lillian Russell,
devoted four years to study in Italy
and Paris.
She has much to say of continental
methods, and particularly of musical
study in the French capital. Miss
Claire does not hesitate to express her.
self with a frankness which is con-
vincing as it is refreshing. She is
particularly opposed to the studying
of American girls abroad. She does
not consider that they meet with any
thing like proper consideration or en-
enlargement.
ut would SEEM" said Miss Claire,
"as though professors and students
were alike leagued against her. When
an American girl unwisely chooses to
exhibit her voice before the glazing
lights of foreign public opinion it is not
criticised on it's own merits, but upon
the personal attractiveness and other
charms of its owner The voice is
forced to undergo an inevitable COM
parison with those of singers of the
past and present. 1t is stoned, hack
ed and besmudged, and finally rele-
gated to bitter obscurity, unless, per-
chance, she has powerful friends with
an unlimited amount of both wealth
and influence. The teachers make
study a torture instead of a pleasure
They have a cast-iron set of rules
from which they allow no deviation.
you must not go out at night. You
must not dance. 1t dries your voice
and weakens your vocal cords. You
must not speak in the open air after
singing. 1t gives you sore throat
You must not eat certain fruits OF
vegetables. 1t makes you koarse.
You must walk long and frequently to
keep up your strength. You must re-
nounce all your friends in order to
have time to work.
FINALLY" continued Miss Claire,
'you must hope against hope, because
you must work against people who are
ahead of you through their especial
talent for the basest of intrigues-with
utter lack of refinement, with nothing
holy or reverent in their purposes,
with but one single idea in their souls
to be seen. Art to them is nothing;
publicity everything. The one is sim
ply a means to the end. American
girl students in last years coats and
hats, their countenances pale and
pinched with want, their eyes and lips
sharpened with expectancy, throng
the studios and haunt the offices of the
impresarios. American pluck is pro-
verbal in Paris musical circles.
ut is needless for me to remind you
of the experiences of either Sibyl San
derson or Marie Van Zandt. Their
bitter trials turned the light of public
ity upon the detestable power of the
French claque and hatred of foreign
ers. But where these shining exam
pies have finally conquered all opposi-
ton there are 9,999 American girls
who every year are forced TO retire
beaten, discouraged and world-weary
Right here in Boston this was brought
home to you the other day, where a
young lady of family well-knOwn and
honored, had fruitlessly thrown away
~ years of her life in pursuing the
musical will-of-the-wisp of Partisan
musical study. Small wonder that
she attempted suicide crossing the At
lantic.
IF American girls would but devote
to home teachers and home study q
1.-THE of the energy and ambition with
which they pursue their musical life
abroad, the result would be not only
far more to their own personal good
and happiness, but it would build III
in this country a class of students and
singers better voiced, and of pureI
lives than what are found abroad"