The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-04-21
AND THE ART
OF PUBLIC SPEAKING.

a STRANGER who had attended q
GA woman's club meeting remarked
A N to a member Of the club that its
president spoke very well. The club
member, who did not speak at all well.
replied. with a sneer:
Yes. she ought to speak we'll When
she was elected president she went and
took a course of training in elocution.
Would you think she was as vain and
silly as that2-
wen, / think it's a thousand pities
more club women did not take elocu-
ton lessons said the other woman.
IF they did they would not bore us SO
with their shrill, squeaky paper read
ing. Notice now when the average wo-
man has a speech to make. Ninety out
Of a hundred times she reads a paper
instead of Speaking to her audience.
which is a fatal blunder to begin. She
has gloves on nearly always, too. SO
tight that she has no free motion OF her
hands. She holds her paper before her,
pitches her voice away up in her head.
then in shrill jerky tones which can be
heard no more than ten feet away pro-
ceeds to go mechanically through the
contents of that essay. II asked to
speak louder. she screams in a tone a
little shriller. a little more heady,
keeps il up a minute. then her voice
drops back again into the same monot-
onous squeak. like the sound of one
single high note a hundred times re-
peated upon a piano. Mark Twain him
self couldn't make an impression on an
audience Il he uttered his jokes in that
manner"
Just so. Mark Twain couldn't No
doubt the women who read papers in
the piercing. jerky way have heard of
the three kinds of tone of the human
voice-head tone, throat tone. chest
tone They have also heard that every
public speaker who knows his business
uses invariably the chest tone: makes
his voice begin deep in his chest when
he wishes it by what seems a contra
diction to travel farthest. Invariably
the carrying voice is the one that is
sues from the chest. Try now to pro-
nounce the word speak" in the three
ways. First make it issue from your
head with the thin. feeble sound -
many women employ in reading club
papers.
Next say speak" with your throat
tone. The throat tone habitually used
will speedily ruin any voice and pro-
duce chronic sore throat, yet it is sur
prising how many Americans, even
, public speakers, employ this harsh, ma
SAL throaty voice.
Now utter the word speak with
your tone pitched in your chest. See?
Your voice carries far; il sounds deep
and musical. You can talk with ease
for an hour or more by employing this
strong, easy, pleasant chest tone. A
good way to acquire it is to read aloud
half an hour at a time several times a
week. One unaccustomed to reading
aloud will fatigue herself in ten min
utes by speaking in the squeazy head
tone. If she employ the throat tone
her voice will become husky and strain
| ed and her throat win give her pain
after a few sentences. Only by using
| the even, pleasant chest tone, with its
falling infection and musical lower
pitch, can she read on and on without
fatigue or any spasmodic Catching in
her throat Here lie the secret and
source of unfailing voice power. Make
both source and secret your own.
The practice of the chest tone viii in
itself have calming, steadying inhu-
ence over many a poor. nervous. anx-
ious worried" woman who has her
little paper to read in the club or a re-
/ port to make in a church society. The
woman who uses it habitually in COM
mon conversation will feel an ever
growing power within her TO impress
| her words upon others in public and in
/ private. MARY GOULD LYLE.