The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-08
sr,on1ro AWAY rnr vorCr.

sToR1NG AWAY THE v0ICB.
 The human voios placed in cold storage. or nummifisd for future usa Is something that would not have been thought of or considered possible a generation ago. People with good memories can remember how the voices of friends or relatives now dead and gone sounded, but in the main the voices of those who once lived are forgotten. The invention of the pho graphic records has brought about . wonderful change in this respect By ana through this invention it is pos sible to have the voice recorded and stored away so that 1t may be repro ducsd in the future with little trouble or loss of time.
 Recently we note that movement has been started or proposed in Wash ington to establish what might be call ed a department of photography in the Congressional Library where records will be, made and preserved of the voice and manner of speech of all visi- tors of note, as well as of Congress men and other officials of the govern ment It Is true that this suggestion Is not wholly new. for we learn that the Smithsonian Institute has records of some Indian speeches. and we have also read that in some foreign gov ernments something has been done to- wards preserving the voices of promi- nent singers as well as of others of note.
 What has already been done. how ever, has been in a sort of desultory ana experimental way. What is now proposed is to go at 1t systematically. and to make it something of an ofi- ciai job. as we might say. thus giv- ing 1t both accuracy and permanancy. When we think of what might have been if this could have been done a century ago. We can appreciate what we have lost. To go back no further 1t would be a great treat to hear the voices of Webster. Clay. Calhoun and the long line of iliustrious men who RACSCacu 0pA NuCCVc4CQ tHeiu III thos public life of the Republic. To hear their voices, their accents and all their, peculiarities of speech. would be a treat indeed
 To so back still further it would be enlightening and educating if we could have an exact reproduction of the voice of Shakespeare or of Chaucer, of Milton or of spenser. of Walter Scott and Bobby Burns or of the great Statesmen and warriors who made his tory but few centuries ago. But why stop there? Why not go back in i'm agination a few thousand years? All who have studied the classics have pug zled over the construction pronuncia- ton and accent of Greek and Latin words and sentences, and 1t would be an incalculable help to thom if they could hear these words uttered in the natural voices of Demosthenes and Cicero of Carsar or of Brtus, and from them learn just how the lan- guages sounded from the lips of those who spoke them in their purity. But all LhlS tuyolVoB us III maze oA speculation and regret that Is not profitable.
 But if 1t would be source of pleas ure, qualification and instruction to us to go back as 1t were and listen to the voices of the long ago may we not flatter ourselves that the records now produced and stored away will af- ford satisfaction to those who come after us in the distant years to conner We cannot reasonably expect or even hope that we can be of much help to them in the way of speaking and pro- nouncing the English that we use, be- cause we have so much of differences and disagreements among ourselves that a repetition of our many variet- ies of speech would give more amuse- ment than enlightenment to those of a few centuries hence. still, 1t would doubtless be a satisfaction to them to know just how the present generation talked, wESt they said. how they said 1t and all about it. In short, we think the plan of putting voices on cold storage is a good scheme for those who come after us.