The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-13
Care Of The Voice
By Henri Leon.

The Danish tenor who will sing the
 Role of Johnson in Henry w. Say
 ages Production in English or
 .The Girl of the Golden West.''
 Last season a simple grain of dust cost one of the greatest living tenOrs over $30, ,000-not alone that but It threatened to still his voice forever.
 The human voice possesses the most delicate mechanism. The fine shadings and tonal qualities that mark the difference between a great singer and one of mediocre attain ments are in the shape, training ana. condition of the vocal chords.
 The construction, shape and con dition of the upper throat and the porting the nasal passages constitute the sounding board of the human in- strument' voice-and are natur- ally vastly important, but it is >tne vocal chords themselves that produce the tones and any injury to them vii uates the entire voice.
 The voice is really human mu- sical instrument based on the prin- ciples of the pipe organ. At the lower end of the sound tube is the, larynx and across the air passages are two thin ribbons of cartilage ex-. quisitely sensitive to the control or the surrounding muscles which leaves them lax or holds them rigid, draws their edges together or separates them according to the pitch or character of vibrations the. mind or emotion calls. for.
 '.The vibrations of the chords are caused by the air passing upward between their edges. AS in the case of the violin strings the tighter the chords are drawn across the tube the higher the pitch of the tone pro- duced.
 Everyone knows that violin string that is rough or qf unequal thickness cannot produce Van even tone. The requirements of the vo- cal chords are even more exacting. While expanding and contracting to produce the desired pitch they must be free from any abrasion, iIfamma- ton or malformation,. such being fa- tai to the production of clear tone. "The chief dread of professional
 singers is that nodes (horsy ex- delicate edges of the chords, thus operating against their perfect con trol, injuring the quality of the tone | and causing deterioration of the voice unless removed.
 These nodes sometimes form duction. but more frequently from injury. by foreign substances "In the case of Caruso, it was a grain of dust, at first unnoticed, Wn1cl Set up sLn s1nQdmmaIlOn at the edges of the delicate cord thus be- coming the nucleud of a node which made further singing quite l out of the question for the remainder | of the opera season.
 This accident occurred on Feb ruary 4, 1911, shortly after mat ! inee at which the great tenor sang ! the role of Johnson in Puccinfs lat est and greatest opera The Girl of | the Golden West Although Caruso lives at the Hotel Knickerbocker | (scarcely block from the Metro I politan Opera House) it has always | been his custom to take a taxi home | to prevent a particle of the Broad way dust from entering his precious l throat. However, on this particular occasion, after singing his heavy part in The Girl of the Golden West, he neglected his customary precaution and his physician declares that In his short stroll he inhaled the par | ticle, which Gin loss of salary alone) cost him over S30,0000-
 Eminent throat specialists declare that even so small a foreign body as I a grain of dust in the vicinity of the vocal chords is quite sufficient to pro- duce an intense inflammation. Utmost care as to diet, exercise, control of the emotions and general physical con dition must also be constantly main tained. while the sudden and severe changes of temperature in America S 6ckle climate are often responsible for the inability of the artist to ap- t