The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-05-09

l ihe siri who sings to herself at her
 work is the best worker declares a
 physician in newspaper. He has been
 going into the question of the effects of
 singing on man and woman. and savs
 that if you want to be happy wealthy
 and wise you should have at least one
 song and sing 1t at least twice a day.
 It is one of the most potent tonics. 1 His letters rose out e the stores we
 have been reading of soldiers A British
 officer wrote him that "Tipperary''
 warmed his very heart When he heard
 the fellows singing that he felt every
 thing was going right. He didn't care
 what 1t was they sang so long as they
 sang something. He was not at all par 1 ticular as to execution
 | One of the most exhilarating concerts,
 he said, he had ever heard was that he
 came across one day when he discovered
 understand English-singing ''Teeparoo- roo."
 l One of them with an ear for music had 1 'picked up the words, as he imagined, and passed them on. He had not got them
 very accurately, and his pupils had got them still worse, but it was "a row" And
 1t evidently did them an enormous
 amount of good
 l The French troops sing ..,rinnera,.,.,, a 6 | compliment to Britain and British soldiers return the compliment with the Marseillaise. It Is, of course well
 known fact that a regiment marching
 with band, or singing. covers the ground faster than if they had no such
 accorfpaniment. It goes farther with less l fatigue.
 People might do well.' says the phy-
 sician, to study the question of singing and music as a tonic'
 It Is cheap-"wlthin~ ~the means of all D Joseph Hatton. the novelist. once told me Of man who was the head of a big commercial concern. and who WIS gen l erally known as 'Old Up Skies" He was not particularly old. The term was ap-
 piled to him as we speak of ''Old Jones, ; l or "old Smith'-men we admire because | they know good deal more about things I than many. Old Up Skies was alwa ys 1 bright and cheerful. Nothing cloudy about | him.
 k One of his acquantances declared that
 If you met "Old Up Skies in the morning
 before setting out, it would probably lead l to your going out without an umbrella, 1 whatever the weather threatened He | filled you with the idea that there was | heaps of sunshine about Yet he had oc-
 casionally very bad luck.
 1 When the newS spread around amongst l his friends that things had gone wrong | with him. people who didn't lsnow him 1 well received a shock when they crossed | over the street suitably arrayed in their most dismal faces, and were greeted by him with a hearty, Good day. old chap. \ How are you? You're looking dismal. Whats the matter?''
 l The secret of his perpetual cheerfulness
 was. he told Hatton, his singing song every morning as he dressed. It was a n haaf fffl fA .I.% rfrrI l.x~ the time he came down to breakfast he was in mood to take anything as it comes and make the best of it Try it, my boy he said. try it. Only ] take care to get the right song 'Don't sing The Last Rose of Summer or Oh. l Where Are the Once Happy Days That l Have Fled or stuff of that kind. If you l live In an apartment house and are afraid
 of the fellow in the next room, sing it | sotto voce. Even hum is worth a lot" Some time ago an Italian physician made experiments on number of men
 and women to find out what e~ect music l Lad. He found that cheerful, stirring pieces sent the blood circulating more i, ra pidlyaein the listeners, while sad music had just the opposite effect. There was I only one man whom the music had no 1 effect upon at all. Nothing would dis 1 turb the sluggist flow of his blood A jig | or a vail did not add single beat or take one off. He informed the doctor all l the music was the same to him. He I couldn't tell one tune from another. He | applauded at the end because 1t was l over"
 | If music without words will send the
 blood coursing faster or slower through ! ones veins, music with good words will ! do the trick thousand times better. But take "Oid' Up Skies" !" advice and be careful as to getting both right.
 | Tools, the actor. knew a man whc was fearfully timid at seeing strangers
 Tn some remarkable manner he became a commercial traveller, of all things ir the world, and tapping at an office door he did so with terror in his heart
 He composed a little song of two verses for his own private use. What that song was he could never reveal He described it as the kind of stuff to make one chirpy'' I suspect 1t was something about
 facing the foe" Charging and "On- ward We Go" and that kind of thing However, he told Toole that. hummine that song of his he found he could charge at possible new customer without feel ing his legs tremble. A good ideal
 There is the old proverb that What's Il well begun is half done.' and 1t has a proverbs. The day we begin in cheer proverbs THhe day we begin in a cheer ful spirit is the day in which we are going to do great things. But the morning is
 just the same when most people are de- Il pressed and soured. Breakfast is ths most dangerous meal of the day. There is
 more grumhling at the breakfast table
 than at any other Ask the proprietress of boarding house as to which meal il
 is that her boarders are most sore-head. ed at.
 |, "We are most inclined to find fault witt
 our people at breakfast" woman
 writer on household matters wrote tho other day. "It is the time when people
 appear to be the most querulous and fri
 table. But they don't exactly quarrel T They just grumble. They haven't thu
 energy for more than that, There is not
 the slightest doubt that most people begir the day in the very worst manner poss
 mle. Wouldn't 1t be worth while to dis
 cover some way to alter such condition of affars?'
 It would Professor Iaissaille. the dis tinguished French scientist, declared tha it was most important to cultivate i'm medjafelv m rising the mood that Wou1t