of the nervous system as superfluous motion. It is a
curious discovery when we find often how we are holding our shoulders
in place, and in the wrong place. A woman receiving a visitor not only
talks all over herself, but reflects the visitor's talking all over,
and so at the end of the visit is doubly fatigued. "It tires me so to
see people" is heard often, not only from those who are under the full
influence of "Americanitis," but from many who are simply hovering
about its borders. "Of course it tires you to see people, you see them
with, so much superfluous effort," can almost without exception be a
true answer. A very little simple teaching will free a woman from that
unnecessary fatigue. If she is sensible, once having had her attention
brought and made keenly alive to the fact that she talks all over, she
will through constant correction gain the power of talking as Nature
meant she should, with her vocal apparatus only, and with such easy
motions as may be needed to illustrate her words. In this change, so
far from losing animation, she gains it, and gains true expressive
power; for all unnecessary motion of the body in talking simply raises
a dust, so to speak, and really blurs the true thought of the mind and
feeling of the heart.

The American voice--especially the female voice--is a target which has
been hit hard many times, and very justly. A ladies' luncheon can often
be truly and aptly compared to a poultry-yard, the shrill cackle being
even more unpleasant than that of a large concourse of hens. If we had
once become truly appreciative of the natural mellow tones possible to
every woman, these shrill voices would no more be tolerated than a
fashionable luncheon would be served in the kitchen.

A beautiful voice has been compared to corn, oil, and wine. We lack
almost entirely the corn and the oil; and the wine in our voices is far
more inclined to the sharp, unpleasant taste of very poor currant wine,
than to the rich, spicy flavor of fine wine from the grape. It is not
in the province of this book to consider the physiology of the voice,
which would be necessary in order to show clearly how its natural laws
are constantly disobeyed. We can now speak of it only with regard to
the tension which is the immediate cause of the trouble. The effort to
propel the voice from the throat, and use force in those most delicate
muscles when it should come from the stronger muscles of the diaphragm,
is like trying to