earns for its owner from $500 to $1,500
a night is equally valueless when saturated with the poisons that come
from intemperate or unwise living. Many of the singer's throat troubles
arise from an unhealthy condition of the stomach caused by excesses of
diet; but, aside from this, a disease localized in any other part of the
body affects the throat sympathetically and makes it difficult for the
singer to get good results. Recital work, with its long fatiguing
journeys on railroads, together with the other inconveniences of travel
and the responsibility and strain that come from knowing that one person
alone is to hold from 1,000 to 5,000 people interested for nearly two
hours, demands a very sound physical condition.

8. _Life Experience._--Culture does not come from the schoolroom alone.
The refining processes of life are long and varied. As the violin gains
in richness of tone and intrinsic value with age, so the singer's life
experience has an effect upon the character of his singing. He must have
seen life in its broadest sense, to place himself in touch with human
sympathy. To do this and still retain the freshness and sweetness of his
voice should be his great aim. The singer who lives a narrow and bigoted
existence rarely meets with wide popular approval. The public wants to
hear in a voice that wonderful something that tells them that it has
had opportunities to know and to understand the human side of song, not
giving parrot-like versions of some teacher's way of singing, but that
the understanding comes from the very center of the mind, heart and
soul. This is particularly true in the field of the song recital. Most
of the renowned recital singers of the last half century, including
Schumann-Heink, Sembrich, Wuellner, the Henschels and others, were
considerably past their youth when they made their greatest successes. A
painting fresh from the artist's brush is raw, hard and uninteresting,
till time, with its damp and dust, night and day, heat and cold, gives
the enriching touch which adds so wonderfully to the softness and beauty
of a picture. We singers are all living canvases. Time, and time only,
can give us those shades and tints which reveal living experience. The
young artist should hear many of the best singers, actors, and speakers,
should read many of the best books, should see many beautiful pictures
and wonderful buildings. But most of all, he should know and study many
people and learn of their joy