Gilded Age Advice for “Vocal Culture”

I deny that a woman is formed by nature so as to be compelled to shriek in falsetto in order to throw her voice to the distance of five, ten or twenty rods. Good etiquette requires for our comfort and highest accomplishment a clear, strong, full use of the voice. 

A Plea for Voice Culture

A good deal is being done to educate the hands. In my opinion it is becoming a vital matter to also educate the voice, not for special purposes, but for everyday use. Women rarely use their lungs and throats wisely. I know many who can hardly be heard distinctly across a table. This is often affectation; more often it is a habit formed from a belief that a woman should not be loud voiced. It is not necessary to screech in order to be heard, that is if your voice has been discreetly used. 

A child's voice is generally pleasant until made unpleasant by bad habits or a bad spirit. But an unused, neglected voice, when driven to effort, makes a bad mess of it. I deny that a woman is formed by nature so as to be compelled to shriek in falsetto in order to throw her voice to the distance of five, ten or twenty rods. Good etiquette requires for our comfort and highest accomplishment a clear, strong, full use of the voice. 

There never was invented by art so charming an instrument as a beautiful throat. Yet how many voices are wretchedly cracked and squeaking. I am ambitious as a mother that each one of my children shall have fine vocal organs; well developed, well trained and delightful to be heard. That is, we should not only be able to talk to people all the way to them, but so as to delight them when we are heard.- Mary E. Spencer in St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 1892

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Now Don't Get Snooty About Etiquette Editor

       

Agony Aunt Anne Singleton on etiquette and correcting one’s grammar. “Why be snooty?”

A LADY who writes to say my English is faulty in spots–whose isn't?– after having objected to the correspondence of another lady and myself on the subject of “if I were” as against “if I was,” further takes me to task for various modes of expression and finally ends by asking: “Why be snooty?”

Why indeed? But what does she consider snooty about my answering a letter to the best of my ability, using the language I was taught to speak? I don't call her snooty for disagreeing with me and trying to set me straight, from her point of view. She thinks I'm wrong. I think she's wrong. But I am not going to characterize her opinions as she does mine. 

I am going to quote Professor Loundsbury to her. Three fundamental principles he lays down. “The first is that usage is the authoritative standard of speech. The second is that it must be good usage. The third is that it must be present good usage.” I admit I'm no grammarian. I couldn't give the rules for employing one combination of words instead of another. But I do know present day usage among the best authors and I am well aware of it among the best speakers of English. 

While answering in the manner objected to (which is a form of expression I wager will be condemned) I imagined I was gossiping with a neighbor, not exchanging gestures of defiance with an enemy and I certainly was not conscious of being proud or vain-glorious. Be that as it may, how will my readers take it if I tell one (who writes to ask) that I pronounce “either” with the sound of “i” rather than “e” because I was so taught, because the better educated of my friends do so and because the Oxford dictionary commends it? Is that snooty?– By Anne Singleton for Vogue, 1931

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia