A Piece of Good Advice

1895

A dear, pretty old lady once said to me, when I, with the sublime uncharitableness which youth considers divine humor, had been ridiculing some one's personal appearance: "My dear, never quiz people for what they can't help. That's their Creator's affair — not yours. Be as down on them as you like for what they can help, but always draw the line there and make it a rule through life." We can't shape our noses as we can our lives, and really I think, considering the mess that some of us make of the latter, it is perhaps just as well. We can't model our cheeks as we can our waists, and that is decidedly a pity, for so long as men admire small waists so long shall we dutifully seek to attain them, by fair means or foul. I suppose we can make our faces innocent or wicked, and that is unfortunate, for the innocent often like to wear wicked masks, and the wicked oftener contrive angel faces. Ah, well!" — Philadelphia Times.


Girls With Voices

Mme. Marchesi, who is the famous teacher of many famous singers, among them Sibyl Sanderson, gives a bit of advice to English and American girls with voices. "No girl," says she, "who would become a singer must neglect to know one other language besides her own. If her ear and tongue have never been trained to hear or pronounce anything but her native English, she will have a hard time of it. It does not matter which language it is — French, German, Spanish, Italian — any one will do. It is the premier pas qui coute. When one is learned, others will come easily enough afterward." This skillful instructor counts two years as the minimum in which to perfect a singer, three years being preferable.