re as Carmen, and
with her fascinating gestures, complete abandon, grace, and dazzling
beauty made the part one of the most original and bewitching
impersonations on the stage.

The Australian, Nellie Melba, who takes her stage name from Melbourne,
her birthplace, has been compared to Patti as a vocal technician. Her
voice is divine, but she seems powerless to animate her brilliant
singing with the warmth that glows in her eyes. As an actress she
completely veils whatever emotions she may feel, and while her marvelous
vocalization overwhelms her audiences, she meets with her greatest
triumphs in operas that make the least demands on the dramatic powers.

Massenet wrote the title roles of his "Esclarmonde" and his "Thais" for
a California girl, Sybil Sanderson, and himself trained her for their
stage presentation. Her success was assured when she made her debut in
the first-named opera at the Opera Comique, in Paris, in 1889. She has a
voice of that light, pure, flexible quality so characteristic of our
countrywomen, and is an admirable actress. She is a pupil of Madame
Marchesi.

Another distinguished pupil of the same teacher is Emma Eames, who was
born in China of New England parents, and was educated in Boston and in
Paris. Her voice too is exceedingly flexible, is fresh, pure and clear,
her intonations are correct and her personality most attractive. She has
been very successful in Wagnerian roles, makes a superb Elsa, and, in
the "Meistersinger," an ideal Eva. During her early years on the stage
her extreme calmness amounted almost to aggravating frigidity, but with
time she has thawed. She may well be considered a conscientious artist
endowed with rare musical intuition.

There is no possession more perishable, more delicate, than the human
voice. When one considers the joy it is capable of shedding about it,
the blessings that may follow in its train, it seems sad to think of the
reckless waste caused by its neglect and mismanagement. Its life is
brief enough at best. Let it be cherished to the utmost.

In America where there are to-day more fine voices among women than in
any other country and where time and means are so freely expended on the
musical education of girls, the twentieth century should produce nobler
queens of song than the world has yet known. First, the American girl
must learn that the real things of life are more to be prized than false
semblances, and that genuine musical culture resting