lace; hear how they scream at the
top of their lungs to get above the noise. Think of the amount of
nervous force they use in their efforts to be heard.

Now really when we are in the midst of a great noise and want to be
heard, what we have to do is to pitch our voices on a different key
from the noise about us. We can be heard as well, and better, if we
pitch our voices on a lower key than if we pitch them on a higher key;
and to pitch your voice on a low key requires very much less effort
than to strain to a high one.

I can imagine talking with some one for half an hour in a noisy
factory--for instance--and being more rested at the end of the half
hour than at the beginning. Because to pitch your voice low you must
drop some superfluous tension and dropping superfluous tension is
always restful.

I beg any or all of my readers to try this experiment the next time
they have to talk with a friend in a noisy street. At first the habit
of screaming above the noise of the wheels is strong on us and it seems
impossible that we should be heard if we speak below it. It is
difficult to pitch our voices low and keep them there. But if we
persist until we have formed a new habit, the change is delightful.

There is one other difficulty in the way; whoever is listening to us
may be in the habit of hearing a voice at high tension and so find it
difficult at first to adjust his ear to the lower voice and will in
consequence insist that the lower tone cannot be heard as easily.

It seems curious that our ears can be so much engaged in expecting
screaming that they cannot without a positive effort of the mind
readjust in order to listen to a lower tone. But it is so. And,
therefore, we must remember that to be thoroughly successful in
speaking intelligently below the noise we must beg our listeners to
change the habit of their ears as we ourselves must change the pitch of
our voices.

The result both to speaker and listener is worth the effort ten times
over.

As we habitually lower the pitch of our voices our words cease
gradually to be "born dead." With a low-pitched voice everything
pertaining to the voice is more open and flexible and can react more
immediately to whatever may be in our minds to express.

Moreover, the voice itself may react back again upon our dispositions.
If a woman gets excited in an argument, especially if she loses her
temper, her voice will be raised higher and higher until it reaches
almost a