her grateful
appreciation.

To Miss Frances Nash, of the Lincoln High School in Cleveland, for her
invaluable advice in determining the exact nature of the need which the
book must meet, and for her assistance in choosing the material for
interpretation, my gratitude and appreciation are especially due.

To others whose influence through books or personal instruction has made
this task possible, acknowledgment made in _The Speaking Voice_ is
reiterated.

PART I

STUDIES IN VOCAL INTERPRETATION

PRELIMINARY STUDY

TO ESTABLISH A CONSCIOUS PURPOSE

"The orator must have something in his very soul he feels to be
worth saying. He must have in his nature that kindly sympathy that
connects him with his fellow-men and which so makes him a part of
the audience that his smile is their smile, his tear is their tear,
the throb of his heart the throb of the hearts of the whole
assembly."--HENRY WARD BEECHER.

We have said that whatever part in the world's life we choose or are
chosen to take, it remains precisely true that to speak effectively is
essential to fulfilling, in the highest sense, that function. Whether
the occupation upon which we enter be distinguished by the title of
cash-girl or counsellor at law; dish-washer or debutante; stable-boy or
statesman; artist in the least or the highest of art's capacities,
crises will arise in that calling which demand a command of effective
speech. The situation may call for a slow, quietly searching
interrogation or a swift, ringing command. The need may be for a use of
that expressive vocal form which requires, to be efficient, the rugged
or the gracious elements of your vocabulary; the vital or the velvet
tone; the straight inflection or the circumflex; the salient or the
slight change of pitch; the long or the short pause. Whatever form the
demand takes, the need remains for command of the efficient elements of
tone and speech if we are to become masters of the situation and to
attain success in our calling. How to acquire this mastery is our
problem. How to take the first step toward acquiring that command is the
subject of this first study.

Is there a student reader of these pages who has not already faced a
situation requiring for its mastery such command? Listen to Mr. James
again:

"All life, therefore, comes back to the question of our speech, the
medium through which we communicate with each other; for all life come