opportunity, and treat it as though it were
the greatest thing in your life. It pays.

Everything that amounts to anything in my entire career has come through
struggle. At first a horrible struggle with poverty. No girl student in
a hall bedroom to-day (and my heart goes out to them now) endures more
than I went through. It was work, work, work, from morning to night,
with domestic cares and worries enough all the time to drive a woman
mad. Keep up your spirits, girls. If you have the right kind of fight in
you, success will surely come. Never think of discouragement, no matter
what happens. Keep working every day and always hoping. It will come
out all right if you have the gift and the perseverance. Compulsion is
the greatest element in the vocalist's success. Poverty has a knout in
its hand driving you on. Well, let it,--and remember that under that
knout you will travel twice as fast as the rich girl possibly can with
her fifty-horse-power automobile. Keep true to the best. _Muss_--"I
MUST," "I will," the mere necessity is a help not a hindrance, if you
have the right stuff in you. Learn to depend upon yourself, and know
that when you have something that the public wants it will not be slow
in running after you. Don't ask for help. I never had any help. Tell
that to the aspiring geese who think that I have some magic power
whereby I can help a mediocre singer to success by the mere twist of the
hand.

DAILY EXERCISES OF A PRIMA DONNA

[Illustration: musical notation]

Daily vocal exercises are the daily bread of the singer. They should be
practiced just as regularly as one sits down to the table to eat, or as
one washes one's teeth or as one bathes. As a rule the average
professional singer does not resort to complicated exercises and great
care is taken to avoid strain. It is perfectly easy for me, a contralto,
to sing C in alt but do you suppose I sing it in my daily exercises? It
is one of the extreme notes in my range and it might be a strain.
Consequently I avoid it. I also sing most of my exercises _mezza voce_.

There should always be periods of intermission between practice. I often
go about my routine work while on tour, walking up and down the room,
packing my trunk, etc., and practicing gently at the same time. I enjoy
it and it makes my work lighter.

Of course I take great pains to practice carefully. My exercises are for
the most part simple scales, arpeggios or trills. For instance, I will