USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The Congress of Women : held in the Woman's building, World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, U.S.A., 1893 : with portraits, biographies and addresses > Part 104
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always one of its chief charms, but also tend to harden the entire countenance, engrav- ing harsh, rigid lines where only softest curves and dimples belong. Again, unhappy states of mind habitually indulged, particularly fretfulness, discontent and despond- ency, by depressing the animal spirits, tend directly to paralyze the sympathetic nerves which control the vital functions. The general physical tone or vitality being thus lowered, stagnation more or less complete of all the vital organs is the sure result. Those members most directly and unfavorably effected are the stomach, liver and heart; and right here, in indigestion, torpid liver and sluggish circulation, is to be found the origin of nearly all unhealthiness, and at the same time the chief blemishes of beauty. Is it not a most significant fact, and one worthy of respectful attention, that every noble, worthy, generous, gentle and pure emotion, without one solitary exception, tends directly to beautify the face and to produce physical grace? The beautifying power of love is well known. Under the magic influence of this gentle and tender emotion the hardest face will soften into lines of beauty. Sometimes the transformation is so marked that beholders are amazed and wonder how it is that homely, commonplace Mary is actually growing beautiful. On the other hand do not fail to observe the boldly destructive work of all harsh, violent, ignoble and selfish emotions stamping their ugly traces deep into the brow and about the mouth. Obtuse indeed must be the woman who does not read between these lines a message both of warning and of inspiration. I would have every woman understand that it is worldly wisdom to cultivate an angelic disposition. Why, I personally know numbers of beautiful women who simply can not be ruffled by any annoyance. The world wonders at their remarkable preservation of youthful charms, their grace, their love- liness. Only those who penetrate into the charmed circle of their private life can know that the physical beauty so largely a reflection of the angelic spirit is the result of absolute self-control. The woman who realizes that she is undeniably plain and unattractive should at once take a strict and careful inventory of her traits of character and her ruling emotions. She must show herself no mercy in this intro- spection- beholding herself "as in a looking glass." If she be an intelligent woman she will not go about the task in an aimless, haphazard manner, thereby lessening her chances of final victory. She will not only take a rigid inventory of her defects, but also she will seek out the most scientific and trustworthy methods for their eradica- tion. She is doubtless in danger of becoming disheartened, but she must be made to realize that her case however serious is not hopeless; that it all rests with her whether she shall continue to sit idly down and nurse her defects, silently envying those graces in others which she lacks, or whether she shall nobly gird on the armor of high resolve and successfully encounter and overcome every foe. I have a gospel of hope for every daughter of Eve. I hold that there is no woman blessed with reason, aver- age physical endowment and good common sense, who may not, if she will, become an ideal woman after her type.
VOCAL ART. By MME. THORA KUNIGUNDE BJORN.
The voice is spiritual; therefore it holds the absolute position as the leading prin- ciple, which becomes, in consequence, the vocal center. This principle expresses itself distinctly and invariably through the vocal glottis.
Why we can find the key to the natural voice in this part of our natural organism is, because the ligaments and tissues of the glottis in the larynx are alone capa- ble of the friction which determines pure vibration. Because, secondly, these edges are provided with the motor fibers which furnish them capacity for stretch- ing or lengthening, identical with the pitch or range. Because, thirdly, the same glottis can become sus- tained as open or respiratory by other fibrous muscles which, when understood, do not need to disturb or interfere with the two other functions. In all and every known method of singing, one and often two of these principles become obscure, insufficient or changed. The spiritual voice means perfect control for expression of the soul, mind and body, which, vocally defined, is pure vibration, respiration and res- onance. So, of course, methods are experimental, because they deal with observation from effects, for it is a very easy thing to compel a determinate form in singing through the study of Italian, French or MME. THORA KUNIGUNDE BJORN. promiscuous original ideas. These become, indeed, quite consistent and uniform as to results, so as to deceive most listeners, in mistakes, the great labor and wonderful art which have made so much out of these effects for the perfect cause itself, the natural voice par excellence. And on the other hand, we can not leave the voice untrained until we understand its nature. We once in a while hear people speak of the freaks of nature, but those who really discover any natural law can never find anything but absolute order and unchangeable results from the same process. Nobody denies that we have to deal with the most subtle obser- vation in regard to the human voice, which would, in my own case, have caused noth- ing but fear, doubt and hesitation, but for the purpose of my endeavoring to present the truc vocal principle for universal use; for, to my thinking, only that which can be of universal use and pleasure has any established and recognizable order. Therefore we can lay the ever increasing vocal mistakes to the fact that vocal art has been experimental and initiatory from the first, and has so remained, and is so today, in spite of all we have done; and it will remain as unsatisfactory unless a good part of the public decide for an acceptance of entirely new premises of observation.
We are not used to associate the voice with the idea of having a distinct law for its vibrations, and it might be suggested that, if this be found controllable, it would
Mme. Thora Kunigunde Bjorn was born in Christiania, Norway. Her parents were Consul and Frn Arentz. She was educated mainly in Copenhagen, Denmark. She has traveled in the northern countries of Europe, and came as a widow to this country. Her special work has been in the interest of vocal and instrumental music. Her principal literary works are articles on the voice in several magazines. As a child she played the piano and studied with Ole Bull ; Niels Wilhelm Gade became interested in her voice, through her singing she was offered the position as vocal teacher at Vassar College but accepted and retained such a position at Miss Porter's School, Farmington, for several years. In religious faith she is a Protestant. Her postoffice address is No. 2 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Mass.
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sound mechanical or monotonous. No more likely than that the law of harmony, which is founded on the twelve fundamental tones, though the result of this is listened to in ever varying effects, ergo our conclusion must be that the unclassical is, at the best, a loss of time.
The second point of my subject is the natural respiration, which means both inspiration and expiration. What is natural should be no effort, and the methods of taking, holding or losing breath means nothing less than strain, effort and insufficiency. To my thinking, the artificial singing and effort of unnatural ways of breathing is the reason we have so little genuine expression. How can one look for a realization of what we conceive to be ideal singing when there is nothing but difficulty in doing what-well, what is unnatural? It would take as long as a Wagner opera to dwell upon the various expressions and agonies of so many singers, before and after the breath has become controllable, but I think these present know by sight and sound the truth in this matter. I thought first of proving the value of true respiration by vocally giving the contrast of all the different ways in which the air is taken, held or sustained, but the dragon is so many-headed and would leave me exhausted and unfit to proceed farther, so I will be satisfied with illustrating a few of these. I think my audience will be able to judge by the sounds whether my statement may be credited, that the breath for the tone forms in a decided channel. The breath, which is in con- stant respiration while singing, is moving in the vocal channel, which belongs to the principle of vibration, and constitute the nostrils, nasal-chamber, head-passages, soft palate, pharynx, tongue, epiglottis, vocal glottis and trachea, in connection with the lower portion of the pharynx, which combine with the œesophagus. This current is up and down. The slower and softer motion is from back forward. The air through the nostrils becomes inspirational through the uvula, and can be expirational as well in the mouth through the lower soft palate. We can perceive the fibrous and more delicate muscles absorb air on the sides around the main channel for strength or action. The vibrations react on the membrane with which certain and various muscles are invested. The action and the reaction thus form resonance in all directions, still this could not be done fully and satisfactorily without the assistance of the muscles themselves.
The lungs not being inflated, expanded, nor muscular for the sake of being expelled or held but by their natural capacity for natural work, deep expression should compel their strength where they are most sufficient, not least, and this is necessary above all so as not to interfere with the emotional parts of the lungs and free circulation. The Italians depend on clavicles and chest, which we do also, and we add the spine, which preserves ease and again assists the diaphragm, leaving the stomach free, while all are remaining natural, not raised or depressed. As the lower neck and upper chest are considered immutable, and are so nearly, the knowledge of one who has had patience and courage to investigate the nature and functions of these very parts will no doubt be appreciated by the results derived from this study. The lower neck and upper chest contain the respiratory glottis and trachea, the dividing line from the frontal bronchia to the posterior roots of the lungs. Thus the intimate connection between the full but curved length of the main channel for respiration, the vertebra through its center, and the nerve center, direct through the spinal cord and the var- ious other leading nerves, probably forming an oblong circle through the directing center from the medulla oblongata, or lower brain.
Vibrations-not " vibratos "-are the law of the perfect voice, and these occur on an up and down line on the fibrous sides of larynx and pharynx; these absorb and cause the coarser vibrations, and are derived from the incoming and rising air. The finer and absolutely musical vibrations occur only through the impressions of the more purified air passing through or touching the sensitive membrane, though the ligaments act with one and all the others through successive changes. The articulating muscles have usually no vibratory, much less resonant, capacity, therefore the voice with so- called distinct articulation becomes so monotonous. Alas! it is all so monotonous. Where are the expression changes we dream of for the delight of our souls? where is
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the coloring? In " coloratour" perhaps. Well, how can we expect to have beauty, strength and case on theories of diaphragmatic breathing, which kills natural respira- tion; on theories of forming tones where they are not indicated by a single natural reason, to be taught that the breath makes the tone, and then expelling the breath, which stops the incoming air? Rubenstein has made the statement that the human voice is a less perfect instrument than any string instrument. As a rule he is cer- tainly right. I am just bringing conviction to a good many people that we have looked on the wrong side in training it, in judging it, in merely hearing it. In fact, what is it, what should it be?
In the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago the outcome was, I believe, love, truth, unity, form and color may vary; but love, which vibrates through the human voice, must be felt; and truth, which is expressed through the classic ideal as purity, must be observable. Then we shall hear the voice, made by no hands, superior to all other imitations of it; then methods and false foundations shall vanish; then the clashing of dissonances in the realm of harmony will be transformed into an earnest and successful endeavor to work out good and beauty through knowledge of Divine laws.
ENCOURAGEMENT OF HOME INDUSTRIES. By LADY ISHBEL ABERDEEN.
My subject may perhaps seem a little out of place here in the midst of an Expo- sition in which the highest triumphs of mechanical skill and invention are shown in such perfection, but a moment's reflection will show this was not so. For in the first place this Exposition has endeavored throughout to give honor to whom honor was due, and therefore has traced back in every department to its earliest source the beginnings of those arts and industries which have gradually been evolved by the hard toil and concentrated thought of many humble workers, until they are now the won- der and admiration of the civilized world.
We can here watch the gradual stages of transfor- mation from the rude canoe, hollowed with flint im- plements, to the gigantic liners which now annihilate the ocean distance between the continents; we are shown the quaint devices of the cave men of antiquity leading on, step by step, to the noble works of art, which are the pride of the nation who produced the artists; we see the first rough attempts to make wear- ing material leading on to the fine linens and woolens and silks and brocades of modern times. All the triumphs that civilization can boast of must be traced back to the ingenious contrivances of our forefathers, LADY ISHBEL ABERDEEN. and especially of our foremothers under very adverse circumstances, and with very few resources.
And here in this Woman's Building I may be pardoned for again drawing atten- tion to the facts which Mrs. Potter Palmer has so eloquently pointed out-that it is women who, for the most part, invented the means of carrying on domestic industries, that men only took them up and developed them on a larger scale when they saw there was a profit to be made out of them.
But there is another special interest attaching to home industries as connected with this Exposition, and that is, that you find amongst its choicest treasures are exhibits by human hands alone. Look at the paintings, the fine embroideries, the lace work, the carvings in this very building. Look at the homespun skirt I am wear- ing, made in the wilds of Donegal where it was presented to me a few weeks ago;
Lady Ishbel Aberdeen is a native of Scotland. She was born in March, 1857. Her parents were Lord and Lady Tweed- mouth, both of old Scottish families, though Lady Tweedmouth is also of ancient Irish descent. She was educated in her own home by governesses and masters. She has traveled in many countries and all around the world, especially in the British Empire, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. She married the Earl of Aberdeen in 1877, a strong Liberal, a supporter of Gladstone, prominent for many years in both the political and philanthropic world, holding the office of Viceroy of Ireland, and at the present time Governor-General of Canada. Her special work has been in the interest of women, both in the religious and political sphere ; also in the promotion of home industries, and the extension of a market for home goods. She established for this purpose the Irish Village at Chicago, which has resulted in the setting up of a per- manent office at 279 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. Her principal literary works are a magazine for women, "Onward, Upward," one for children also, and an account of her travels in Canada entitled, "Through Canada with a Kodak." In her religious faith she is broad in her sympathies, and is a member of both the Episcopalian and Presbyterian churches. Her permanent postoffice address in Great Britain is Hadde House, Aberdeen, Scotland, but for the next six years she will reside at Govern- ment House, Ottawa. She is president of the International Council of Women, of the Canadian National Council of Women- of the Women's Liberal Federation of England, of the Women's Liberal Federation of Scotland, of the Upward, Onward Association, of the Irish Industrial Association, and of many other societies.
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this homespun cloak from Sutherlandshire, this fine crochet work from Clones, this point-lace handkerchief from Youghall. Is it possible forsuch work as this to be pro- duced by machinery, however delicate? No; let us be thankful that the work of trained human fingers is still superior in many directions to the iron monsters devised by human brains, and that there are manufactures which can not be turned out by the dozen, and where every value consists in their not being so turned out. But then the question arises, Is it desirable to encourage or continue the existence of these home industries, which are produced at the expense of so much more labor than the machine goods, and which in comparison cannot be paid so well for the time and toil and outlay given, or should they be regarded even as these beautifully illuminated manuscripts of bygone days, things to be admired and treasured, but the production of which now would mean willful waste of life.
Now as far as the starting or maintenance of such home industries in a compara- tively young country like this simply from a commercial point of view would be a doubtful proceeding, as far as I can understand, and I speak under correction. It is very different in the old countries on the other side, and especially in agricultural districts where there is so much difficulty in getting the people to remain on the land. A few extra shillings there makes all the difference between want and comfort, and you can very easily mark the difference between districts where such industries exist and those in which they are not to be found. My experience is gathered from Scot- land and Ireland, but I imagine the same result is found in other countries. The spe- cial field where home industries are of peculiar use as a source of maintenance, is in the country there where women and children can employ their leisure time in carry- ing it on and where men can do so also through the winter. Then when a bad season comes the people have something else to fall back on besides the precarious and often seanty crops. It was in times of famine that most of the lace-making indus- tries had their origin, benevolent ladies setting themselves to teach the people some work whereby to gain a little money, and the quick Celtic fingers learning the art rapidly and successfully. And it was in a time of distress that a clergyman's wife, Mrs. Webster, taught the women of Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire, how to make the only hand-made lace which is still produced in Scotland. Other ladies have perceived in the home-made stuffs and knitting made from their own wool possibilities for a wider market, and have instructed the people so to dye it and weave it as to make it attractive to the fashionable public. I knew a lady in Invernesshire, who for many, many years has made her own house a sort of center and depot for knitting and home-made stuffs. She instructed herself also in how to make home-made dyes from vegetables and mosses, like Mrs. Ernest Hart has done so successfully, and revived this knowledge among the people and sold their goods for them.
A large knitting industry in the Northwest of Ireland, though poorly paid, sup- ports in large measure hundreds and hundreds of families who have but little other resource than harvest work, which the men go to seek in Scotland. The people walk miles to get this work. This home-spun industry is also one that supports a whole district. It is an increasing industry, and we hope that our Irish Industries Associa- tion has been able to find a way of improving it with a large shirt and underclothing industry of the North of Ireland, the Shetland knitting of the Shetland Isles.
I have only mentioned these examples to show you why I and others are such enthusiastic supporters of home industries in our own country if only from a com- mercial point of view. If you could see these poor people clamoring for work, if you could see the earnestness with which they put themselves to it when they do get it, you could have a notion of the comfort and brightness that the sale of their goods in that Irish Village yonder has brought to many and many an Irish home, you would not wonder at our enthusiasm.
But there is another side to these industries besides the commercial one, and this is one which applies to all countries alike, and even if there were no money to be made out of them, I would be a strong upholder of them because of their educational and
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moral training. I know you recognize this to the full in America by having manual and technical instruction introduced into your educational establishments; but nowhere do I think is the principle sufficiently recognized that our hands need training as much as our heads and that training in some home-industry prepares the boy or girl for skilled paying work hereafter, and not only does it train the hand but the eye and the sense of beauty, too. The young people who are taught to draw, carve and model and do carpentry will also surely wish to beautify their own homes and thus become more attached to home life, and more likely to make good husbands and good wives, . good fathers and good mothers and good citizens. Then again think of the happiness it brings into a life if there is some useful hobby to pursue, no listless hanging about if the weather is wet, no "I've nothing to do mother," and in consequence a habit is formed of healthy pleasurable occupation which will prove a valuable safeguard against the attractions of the bar in after life, in times of sickness, of sorrow and of old age too, the knowledge of some handicraft which will divert the thoughts from self is a possession not to be despised. So for all reasons the cultivation of home arts and industries among persons of all classes is greatly to be encouraged both for what they prevent as well as for what they promote and for their influence on both national and individual character.
But in order that they may obtain their full scope, whether in commercial, educa- tional, artistic or moral grounds, they need some organizing.
The tendency of the present day is to organize, perhaps to over organize, but in this case it is certainly necessary to make some arrangement whereby the country workers can be put on a level with town workers, and whereby those scattered in rural districts can obtain good designs and can be put in touch with a good market. A considerable movement to endeavor to effect this has been noticeable in the British Isles during the last years, and several associations has been the result. There has been the Royal School of Art Needlework, under Her Royal Highness, Princess Christian, which has had for its object to train workers and to spread beautiful designs and work and the taste for them, and the result of that school and of the sister school in Ireland may be seen in the British show case in this building.
Then there is the Recreative Evening Schools Association, which has for its object to enable boys and girls who have left school to continue their education, and they, recognizing the fact that simple plodding book-work is very unattractive to young people who have been working all day, have introduced into their system the instruc- tion of various crafts and hand-work, as well as other kinds of recreative instruction. The Home Arts and Industries Association touches, however, the country districts of which I have spoken more directly than the other two I have mentioned. They have in the last few years started over five hundred classes in England, Scotland and Ire- land, where wood-carving, metal work, embossed leather, basket-work, and such like have been taught. This association has done much good, its aims have been chiefly from the artistic and moral standpoint, rather than from the commercial, though it holds most successful exhibitions and sales annually.
The Scottish and the Irish Industries Associations with which I am chiefly asso- ciated, lay great stress on the commercial side, as well as on the educational. Roughly speaking, we may say that both associations have two main aims, one being to open up a market for the goods produced by the peasant workers of Scotland and Ireland, the other being to educate them to keep on producing better and better work and such work as will meet the demands of the public.
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