VODKA 



6109 



VOICE 



Vocational guidance thus interpreted will 

 need the active cooperation of all agencies 

 working in the interests of society, and in turn 

 will serve to strengthen such cooperation. Par- 

 ents, teachers, employers, private enterprise, 

 social workers and organizations all contribute 

 toward the education of the young people. By 

 the intelligent cooperation of these agencies, 

 the entire training of the child, both within 

 and without the school, may be so utilized in 

 vocational guidance that his intelligent choice 

 of a life career will be well assured. A.S 3. 



Consult Bloomfleld's The Vocational Guidance 

 of Youth; also his "The School and the Start In 

 Life" and "Vocational Guidance," in Bulletin No. 

 Ik, United States Bureau of Education. 



Related Subject*. In connection with this 

 discussion of vocational guidance, the reader may 

 find the following: articles of interest : 



Business College Parent- Teacher 



Education, subtitle Association 



Modern Tendencies School, subheads 



in Education Continuation Schools 



Household Arts in Vocational Schools 



Education Technical Schools 



Industrial Art Trade Schools 



Industrial School Correspondence 



Intelligence, Measure- Schools 



ment of Technical and Industrial 



Manual Training Education 



VOD'KA, an intoxicating liquor of concen- 

 trated form distilled from rye, potatoes, and 

 sometimes from barley, and widely used by 

 the peasants of the northern European plain. 

 The name is associated particularly with Rus- 

 sia. The War of the Nations brought before 

 the government the necessity of improving the 

 conditions of the Russian peasantry, in order 

 to build up a more efficient army and a sound 

 nation. Accordingly, the sale of vodka was 

 abolished by an imperial edict of the czar in 

 1915. A state monopoly had been established 

 in 1895 in an effort to regulate the sale, purity 

 and price of the liquor and to prevent abuses 

 lously existing in the public houses, or 

 kabaks. However, the amount of vodka con- 

 sumed did not decrease, and the prevalent 

 drunkenness was deplorable. It is estimated 

 more than 2,000,000 people drank away all 

 thir property every year. The edict of prohi- 

 bition was followed by a transformation in the 

 peasant life and a condition of compar 

 prosperity in spite of the war and poor harvest. 



Vodka means Huh- imtir; in its intoxicating 

 and demoralizing properties it belies its name. 



VOICE, row, that possession of human be- 

 mtisby which they express their thoughts aloud. 

 With the voice mankind produces all th. 



rious sounds that range from an angry shout 

 to the soft lullaby of the mother to her child. 

 The voice mechanism might well be compared 

 to an organ, with lungs for bellows; tongue and 

 lips for stops; throat, mouth and nasal cavities 

 for sounding boards, and the vocal cords for 

 reeds. These vocal cords, which comprise the 

 essential feature in voice production, are two 

 small bands of elastic tissue in the larynx, or 

 voice box, one on each side of the windpipe. 

 By an ingenious arrangement of muscles they 

 can be stretched out or be made to relax. 

 When one is breathing ordinarily they are re- 

 laxed and have between them a V-shaped open- 

 ing; but when air from the lungs is driven into 

 the larynx for sound production, the cords 

 stretch and are thrown into vibration, and the 

 opening is narrowed. The more tightly they 

 are stretched the higher are the resulting tones. 

 A deep, rumbling sound is made by relaxed 

 cords. It is continued stretching of these cords 

 that tires the voice. 



The ordinary speaking voice differs from the 

 singing voice chiefly in that the latter makes 

 use of a larger number of notes. Modulations 

 of the speaking voice are produced mostly by 

 mouth movements, and the notes produced in 

 quiet talking are nearly all of the same pitch. 

 In singing, the vocal cords are under much 

 greater tension. Pitch is determined by the 

 size of the larynx. Women's voices are higher 

 pitched than men's because the cords are 

 shorter. 



How to Cultivate the Voice. The fundamen- 

 tal principle in voice development, whether for 

 speaking or for singing, is proper breathing. 

 The method generally taught to-day is based 

 on the use of the abdominal muscles and the 

 diaphragm, the great curved muscle on which 

 the lungs rest (see DIAPHRAGM and accompany- 

 ing illustration). 



When the abdominal muscles force the ab- 

 dominal organs up against the diaphragm, the 

 latter exerts an even pressure < base 



of the lungs, thus gradually forcing the air up- 

 wards through the voice box and procuring a 

 sound which can be controlled. This control 

 is the principal feature in the production of 

 rith.T the speaking or singing voice; many 

 veteran singing masters keep their pupils for 

 a whole year on lessons to acquire proper 

 breathing control. Later, the pupil is taught 

 properly to pronounce spoken sounds, winch 

 means the control of the speaking voice, and 

 I m. i 1 musical sounds, which is tin 



development of the singing voice. 



