A HUMAN QUESTION

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 62, 6 December 1930, Page 27

A HUMAN QUESTION

Why Men Sing in Their Baths Why do men sing in their baths? With this vital question running through my head (writes a “Sunday Chronicle” representative) I approached several people to see if I could, get a satisfactory answer. For the matter is becoming serious. Men are singing louder than ever today, and several harassed wives are seriously considering whether or not they can take it up as a ground for a summons for cruelty. So I sallied forth and asked the first three people I saw why it was that men had to exercise their vocal cords to such an extent each morning. ' The first I asked was a postman. He looked curiously at me for a few moments, and then his eye strayed, m search, I thought, of a handy police’man. I- then decided that the great. British public could do without the postman’s opinion. The second person I approached was a typist. She, too, looked at me curiously, and then in a pathetic voice said: “Well, the poor dears must sing sometimes, you know. And it’s better so. When they are not singing they are alway grumbling." The third person I asked had a friend with him. After I had put my question they looked dazedly at each other, and glanced sadly at me. ‘I should go home and sleep it off, old man,” said one. “You shouldn’t mix it,” said the other. There was nothing else for me to do. The public seemed determined not to help. So I hied me to the nearest medical practitioner and put the question to him. His explanation is really quite simple. This is what he said: “Men must sing in the morning either in their bath or while dressing or putting the kettle on as it gives their lungs good exercise. Everybody should sing for at last half an hour each day as it helps to combat colds and all sorts of things.

“The noise proceeds naturally from the men’s throats. Sometimes they don’t realise they are singing. “The singers are just answering thej dictates of nature, which, after all, does its utmost to keep men fit”