You can, of course, take up and to some extent learn the languages here, but you are liable to meet with the same disappointment as a young lady from the west who studied French in school for several years and thought herself proficient in that language. She went to Paris to study music and it was fully six months before she was able to either understand or to be understood in common, every-day conversation. I am in favor of the class lessons so popular in Europe, and hope some day we will be able to make them universal. Ten or twelve pupils assemble at one time and each takes his lesson in turn. In this way each gets the benefit of the other lessons. This also enables the pupils to become accustomed to singing before each other, which is invaluable in overcoming nervousness. Some pupils desire to take their lessons in private, as they do not care to sing before a class. This feeling will gradually disappear and it is much better to have it over with in the beginning, than later when you are expected to go before a critic or manager to sing. The expense of studying abroad may be adjusted entirely according to your pocketbook. When anyone tells you it is cheaper to study on the other side, they display their ignorance of the subject. I have studied in this country, Germany, France and Italy, and I have found that, including everything, it costs about the same everywhere. You can secure board and room from five dollars a week up to any price you wish to pay. It is also possible to live cheaper than this if necessary, but for the student of singing it is of great importance to eat good, nourishing food, as it is impossible to sing well unless you are in excellent condition physically. Several of the old Italian music masters do not hesitate to say that it is the American with the large purse who has forced them to raise their prices, when they were perfectly satisfied to charge much less. Miss Moneybag arrives in Italy to take up voice culture. She calls on one of the old masters; he asks her seventeen lire (about $3.00) per lesson. This sounds cheap to her as she has been paying $5.00 a lesson at home, so she starts out again looking for a higher-priced teacher. She finds one who has had a little more experience with the Americans, he sizes her up and asks her thirty-five lira; this sounds more in accordance with her pocketbook, and she lists for the season. This sizing up of the American pocketbook has been going on for some time and the old "Maestro" who was perfectly satisfied with $3.00 is waking to the fact that if he wants these Americans he must raise his prices. And so we find at present, lessons costing about the same the world over. However, when Miss Small Pocketbook and real talent arrives, she can always arrange terms in accordance with her pocketbook, when she proves she is there to accomplish results. This is not merely hearsay, but facts gathered in my interviews with some of the most noted singing-masters.