Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-31

as little responsible for his laughter as q
hypochondriac Mrs. Beecher Stowe, IN
describing, and even defending, a Purl-
tanical strictfess. Of Sabbath observance,
recalls the long family expositlons ana
sermons which alternated In her youth
with prolix meeting services, at all OF
which the younger members of the house
hold were required to assist in profound
I stiffness of attention. On one of these oc-
casions on a hot summer afternoon, a
needless grasshopper of enormous dlmen-
| sions leapt on the sleeve of one OF the
boys. The tempting diversion was not to
be resisted; he silly secured the animal,
and imprisoned a hind leg between his
firmly compressed lips.
One by one, the youthful congregation
became alive to the awkward contortions
and struggles of the longlegged captIyei
they knew that to laugh was tObe logged,
but after so many IN the need was
imperative, and they laughed, and were
hogged accordingly. Different from all
these types is the grand frank laugh that
finds its place in history and biography,
and belongs to master minds. Political
and party feelings may raise, in stirring
times, any amount of luminosity, even in
good-natured men but once bring about
a laugh between them, and an answering
chord is struck, a tie is established not
easily broken. Something of the old ran
cour is gone forever. There is a story of
Canning and Brougham, after hating and
spiting one another through u session,
finding themselves suddenly face to face
In some remote district in Cumberland,
with only a turnpike gate between them.
The situation reused their -magnanimity,
simultaneously they broke into laughter,
and passed each on his separate way, bet
ter friends from that time forth.
No honest Laughter knows anything
about his W laugh, which is fortunate, !
as 1t Is apt to be the most grOtesque part
of q man, especially if he is anything Of
an original. Character, oddity, humor, all
expatiate in it, and the features and voice
have to accommodate themselves to the
as they can. There is
Halls laugh, eth his face is
like . wet cloak i'll laid up there
is the laugh We see in Dutch
where every wrinkle of the
I'D face Gems to Be in motion there is
he convulsive laugh, in which arms and
join; there is the Whitney, the yen
raj laugh, DR.. Johnson's laugh like II
,hinocer6s, Dominic Sampson's laugh laps
without any intermediate stage into
lead gravity, and the ideal social laugh
he delighted and delighting chuckle
which ushers in a joke, and the cordial
laugh which sounds it praises.
We say nothing of the lAughs-and
low many there are!-which have no
in them; nor of the aha, ha !" of
nelodrama, and the ringing laugh of the
loyel, as being each unfamiliar TO our
ears. Whatever the laugh, if it
e genuine and comes from decent peo-
lie, it is as attractive as the Piper of
iameliU. 1t is impossible not to want to
now what a hearty laugh is about. Some
f the sparkle Of life is near, and we long
D share it. The gift of laughter is one of
he compromising powers of the world.
nation that laughs is so far prosperous.
t may not have material wealth, but it
as the poetry of prosperity. When
Iady Duff Gordon laments that she never
ears a hearty laugh in Egypt, and when
lr. Palgrave, on the contrary, makes the
-rab proper a laughing people, we place
for this reason, higher among the
~Duntries than its old neighbor. And it
the same with homes. Wherever there
q pleasant laughter, there inestimable
IemOries are being stored up. and such
ee play given to nerve ind brain that
hatever thought and power the family .
role is capable of will have Il fair chance [
due expansion.