Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Anacortes, Wash. Ter.) 1882-1887, 1883-12-08
LAUGHTER.
The Difference Between Hearty Laugh
and n Broad Grin.

The Elusive character of language
never shows itself so plainly az when
we make an effort to describe some
common phenor.ona. Take, for in
stance, laughter. Everybody, or nearly
everybody laughs, and yet, to give an
exact definition of laughter would puzzle
thousands of intelligent people. Web
ster says that laughter is "convulsive
merriment, an expression OF mirth pecu-
liar to man, consisting in Il peculiar
noise and configuration of feature with a
shaking of the sides and expulsion of
breath" Would that give perfect
idea of what laughter is, 80 some heatben
who had laughed, and had never seen
any one laugh? If it would not, would
he be enlightened by Beattie's statement
az to the cause of laughter? can un-
common mixture of relation and con-
trariety, exhibited, or supposed to be
united, in the same assemblage." If
the heather did not grasp this thought.
perhaps he would sec more clearly after
hearing the same authors amplification
of the idea. Laughter" he says,
"arises from the view of two or more
incongruous parts as circumstances,
considered or united in one complex
object or assemblage, or as acquiring a
sort of mutual relation from the peculiar
manner in which the mind takes notice
of them" Now, surely, our heather
will know how to laugh. What! Not
yet Then let old philosopher Hobbies
put him on the right road; daughter
is a sudden glory, arising from sudden
conception of some eminency in our
selves, by comparison with the uniform
ity of others, or with our own, for
mally."
Laughter! 'ts the poor mans plaster,
Covering up each sad disaster.
Laughing, he foryets his troubles,
Which though real, seem but bubbles.
Laughterl tbs seal of Nature.
Laughter, whether loud or mute.
Tells the human kind from brute.
Laughter! tis hopes living voice.
Bidding us to make choice.
And to cul. from the thorny bowers,
Leaving thorns and taking flowers.
We have ample testimony that laugh
ter is good. Douglas Jerold speaks of
"glorious laughter, who taketh blood
taking melancholy by the nose and
maketh it grin in spite of ITSELF" Henry
Giles advises us to laugh and grow fat.
"If you should grow exorbitantly fat by
laughing, laughing still will keep you
in healthy notion" An anonymous
writer says that "whether laughter
discovers the gums Of infancy or age,
the grinders of folly, or the pearls of
beauty; whether it racks the sides or
deforms the countenance of vulgarity,
or deep lines the visage; or moistens
the eye of refinement-in all its phases,
and on all faces, comforting, relaxing,
overwhelming, convulsing, throwing
the human form into happy shaking
and quaking of idiocy, and turning the
human countenance into something
appropriate to Billy Buttons transfor
nation, under every circumstance and
everywhere a laugh is glorious thing"
The physician tells us of the physical
benefits of laughing. There is not the
remotest corner or little inlet of the
minute blood vessels of the human
body that does not feel some wavelet
from the convulsion occasioned by good
hearty laughter. The life principle, or
the central man, is shaken to it's inner
most depths, sending new tides of life
and strength to the surface, thus materi-
ally tending to insure good health to
the persons who Indulge therein. The
blood moves more readily and conveys
a different impression to all the organs
of the body, as it visits them on that
particular mystic journey when the man
is laughing, from what it does at other
times. For this reason every good,
hearty laugh in which person INDUCES,
tends to lengthen his life, conveying as
il does, new and distinct stimulus to tho
vital forces. Doubtless the time will
come when physicians, conceding more
importance than they now do to the
influence of the mind upon the vital
forces of the body, will make their pre-
scriptions more with reference to the
mind and less to drugs for the body,
and will, in 80 doing, find the best and
most effective method of producing the
required effect upon the patient. But
one English writer that we can call to
mind has spoken cynically of laughter.
His opinion Of the origin of laughter is
that it resulted from tho practice of
tickling babies, which practice has made
it confirmed habit on the part of the
human race. He would have made
good companion tor Myson, the Greek
philosopher, who was one day found
laughing in a solitary place. Some one
came up to him on a sudden and asked
him why he laughed when he was by
himself? "For that very reason" he
replied.
There is the hearty laugh, the con-
vulsive laugh, the explosive laugh, the
he-he laugh and the uproarious, almost.
tumble-out-of-your-chair laugh. There
was the laugh of Prince Hal, who was
said to laugh "till his face was like
wet cloak-ill laid up" There is the
incipient laugh, which is not laugh
but smile. The late Charles Backus,
the minstrel, who it will be remembered,
had very large mouth, was once hav-
ing his photograph taken. The opera
tor told him to look pleasant, to smile a
little. The famous minstrel gave an
elaborate smile. "Oh! that will never
do" said the photographer. "lt's too
wide for the instrument" Speaking Of
a western actress the reporter wrote
"Her smile opened out like the Yosem-
;to Volloy In = Nav u,oruiuu - Whan