The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-10-16
THE ART OF LAUGHING.
SOMETHING WHICH CONSISTS OF
UNCOMELY FACIAL CONTORTION.

ONIOMGIr fHCIAl CON Oh JUN.
John Ii. Coughs Best Thing-How .
Dog Laughs-The Jolly Family Doctor.
Lincoln and the Laughing spot-Wash-
ington-Our Humorists.
Why is it people don't like to be laughed att
What is laughter anyway. Apparently q
very innocent affair; a muscular contortion-
rarely comely twist of the features. Could
you imagine anything more laughable than to
have Charles Sumner and Tom Corwin
brought. into social contact for an hour.
Sumner always felt of a joke as he would the
handles of battery, and the result was a
shock. He hated JOKER Corwin was cor
ruscating with wit and fun in spite of himself.
He was the greatest statesman and wit com.
bined the country has ever produced. He died
at last as you have seen a vast discharge Of
rockets flashing and illuminating, and then
suddenly all was darkness forever. Lincoln,
however, was more grim He was not so
royalty a laugher as Corwin. But what
would you give to see the span in Paradise.
ART OF MAKING LAUGHTER.
John ID. Coughs best thing was to tell an
audience that he intended very soon to mako
them laugh-laugh at something silly. He
gave them preparatory notice that what ha
was going to say amounted to nothing; was
not worth laughing at; yet they would all
laugh themselves tired. Then he went on
coolly to do it. And they always did laugh;
and then looked at each other to see what
they Were laughing ut. No one ever found
out, and John said to them: II told you so.'
He had the art of making laughter. He was
not himself good Laughter by any measure
In private he was decidedly a sober, matter.
of-fact man
There is not an animal that know of that
does not try to laugh, and make some ap-
proach to it, only none of them have good
laughing muscles we have. 1t is partly
matter of cheeks But what a jolly affair q
dog is when his master comes homel He
splits up roaring laugh between his head
and tail Between the two his whole body is
contorted into grins that finally work Off as
barks They say wild dogs do not bark. 1t
is because they do not laugh.
You should always have for a family doc
tor a man who can laugh. A laugh once
saved my life. 1t never is so useful as by
way of relicament. My doctor tells good
story and has genuine smile. Smiles are
generally not genuine. They are mostly
grins half sTnothercd. When your doctor
looks cheerful and hopeful, you catch it of
him. Lincoln, bearing the country on his
heart in hours of disaster fortunately could
laugh. Gen. W. Julian tells us that when
good story, he would lift his left foot to his
right knee, and clinching his foot with both
hands and bending forward, his whole frame
convulsed with his sensations of delight.
WHEN WASHINGTON LAUGHED
Washington is never known to have laughed
but once. 1t was at Valley Forge. He had
ordered that whoever, officer or private, got
drunk should be compelled to cut a stump in
pieces Where the camp was formed these
stumps were overabundant. One morning
while making his tour of observation he came
upon n soldier who was chopping out the very
last stump. Washington called to him pleas.
antly, "Well, good fellow, you have found
the last stump YES, SIR" growled the
man, "and now when an officer gets drunk
there won't be a stump left for him" The
general laughed heartily and looked at his of
ficers as if there We're some of them entitled
to feel relief.
Carlyle, in. Sartor Resartus, +" tells of laugh
ter that takes i'll the whole man from head to
heels. There are as many styles of laughter
as there are laughers One begins slowly, the
fun gently creeps out along the risible mus
cles; then the hands fly up, the feet fly out
and the mouth flies open. This man becomes
the victim of joke, for it is very difficult to
stop when he gets to reasonable maximum.
Tom Jones-that is not his name but that
makes no difference here-never laughs with
out such n rush of blood to his head that am
afraid for his life
Laughter Is much n matter of style as
language. There is an eastern laugh, slightly
conservative, and curved up at the ends,
with culture. There is n western laugh, that
is broad, full, unreserved, open and hilarious.
The EnSiishman's laugh is self-conscious and
more or less inconsiderate. The Frenchman's
laugh is considerable and courteous. Dickens
laughter /, wholly unlike Thackeray's You
can never quite avoid feeling that Thack.
eray's laugh is personal; he laughs at you
OF all the daughters alive there is none equal
in good fellowship to DR. Holmes. There
should be n bit of pathos in a sound laugh.
Bret Hartc has it. OF all the humorists by
profession only NJ. Quad has it.-Cor. Globe
Democrat