, 1888-02-19
THE VIRTUES OF LAUGHTER.
Country SchooTboys Turned LooSe-Laugh-
ing All Over-Shouting Happy.


ing All Over-Shouting Happy.
Now go to a school house in the coun-
try where the youngsters are let loose
pell nell. Out they come with a rush,
and every throat is doing its utmost to
add to al uproar of sounds. Part of it
is q bedlam of words, part a pure set of
yelps like my dog. They run hither and
thither, and stand on one leg. They turn
handsprings, and do q dozen impulsive
things that have 10 other purpose than to
express happiness. l do not think it is
any disgrace to the chaps S say it is an
overflow of animal spirits, and in a way
very much as my dog expresses himself.
1 should be glad if my own condition
could be more generally of the same sort.
Only there is no denying that if boys be
allowed to shout as they will they become
shocking n~uisances. Yes, young gents,
you are n legitimate product of vitality,
but n can't let you shout the top of his
head off. On the whole, if they will let
you loose, you will soon run quiet. Boys
are a good deal like ~spouting geysers-
noisy and quiet by turns. But if we had
never outgrown this boy period, and
could get on without philosophizing, and
printing, and editing newspapers, and
uOluB ~ llldll OlIGT GAIlduSlluh IIlllR5I
All, yes-if. But we did not stop at the
right point, but went on into what we
call ripe years. There has been too much
evolution. We should have been satisfied
at the shouting happy point.
The object of language Of all sorts
seems to be to express satisfaction or dis
tress, joy or grief. Far back of print
tive man, indeed at the very origin of
1fa thara yvnG Coma natbp1 Of axpracc-
ing satisfaction and dissatisfaction When
the head was established and vocaliza-
ton achieved a great deal of language
was left distributed all over the body.
When a person is thoroughly happy the
tongue is altogether insufficient to tell of
it. Laughter is a remnant of the old sort
Of language, only we have a facial laugh
ter that often supersedes a real al over
laughter. But l know q few men who
always laugh from top to toe. There is
the shaking laugh, that is likened to
the culver in n bowl of good, thick set
jelly. When it begins it goes in ripples
from side to side, and perpetual motion
seems absolutely to nave set in. And
there is the roaring laughter that throws
the practitioner into commissions until he
must hold his sides and gasp for breath.
A really good Laughter is a healthy man.
l have seen many a patient cured by a
good story. l have in mind one who
was in a respondent melancholy that had
brooded over him for weeks. A cat had
nestled by his side, and he in%voluntarily
had stroked it. Pussy turned up her
nose to ouch his hand, when a flash of
electricity leaped from it, and pussy was
both shocked, COMPOUNDED and insulted.
Drawing back in great dignity, and with
an appearance of vast intellectual amaze
ment, she gave him two cuffs of a de-
cided sort and stalked off. The man in
stantly broke into n laugh, and. as he eX-
pressed it, couldn't stop" His whole
system reacted from depression. He
laughed till he was sore; and was cured.
OF course there is liable to be u touch of
the hysterical about such a break up; but
it will do no harm. recommend laugh
ter rs n preventive against disease, and
as a cure for illness of both body and
mind. Children should be encouraged to
laughter. They should be taught to
laugh loudly, strongly and all over.
Laughing can become a matter of educa-
ton as well as talking or singing. Have
them stand up, with their hand on their
hips, and begin. 1t is a capital exercise.
You need only start the roar. 1t is
catching. AS soon as one urchin has eX-
ploded the rest will be at it. 1t will run
up and down the line, and you Will end
by having all your pupils on their backs,
shouting happy.
So if you ask me what l consider most
essential to health, vigor and longevity, 1
answer n plenty of laughter and a plenty
of shouting. We should never check
children from a reasonable amount of
noise making, and never get beyond it
ourselves. If possible AVE some place,
q grove or, if no better, q barn, where
you can shout as loudly as you please and
blow out good full draughts of the purest
air. We ought never to get beyond
play. A good game of quoits, or tennis,
has half its advantage in letting our lungs
have full play. We can laugh as loudly
as we please and shout with the young
folks. Nearly all old age is folly, a use
less drying up, owing to false notions of
manhood and propriety. Mark this, my
friend, don't outgrow the shouting happy
point.-M. Maurice, NJ. D., in Globe
Democrat.