The Russellville Democrat., 1889-03-14
CONCERNING LAUGHTER.
N Not Only Distinguishes Man from Ani-
 naals, But Nation from Nation.

t Not Only Distin KnIshes Man from Ani-
 mals, But Nation from Nation.
 It is no literary fiction that ascribes the shedding of tears to horses and dogs, and in the case of the latter, sor- row, and not mere physical pain, is apparently often the predisposing cause. But laughter, on the other hand, is undoubtedly one of the at- tributes which distinguishes man from all other living creatures. Dogs ap- pear to smile, but the resemblance is probably chance one, and to grin like dog was evidently synonymous iu the mind of the Psalmist was very poor form of mirth. Laughter not only distinguishes man from animals, but man from man and nation from nation. IL meant one thing to the Hebrew and another to the Greek One has but to recall the passages in which laughter is mentioned in the Bible, 10 be confirmed in the conyic- tion that the Jews had little knowledge Of, or sympathy for, that mirth which is the spontaneous outcome of the mere joy of living, or which is pro- voked by the conflict of wit or of humor. The abatement of open laugh ter among us is possibly due in part 10 the tendency of the humorous litera- ture of race to whom, according to Mir. Bryce, we are chiefly beholden for our food for mirth-the Americans. The essence Of the modern American humor is what Uncle Remus calls the dry grins.n IL was hardly so with Artemus Ward, whose lecture, delivered with the most melancholy composure, was so agonizingly funny as to enable many of his auditors to realize what had been previously only figure of speech. They laughed till they were perfectly ill. Of the inhabitants of Great Britain the Anglo-Irish have probably the greatest appreciation of humor, and possess most infectious laughs. Our cousins, the Germans, enjoy joke especial hoax-as their phrase, Els ist gun, 7ode idchen, indicates, though the greatest German joker of recent times, Saphir, was Jew. The French are too logical to appreciate nonsense. Wit rather than humor appeals to their temperament, though the instance of Rabelais proves the danger Of general ization. The Turk has a great fund of dry humor latent in him, and enjoys a sedate laugh but he has a poor opin- ion of mascurdiik, or habitual fooling. At the same time he more than toler- ates the humorous and generally scan- dalous buffooneries of Karagueuz (Blackface), the Turkish Pulcinello In Persia laughter is annually evoked by the following rather cheap means. As part of the Bai- ram festivities given by Persians of high standing, a number of Jews, who have been caught for the occasion. are suddenly hustled into the deep haoaE or tank, which is to be found in every courtyard, and left to struggle out half drowned and bedraggled, amid the shrieks of the spectators. The negro all the world over is reput- ed laughter-loving creature. except when the outward manifestation of mir1h is checked by the new-found sense of dignity which accompanies conversion to Islam. Whatever they feel, the Chinese are certainly chary of expressing amusement in Occident- al fashion. The Japanese, on the other hand, are an eminently cheerful and merry people. If, however, inc tendency of civilization is rather to efface the outward and physical sym bols by which the natural man ex- presses his mirth, against this loss may be set many eountervailing advan- tages. On the whole. we gratify our langhter-loving propensity in far more legitimate fashion than the gen. eration of Theodore Hook. There is less brutal horse play, less indecency. less of the desire to amuse ourselves at the direct expense, to the discomfort, or by the pain of other peo- pie. The old Adam causes some quinade; but we should reconcile our selves to its elimination by remember ing that it was in great measure true to life The days of pantomimic prac- tical joking-as drawn in the pages of Tom Cringle's Log"-are over. and with the disappearance of the reality we can cheerfully dispense with it's mimic representation. If we go further back, how swinish is the fun of the Middle Agesi What an infiction court fool must have been in real life, and how inhuman was the practice of mak- ing playthings of dwarfs-always mo- toriously sensitive to ridicule-who should have been objects of pity rath- CT than butts of merrimenti We may laugh less loudly than our great grand fathers, but our appreciation of joke is not necessarily any the less keen on that account. Nor is there any loss of virility or grit involved in this purg- ing of fun of it's grosser elements. A man is never less manly for having 3 pure imagination. London Spectator
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