San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-05-17
LAUGH AND BE MERRY.
SOME METHODS OF PRODUCING
AND WAYS OF SHOWING MIRTH.

The College MAN with the Laugh"-The
DRY Grim the Essence of American
| Humor-The French Like wit-Improve-
| ment in Our Laughter Loving Propensity.
Laughter, when it is aroused by Legitimate
provocation, is such a wholesome and re-
freshing thing that it Is melancholy to watch
the gradual atrophy of the risible faculties
which seems to be the inevitable result of
advancing civilization. Notmany years ago
there was anF undergraduate at one of our
universities who was blessed with so natural
and infectious laugh that he was regarded
by the whole college with certain degree Of
pride; and the dons, when entertaining q
stranger at the high table, never failed to ex-
plain, when the familiar sound was heard,
"Oh! that's -, the man with the laugh"
We are not aware that the man with the
laugh has had a successor; and if this be so,
it is a matter of unmixed regret For one
seldom hears a genuine laugh nowadays, and
much of the phraseology of laughter is
mere fashion of speech
NO LAUGHS AND POOR LAUGHS.
There are many people whose sides have
never ached from over indulgence in the out
that just as there are cats who cannot purr,
so there are unfortunate human beings who
cannot laugh out loud With some persons
wheeze or a chuckle is the utmost they can
compass. Some men laugh habitually in fall
setto, which, we need hardly say, is far less
pleasant than a laugh in the natural voice
And then there is what may be called $50
ciety" laugh, an artificial abomination almost
l. H. s.. l. l..
stroSity, the bent elbow overland shake.
We remember once to have heard a femi-
nine laugh 50 painfully and regularly tuneful
that it could literally have been reduced to
musical notation. There is also a coarse
laugh to which we have heard the admirably
expressive epithet of square mouthed" ap-
plied-a Gargantuan laugh evoked by highly
favored anecdotes of the gun or smoking
room category. Love is liberal education,
as Greek proverb, unconsciOusly initiated
by Steele, has it, and, according to Shake
speare, one of its refining influences is shown
in the matter of laughter. When a man falls
in love, says Speed, he no longer laughs like
a cock crowing-and Speed was by profession
a great authority on love and laughter.
The abatement of open laughter among us
is possibly due in part to the tendency of the |
humorous literature of a race to whom, ac-
cordng to Mr.. 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 grin" 1t |
was hardly SO with Artemus Ward, whose |
lecture, delivered with the most melancholy |
composure, was so agonizngly funny as to |
enable many of his auditors to realize what |
had been previously only figure of speech. |
They laughed till they were perfectly i'll. OF I
the inhabitants of Great Britain the Anglo |
Irish have probably the greatest appreciation
Of humOr, and possess the most infectious
laughs
Our cousins the Germans enjoy joke
especially a hoax-as their phrase, ''Es list
yum Tode lachen," indicates, though the
greatest German joker of recent times,
Saphir, was Jew. The French are too logi-
cal to appreciate nonsense Wit rather than
lumor appeals to their temperament, though
the instance of Rabelais proves the danger OF
The Turk has great fund
Of dry humor latent in him, and enjoys a
'eIate laugh; but he has poor opinion OF
nascaralik, Or habitual fooling At the same
time he more than tolerates the humorous
and generally scandalous buffooneries of
lello.
THE OLD BRUTALITY AND HORSE PLAY.
In Persia laughter is annually evoked by
he following rather cheap means: AS part
If the Bairam festivities given by Persians
If high standing, number of Jews, who
nave been caught for the occasion, are sud
lenly hustled into the deep haouz, or tank,
which is to be found in every courtyard, and
eft to struggle out, half drowned and bedrag-
yled, amid the shrieks of the spectators The
negro all the world over is reputed laughter
owing creature, except when the outward
of mirth is checked by the new
ound sense of dignity which accompanies
conversion to Islam Whatever they feel,
he Chinese are certainly chary of expressing
in Occidental fashion. The Japan
Sc on the other hand, are an eminently
hceriul and merry people.
If, however, the tendency of civilization is
ather to efface the outward and physical
ymbols by which the natural man expresses
lis mirth, against this loss may be set many
advantages. On the whole,
We crafty our laughter loving propensity in
| far more legitimate fashion than the gen.
ration of Theodore Hook There is less
brutal horse play, less indecency, less of the
lesire to amuse ourselves at the direct ex-