Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-16
SOCIAL VALUE OF GOOD HUmoR.
It Promotes Health and Secures Pop
 uIarIIy.
From Harper's Bazar

From Harper's Bazar.l
 great deal has been said of the charms of the old French salons, those delightful reunions where the brightest spirits of a sparkling era met in free and familiar con- verse, each showing his own best and drawing out the best of the others. The peculiar grace of the old salon has passed away with the days of the old regime. Even in France the salon of this century is not that of the last. ''Other people, other ways"
 The society which composed the salons of the eighteenth century was brilliant growth of peoples and corn flowers nod ding and moving in the breeze upon the roof of matched cottage. Beautiful in itself, this growth is but a token of the age of the rotting thstch and that of the ruined dwelling beneath it. It needed but the tap of a child's hammer upon the tot tering Hntels, and almost in breath there was nothing left but heaps of debris, and here and there an astonished flower left living and wandering in the midst of de- struction.
 What were some of the influences which fostered the gay flowers of the old salon! First of all was the freedom thst comes from assured position and social equality. Rowing to the monarch as the one su- preme, and ignoring the great masses be- low them with an unconscious selfishness incomprehensible to-day, the men and wo- men who compose the salons were on a so- cial plane that admitted but slight inc qualities. They understood each other If there were bickerings and jealousies M disciplined family-kept beneath the sur face.
 Every member of a circle was known to all the others, not superfcially. but thor oughly: not only each in his own person. but each historically, that is in the histo- " of his ancestors. This sort of acQuain- tsnce is essential to the freest exchange of thought and epigram. No slightest -allu- sion or turn of phrase is lost. The brightest sallies of wit. the keenest flashes of wisdom, are those which are uttered in a strictly family circle, where ali the mem. bers are bright and cultivated, and though often widely differing, are yet united by an electric touch of sympathy
 This sympathetic freedom was the ozone of the French salon. Its sunshine, soft and genial if not penetrating, was good humor.
 The society of men and women who look at all things in the pleasantest light, who never take unmeant Rffronts, whose presence is always oil upon the troubled waters, must of necessity be agreeable. The French have always appreciated this, and have cultivated good humor as a DO. lite 8, accomplishment.
 By other nations this has sometimes been deemed token of insincerity. Not so. To be always good humored is simply to ignore offenses wherever this is possi. ble; to bear no grudge; to utter no harsh criticisms; to respect the pet foibles oi | one's associates; to tolerate all amiable weaknesses; to not see, or, seeing, to ig. nore, all the attempts of the rudely nur. tured to slight or to snub those whom they care not to favor; and even to submit to l any endurable amount of imposition rsth- CT than to disturb the general peace-in short, to think more of the common good will and happiness than of one's own in dividual tastes, prejudiees, desires, or even rights that are not essential to ones own moral and physical well being or to that of other persons.