The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-02-26
THE DUTY OF LAUGHTER.
Man Was Made to Mourn and Also to
Laugh.
;rFrom the Greenville News.

: rom luE NTlScuN llIS ~NChS-
Man is born to trouble as the sparks
Ey upward. Man that is born OF
woman is of few days and full OF sor-
row. Mournful declarations Of the same
kind are scattered thickly through all
the books Of revelation and inspiration.
Since the prophets, historians and
poets of Israel saw and told and sang
their walls have been repeated IN each
succeeding gener tion. Looking upon
the world as it is with sympathetic
eyes, considering the stories Of human
lives, learning the truths Of human ma
ture. our hearts must respond to the
words that come thrilling to US across
the gulf of thousands of years ago,
freighted with the anguish Of the men
and women of that old time and with
the unceasing tears Of humanity.
Why were we born doomed to suffer
from our own sins and the sins Of
others? Why are we given hearts
which must throb and ache; memories
which we cannot still from bringing to
US renewal of old sorrows, from rousing
to new life griefs that gnaw? We can
out know. We can only know that 1t
is so ordered, that it is the common lot
of all our kind-that from far back IN
the dim, unknown past the voices OF
men of whom we know nothing but
their words come to US with the same
despairing cries, the same helpless en-
quiries from pain beyond the power Of
endurance to maintain in silence, that
we hear around US every day.
Man was made to mourn. Man was
made to laugh also. The wall Of his
mourning comes down to us. The
echoes of his laughter die away within
the hour. Even the prophets of desola-
ton and lamentation may have in their
times have found things to laugh at.
We ca tch now and then the tinkle of
David's harp and the quick beating OF
dancing feet in the cadence Of his meas
ures. Even the story of Job gives US
glimpses of times before the wild men
from the desert and the boils and his
friends descended upon HMM common
devastation when he found a dreat deal
to laugh at and sought and found pleas
ure and was yet accounted by tie Lord
4;s servant worthy Of supreme trials
of his faith by the evil one.
The trouble will come. There is no
escape from it. No place is too high to
be above it or low enough to hide from
it. The hearts of the kings on their
thrones and the peasants in their huts
alike know their own bitterness. 1t is
only the lost, the utterly outcast and
hardened and abandoned, whose lives
do not know the sostening if singing
touch of sorrow, and they are the most
miserable of all because where there is
30 capacity for suffering of the soul
there is no capacity for happiness.
There is no need, therefore, to borrow
trouble anywhere or anyhow. All Of
us may be sure Of our share, sooner or
later.
1t is laughter that We ought to bor-
row while we can. There is abundant
material for it everywhere. We are
sure to reach the time when we can
not laugh. There is common sense
philosophy-daty, in laughing while
we may. Laughter is one of the best
of the enjoyments of life. If we have
been condemned to suffer we have also
been given the power to enjoy and we
have the same right to use the one that
we have to endure the other. The
laughing philosophers We're cranks
Like most cranks they had a good idea
and carried it too far. Life is not
huge joke. 1t is full of serious, earnest
work, of things to sorrow over, of
things to demand the earnest, tender
sympathy of all true hearts. Yet
laughter ought to be part of it il its
proper time and place and the times
and places should be made as frequent
as possible.
The absence Of capacity to laugh is a
disease, and bad one. Sometimes it
results from morbidness, sometimes
from meanneSs. \ poor, starved, mar
row soul shut tight against sympathy
and communion with the souls around
it finds no inspiration to laughter; sell
fishness-the concentration of thought
and purpose on ourselves, whether it
be on our own pleasure or our own sor-
rows or our own special ends-is foe
to laughter.
When the days of the year are
counted up It will be found that those
Of sunshine and bright skies outnum-
ber those of storm and gloom; and
when the days Of our lives are honestly
scanned most Of Us will find that those
Of happiness and freedom from care
are, after all, more than those in which
light and hope were dim and fear or
pain made darkness. But the bad days
are remembered while the good ones
glide away from US and are forgotten
because they are so many. 1t is q ten
Gency Of human nature to accuse the
Almighty for the evil permitted to
come to Us and to accept the good we
have as only part Of our honest deserts
not to be counted. Let US laugh while
We csn-while the sun shines. Let us
get out of life what pleasure We hon
estly and lawfully may that We may
have no loss in that respect to reproach
ourselves with or regret when Our ca