The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1892-07-16
TIE PROFESSIONAL JESTER.
A Bostonese Discourse on the Anatomy
of Lnuyhter.

A Bostonese Discourse on the Anatomy
of Laughter.
There is no more SOLDERING invitation
than that of ''come now and let us
laugh" If ones sides have been fairly
shaking with suppressed merriment and
one is on the very verge of suppressed
cachination, at those words his mus
| cles relax and feeling of profound
melancholy steals through his whole
body. But despite this wcll-known
| physiological fact there is growing up a
| literature all about us which has for it's
avowed purpose that one thing-to make
| the readers of it laugh. Perhaps it is
| not correct to say that this literature
''is growing up" With the volumes
which are being turned from the
presses and the periodicals which are
given over to it, it would seem to be
already up and far on its way in the
race with the traditional bay tree. If
some scientific wight had written "a
| treatise on the anatomy of laughter we
might know just how to estimate these
books. Where they fail as literature
| they might be regarded as successes as
physiological artifices.
Now, why does man laugh at all?
Animals never laugh; savages seldom
do, and in small children it appears only
as shrek on shrill scream. In the
| seventeenth century an Italian astrolo-
ger published an essay in which he pre-
! tended to divide ali mankind into classes
| in accordance with their laughs. The
! philosopher was said to express his
| mirth in ''hee-hee-hee," =" the bilious man
in "hae-hac-hae;" the phlegmatic man
| in "ha-ha-ha," and the sanguine man in
"ho-ho-ho," and all that one had to do
to read character was to listen for the
persons laugh. In the next century
Poinsinet de Sivey published treatise
which purpol led to be conversation
between Destouche and Fontcnelle on
the same subject. The former declared
that laughter was based on principle
of reason and was the effect of ioy.
Fontencllc, on the other hand, main.
tanned that it was like anger, a sudden
madness, and Baudelaire, in his cele-
hrated essay reiterates the same thing.
| The point is that man seldom laughs
when he is alone or when he is collected
enough to reason. Montesquien gives
another turn to the discussion and saws
laughter originates in pride. In laugh.
ing at others we applaud some supposed
superiority in ourselves.
Though diverse these opinions, they
all touch upon some phase of the phe-
nomenon and so may be accepted as
truths. We laugh because we are
pleased; we laugh at the incongruous
conjunction of ideas o. objects: we
laugh at the unfortunate plight OF
others. The mental gymnast is con-
fined largely TO the second of these
causes of laughter. He runs of neces-
sity to The groUcsque-the grotesque in
comparison, in ideas, in spelling and in
typographical form. lie shows pro-
found disregard of Emerson's admoni-
tionS relative to the superlative. lie
seelSa the bizarre in fashions, and. in
short, sports the motley of the kings
jester. But in the very search after
lis object he loses it. His books are the
sa ldest that the press gives US. We
Offer these suggestions on the mechan-
les Of laughing IN the hope that the ap-
nlication Of science may help hiEa,--
B Jston Journal