Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-01-07
The Social Value of Good Humor
Harper's Bazaar.

A great deal has been said of the
charms of the old French salons, those de-
ightful reunions where the brig htest
spirits of a sparkling era met in free AND
familiar converse, each showing his own
best and drawing out the best of 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 tde last. "OtheI
people, other ways" The society which
composed the salons of the eighteenth
century was like a brilliant growth Of
peoples and corn-fowers noGding and
moving in the breeze upon the roof of a
matched cottage. Beautiful in itself, thi:
growth is but token Of the age of the
rotting thatch and that of the ruined
dwelling beneath it. 1t needed but the
tap of child's hammer upon the tottering
ilntels, and almost in a breath there was
nothing left but heaps of debris. and here
and there an astonished flower left living
and wondering in the midst of the de-
struction. What were some of the influ-
ences which fostered the gay flowers of the
old salon? First or all was the freedom
that comes from assured position and So
cial equality. Bowling to the monarch as
the one supreme. and ignoring the great
masses below them with an unconscious
sel6shness incomprehensible today, the
men and women who composed the salons
we're on a social plane that admitted but
slight inequalities. They understood each
other. If there were chickering's and
jealousies, they were-like the differences
IN we'll disciplined family-kept beneath
the surface. Every member Of circle
was known to all the others, not super
fclally, but thoroughly; not only each in
his own pers IN, but ca 3h historically, that
is, in the history of his ancestors. This
sort of acquaintance is essential to the
freest exchange of thought and epigram.
No slightest allusion or turn of phrase is
lost. The brightest sallies Of wit, the
keenest flashes OF wisdom. are those which
are uttered in strictly family circle,
all thc members are bright and cultivated,
and though often widely differing, are
yet united by an electric touch of sym
patty. 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 vino look at all things III the
pleasantest light, who never take unm ant
affronts, whose presence is always oil upon
the troubled waters, must of necessity be
agreeable. The French have always ap-
preciated this, and have cultivated good
humor as d polite accomplishment. B,
other nations this has sometimes been
deemed token of insincerity. Not so.
To be always -humored is simply to
ignore fences wherever this is possible; to
bear no grudge; to utter no harsh criticism
to respect the pet foibles of ones ascot
ates; 10 tolerate all amiable weaknesses; to
not see, or seeing, to ignore all the at
tempts of the rudely nurtured TO slight or
to snub those whom they care not to
favor; and even to submit to any eniur-
able amount of imposition rather than to
disturb the general peace-in short, to
think more of the common good will and
happiness than of ones own individual
tastes. prejudices, desires, or even rights
that are not essential to ones own moral
and physical weIl-being or to that O. other
persons.