The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1893-04-21
miscellaneous.
GIGGLE AND MAKE GlGGLE
BY MARION HARLAND.

In sad self-contempt, gentle William
Cowper tells us in his autobiography of
period in his life when he and other
young folks spent their time chiefly
in giggle and make giggle."
Three-quarters of century later
Charles Reade shows US Lucy Fon
tame, shrewd, sweet, and demure, ex-
hibiting to her uncle-who is totally
devoid of the humorous element, ever
present with her-an abstract she has
set down of what went on between the
women who awaited in the drawing
room the coming of the men lingering
over their wine at the dinner table.
Not having the book at hand, | quote
from memory:
my dear do you think the gentle
men will soon be here? He ! he ! he -
81 am sure | cannot say. Ha ha
ha ~
"Then you would not advise me to
ring for coffee yet Ha ha la ~
ETC., etc, etc, through the range of pur-
poseleSs banalities.
1t is, as the novelist designed it
| should be, significant commentary
| upon the style of polite conversation
prevalent among British matrons that
the uncle sees nothing out of the way
in the paper, even after Lucy explains
| that The hep was when they gig
gled, and 'ha ], ha y when they laughed
outright" She marvels, for her part,
being new to the fashionable world,
why they did either There was not
word in all they said that was in the
least diverting.
When hundreds of pages of the per-
tinent and pregnant sayings which
are a legacy to our age from the we'll
| beloved poet-autocrat of table and
fireside have been forgotten, his recent
description of the afternoon tea will
be treasured as an inimitable bon-mot
"Gabble, giggle, gobble, git!''
And the chiefest of these is giggle.
There are reasons, let ascetic philos-
ophers contest them as they will, why
human beings should oftentimes eat
when they are not hungry. The de-
| mands of the stomach are, per Sc,
comparatively few and unimportant
| when the Utilization OF sophisticated
| palate is considered. Eating to live is
| prosaic business that consumes little
| time and requires small outlay of tai
ent and strength. Living to eat takes
rank with arts and sciences, and has
| literature of its own.
| 1t is likewise possible to demonstrate
the necessity laid upon the victim of
| an artificial civilization to talk when
he has nothing to say, or no ideas ap-
| propriate to the occasion, or, if he has,
| no inclination to impart them to
| others. Winnow the sagaciOus and
| necessary utteranceS of the wiseSt
| mans day from such as, from a utili-
| tartan point of view, have been of no
particular value to any living creature,
| and you have tiny heap of glittering
particles as dry and tasteless as so
much diamond-dust. Gracious turns
| of speech and the dexterous play of
| fancy are the silver pictures for the
setting of apples of gold. The wheels
| of the social chariot would drive heav-
| lily to actual laundering but for the
| pretty amenities of query and reply
and the exchange of compliment, so
| universal that we speak and hear them
without thought of their essential
worth. Specifically considered, the
idlest praise in vogue with enlightened
and semicivilized people is, How do
you do - 1t passes between rational
human beings whithersoever they
carry the burden of flesh. 1t is the
| prescribed expression of personal in
terest in the well-being of our fellow
mortals, and as common all over the
globe as the other as empty phrase
| which stands with every nation for
the God be with you ~ which we have
abbreviated into 'good-bym These
are passwords that prove the kinship
of mankind.
So the neat remarks upon the
weather and the scarcity of beasts of
meat" which are accepted as coin of
the realms of society, have their place
and use. They may be likened to the
antenn8 with whic ants meeting up
on the same leaf try each others dis
positions and establish boundary lines.
The plunge in RediaS res Of business
in an appointed interview is an unus-
ual proceeding among equals. 1t is
your inferior who begins, Il have call
ed to say SO and-so," The polite dam
who awaits you" pleasure iii the hall
slips in a comment upon the wealth +
while you pay him, and bids you
good day y at coming and going
| These arbitrary ordinances OF recog-
nized good-breeding are citeI to give
force to the assertion that there is no
rule of general appointment, and no
precedent other than the giggler's own
folly and the example Of his brother
fools, for laughing when there is moth
ing to laugh at. He who inquiries as
to his neighbours health with giggle
ought to burst into tears should the
catechised party reply to the conven-
tional query that he had I. cold in his
head. The injunction to weep with
those who weep is as binding as that
which moves us to rejoice with the
happy.
| l would fence about with exceptions
from adverse criticism the jolly grigs
| 10,
a dancing star. Each of these is so
much bottled sunshine, and the corks
are forever loose, letting the brightness
escape in sparks and flashes. They
see everywhere occasion for mirth and
good cheer. Making their atmosphere
as they go, their light strikes always
the side turned toward themselves.
The man endowed by nature with Il
lively sense of humor and q mellow
bubbling laugh, or the woman whose
merriment rings out as spontaneously
as the leap of Il brook, is boon in a
shady world where so much of natural
music is set in the minor key. The
charm of the gift departs from the in
slant the possessor becomes conscious
of it. Such laughs, to be inspiriting
and contagious, must come as natural
ly as breathing. He who, to prove the
soundness of his lungs, executes sixty
audible respirations per minute, is no
sillier than he who cannot remark
that it rained last night, or that bust
ness is dull just now, or that he hopes
that his interlocutors wife and chill
dren are in their usual health, with
out emitting dry ''he he p or an
unctuous "ha ha - The best proof
of the sanity of an organ is that the
owner never suspects that he has it..
The natural laugh flows as water runs
down hill. The artificial has to be
pumped up, usually by machinery