Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-25
THEY NEVER LAUGHED.
A Wonderful Tribe Of Woodland Men
I'm Northern Asia.

From the London Illustrated News.
1t was thought a strange discovery when,
somewhere In northern Asia, a tribe Of
woodland men was found who never
laughed; never laughed, not because they
were too proud, as certain tribes among
ourselves are, but because they had never
known how. So the travellers convinced
themselves who employed train of these
laughterless people as guides through the
forest they were found in. All sorts OF
tricks were tried to move them to mirth.
and all failed They gazed upon the most
unaltered practical jokes in silence and
with unaltered countenances. Their mirth,
IL they were reused to any, was an in
terror tickle quite. For laughter they
seemed entirely without the wherewthal.
much to the travellers amazement and
more to their pity. 900. ..I . ...... -.
/ wonder whether the commiseration was
mutual. Not to be able to laugh seems
dreadful thing to those who make that
noise, but to men incapable Of making the
noise how sad ii must seem and how
strangely resembling their fellow creatures
to the beasts of the field! To he sure. we
who laugh are proud Of the gift because
We fancy 1t one of the half-divine things
which the beasts have not. But this is the
fancy of the people who do laugh, and
who, 9,939 times in 10000, have never lis
tened to the sound of laughter so much
noise, mere noise, ASSOCIATED from all idea
aud preccnception. But that is how Il is
outlandish folk did listen when the tray
elers were exploding over their own 80
well-got-up practical Jokes. 1t would be
entirely unphiiosophical to assume that the
foi st people could not see the fun Of those
humorous contrivances Of the western
world For IL one sort of savage tribes can
educate themselves to suffer the most ex-
circulating pain without moving muscle.
why should not another sort be brought up
to enjoy the most extraordinary jokes With
the same dignity? Surely they might, IL
conscious of the same motive-the red In
dams dsdan of uttering unseemly cries
and making Ugly faces.
Well, then, if that were the case, these
secluded woodlanders, while they saw the
fun, Just the red Indian feels the pain.
heard laughter for the first time And il
so, how should il sound to them, this noise?
Like something half divine We fondly
imagine its equality? The voice of some
thing that no mammal save man can eX-
press. Something which the brutes have
no throat for? BY no means. What they
heard was an animal voice, pure and SIM
pie and since a forest folk has finer ears
for such voices than other men. We may
well believe that laughterless tribe more
grave than ever while the European larSs
were going on, and that they parted from
the travellers plying them as much as
they themselves were pitied.
But is there then, no such thing as mu-
steal laughter-pleasant laughter? To that
question how unexpected and unkind an
answer NO world be. Perhaps, also, I'M
possible, except from the mouth of a
Philosopher of the laughterless tribe When
you hear some unknown voice laughing
without (at night, for preference)-only
the laugh audible and the Ctterer of it I'M
seen-listen for the next PEAL with mind
discharged of everything but attention -
the mere quality of the sound That ii IL
the utterance Of any human feeling IL to be
cast out of consciousness; that II comes
from a human throat is to be excluded
from presumption DO this and what you
will bear will be a clatter OF sound like
many things more than the expression OF
human voice. 1t may even sound me
Chanical, as If proceeding from some wood
fashioning machine. More probably, how
ever, ii will strike the ear as a succession
of barbarous percrssive notes, either re-
sembling the cry of some known animal
a Quacking animal, a barking or a braying
animal-or suggestive Of some forest crea-
ture whose voice you are hearing for the
first time. And yet, however rudely a man
may shout or scream shouting and
screaming being so much less civine than
laughtcr), the human quality remains Yet
joy is joy and laughter is the voice of II.
and little else is left of the worship Of the
old earth gods.