The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-08-23
HOW PEOPLE LAUGH
NAPOLEON MADE HIS SOLDIERS RAISE
A LAUGH THAT WON A BATTLE.
IL Is Said That Laughter Was First
Used when Adam, on Awakening,
Saw Eve Rv His Side

IL Is SAID Ihat Laughter was f1rst
Used when Adam, on Awakening,
Saw Eve BY His Side.
Since the days of Adam, who said to
have invented laughter when he awoke
and saw Eve by his side, no two peo-
pie have laughed alike. The laugh Is
as distinct as the voice. Women laugh
differently from men, children from
women; indeed, even the laugh of a
full-bearded man is different from
that which he laughs when he has
shaved.
The Able Damascent thought he had
discovered in the various enunciations
OF laughter a sure guide to the temper
aments of the laughers. Thus he said:
"Ha! Ha! Hal" belonged to acholeric
person; HE! He! He!" to a phlegmat-
ic one, and "Hol Hol Hoi" to the san
guine. And 1t is a scientific fact that
while men commonly laugh in A and
o, women usually Taught e and l.
Those who practice laughing to any
extent have been divided wittily into
dimplers- and to know how charming
they can be, one has only to go back
to Charles Reade's "Simpleton with a
Dimple'-smilers, grinners, horse
laughers and sneerers. This is to lay
down a science of laughing, for which
there might have been need had our
generals in the late war taken up the
idea of old Bulow, who proposed to
form troops. in face of the enemy in
line of battle and order them to ad-
vance with their arms at a shoulder
and salute the foe with ringing bursts
of laughter
"Be sure" said Bulow, that your
opponents, surprised and dismayed at
this astonishing salute, would turn
about and run off"
Perhaps this scheme would not work
now, while the present long range ar
tilery is used; but. as matter of fact,
1t is related that the Mamelukes once
turned tail from an assault upon the
French in Egypt on hearing the roar
of laughter with which Napoleon's vet
Grams greeted the command: Form
in squares asses and men of science
in the centre
Great men often have fanced it a
part OF greatness to refrain from hilar-
ity. Philip ". of Spain is said to have
laughed only once in his life. That
was when his bride. Anne of Austria,
wept at hearing that the Queens of
Spain had no feet. She took with Ger
man literalness an old piece of Span
ish courtesy AS she was journeying
toward Spain some German nuns met
her and desired to present some stock
ings of their own knitting. The
worthy Princess was about to accept
the gift when Spanish grandee of her
( suite interfered with the remark that
it would be against etiquette, as the
Queens Of Spain were not supposed to
have any use for stockings, whereat
the Princess began to weep under
standing, poor woman, that on her ar
rival in Spain her feet would be cut
1 off.
Lord Chesterfield said Nobody has
seen me laugh since I have come to
my reason" and Congreve makes his
/ Lord Froth in the Double Dealer"
say: When ! laugh | always laugh
alone" Young people and fools laugh
easily, says an old proverb, which Of
ten has proved true.
Nevertheless. the singer Robert
gave lessons in laughter in Paris and
in London in 1905, and, so far at least
as filing his own purse went, with
! success. He held that men and wo-
men could not laugh "decently and sys-
/ tematically" without proper training,
and said that person who could laugh
/ only in one tone seemed to him like
one who could say only oui and non;
but that trained laughter should eX-
press many things.
1t is a curious fact that it is only
among the French and among the an
clients that we read of people laughing
! themselves to death We, in our days,
must have either more jokes or a dull
er appreciation OF wit. ZeuXs is said
to have died of laughing at painting
of an old woman. his own handiwork.
Philemon expired laughing at a don
key who ate so contentedly the phil
osopher's figs that with his last ar
ticulate breath. he sent out his last
glass of wine TO the beast who drank it
with equal enjoyment. and thus proved
| himself. it would seem, not such a
donkey after all.
1t remains true, however, that laugh
ter is good for the health. Laugh
and grow fat" is the old proverb. Sy-
denham maintained that the arrival of
a clown in 4 village was as wholesome
as that of twenty donkeys laden with
drugs. Tissot, the famous French
physician, cured consumption and liv-
er complaints by causing his patients
TO laugh, and Erasmus, through i'm
moderate laughter at the rude Latin of
Hutten's Letters of Obscure Men,"
broke an internal abscess which had
long plagued him.
When a man smiles, and much
more when he laughs, it adds some
thing to his fragment OF life" said
Sterne, who wished laughter enumerat-
ed in the materia medica, holding it as
a curative of the same kind as cough
ing, sneezing, and perhaps vomiting,
only much pleasanter than any Of