Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1899-10-20
HOW PEOPLE LAUGH
NAPOLEON MADE HIS SOLDIERS RAleE
A LAUGH THAT WON A BATTLE.
1t is Said That Laughter Was First
Used When Adam, on Awakening,
Saw Eve BY His Side.


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
Inherently from men, children from
women; indeed, even the laugh OF
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! Hel Hel" to q phlegmat.
lie one, and "Ho! Ho! Ho," to the san
guine. And 1t Is scientific fact that
while men commonly laugh in A and
o, women usually Taught q andI
Those who practice laughing to any
extent have been divided wittlly into
dimplers- and to know how charming
they can be, one has only to go back
to Charles Reade's "Simpleton with
Dimple'-smilers, grinners, horse
laughers and sneerers. This is to lay
down 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 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
tillery 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 fancied It a
part OF greatness to refrain from hilar-
ity. Philip w. 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
lngs or their own knitting The
worthy Princess was about to accent
the gift when Spanish grandee of her
suite interfered with the remark that
1t would be against etiquette. as the
queens of Spain were not supposed to
nave 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
off.
Lord Chesterfield said: Nobody has
seen he laugh since l have come to
my reason" and Congreve makes his
Lord Froth in the Double Dealer"
say; When l laugh l always laugh
alone Young people and fools laugh |
easily, says an old proverb, which Of I
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 filling his own purse went. with
success. He held that men and wo-
men could not laugh "decentiy and sys-
tematically" without proper training,
and said that a 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.
IL is curious fact that 1t is ONLY
among the French and among the an
clents that we read of people laughing
themselves TO death. We. in our DAYS.
must have either more jokes or dull !
er appreciation of wit. ZeuXis is said
TO nave died of laughing at painting
or an old woman, his own handiwork. !
Philemon expired laughing at a dom
Key who ate so contentedly the phil
osopher's figs that with his last ar
tlculate breath, he sent out his last
glass of wine to the beast, who drank il
with equal enjoyment. and thus proved |
himself, 1t would seem, not such n |
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 |
clown in village was as wholesome |
as that of twenty donkeys laden with !
drugs. Tissot, the famous French |
physician, cured consumption and liy- |
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 man smiles. and much .
more when he laughs, 1t adds some !
thing to his fragment of lfe." said |
Sterne. who wished laughter enumerat-
ed in the materia medica, holding 1t as
curative of the same kind as cough
ing, sneezing. and perhaps vomiting
only much pleasanter than any Of |
these"