The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1900-09-15

New Orleans Picaysns.

Internationally to the gAyeties OF
the nations, has just discovered
that the universal panacea for al,
human ailments is not to be iound
in pills aud potions. or even in the
lymph OF goats, but in laughter.
1t seems that the conclusive move
ments that we call laughter are not
only to be INDUCED in for the fun
Of the thing, but because, they exert
a very beneficial effect upon the
physical organism. They cause the
arteries to dlla.e SO that they carry |
more blood to the tissues of the |
body and the heart to beat more
rapidly, so that the flow of blood
through vessels is fastened. In other
words, laughter produces the very
best conditions for an increase of
the vital processes, the tissues take
up more nutritive material, the
waste products are more rapidly
removed, and the net result of all
this is health of mind and body.
So, if we would be we'll, we musi
laugh. Perhaps the laugh cure isn't
so new after all. The jollity of fat
people has long been proverbial,
and very observer, who notes cause
and effect must have often wo nder-
ed if fat people laughed because
they were fat, or if they were fat
because they laughed. 1t is poor
rule that doesn't work both ways,
and it is consoling to know that the
laugh cure is double action
remedy-the more we laugh the
healthier we shall be, aud the health
Ter we are the more we shall laugh.
Certainly universal experience bears
the theory out. The man whose
laughter is hung on a hairtrigeer
and goes off with a noisy explosion
over last years minstrel joke is
sure to be a preferred risk in an
insurance company, with a heart
and a stomach as sound as a dollar.
lust as surely the man who never
D laughs, or, at best, gives only a
r kind of grim, sardonic chuckle,
e the man who always laughs at you,
: never with you, is certain to be
e sickly and dyspePtic, the kind of :
e fellow who is all liver and nerves.
!. Just as q matter of personal indorse
. ment, we can all testify Il
o the value of good laugh
5 You get up in the morning feeling
e out of sorts, glum and grumpy ant
n depressed, and half in mind Il
n see the doctor as you GO dow
r town. Let something occur Il
y amuse you-something that give
o you a good, hearty laugh, and
is presto, what change! The sun j
o shining, birds are singing, the merr.
:. old world is swinging along and yo1
e forget you ever contemplated pill
/, 1t is the same way when something
is happens to annoy us-somebod
J. hurts our vanity, treads upon on
" self-love, blunders into saying tn
d wrong thing. We can nurse tn
= worry into giving US physical a
% well as mental indigestion, or W
e can make up our minds to see tn
le fun of it and get laugh out of
ID that is a better appetizer than
ne a cocktail. The only trouble
"A that as we grow older the price {
IF the remedy grows higher an
dearer. 1t takes more to make u
.. laugh every year. We have hear
- the old jokes, we know the oil
~ stories, and old lips grow too sti
;. to laugh easily. A child laughs a
. day long because its heart is merr,
9 because Of the butterfly that fits b
>. on painted wings; because of til
10 fairy gold Of the sunshine lips be
J.. tween the unsteady baby fngecs
~, because of the flowers that bend t
Il. kiss it as it walks down the garde
=. path. 1t does not take much, eithe
o to amuse youth, and no older perso
- ever listens to its gayety, bubblin
H. up out of nothing sparkling an
Nv effe:vescine in laughter. without
III feeling that is half wonder and ha
n envy. Perhaps we hardly kno
al when we cease to laugh. AS we 6
.d along life begins to grow mo
10