The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-10-18
THE GRACIOUSNESS OF MIRTH
One of the Grea est Treasures q House.
hold Can Possess.


The man who labors and unsel6shly
struggles all the long days for the
wife and children and home, says the
New York Evening Post, does not
realize that if he could put into the
family treasury the richness of occa-
sional hours of happy intercourse he
would endow them more graciously
than when he bestows his generous
wealth. The lost hilarity and gladness
of his youth would be a measureless
boon at his own fireside and. endear
him to his children. Parents and
children who laugh together become
comrades in very close way and
when serious speech becomes neces-
sary it has far more weight and force,
because it is unusual.
Anything more dismal than the or
binary professional joker, anything
more depressing than the studiously
funny book, it is hard to find. The
temperament which lightens the fam
lily atmosphere, and becomes provi-
der of oxygen to labored breathing,
is wholly unconscious of a mission and
gives forth its healthful influence as
the sun and the sea breeze and the
ripping water give, with the efforUless
beneficence of a wholesome, vitality
strong nature. Merriment which is
infectious belongs to him who has a
clean heart and a wholly true nature,
whose mental environment is proof
against the microbes of distrust and
deceit, and who counts love and good
faith more precious than a fortune.
Such a temperament will triumph
over disease and disappointment and
give out his tonic antidotes against
life's ills to the last. He who sleeps
at Vaillima was marvellous example
of what l mean. And other such have
seen, valiantly smiling while death
stood at the door, though helplessly
feeble on long-required bed, or stand
ing erect, with a quenchless cheer
fulness of eye and lip, encouraging
his loved ones, even when the sum-
moning angel laid his hand upon his
gallant heart.
Endurance, courage, resignation,
Spartan defiance of pain, are COM
comitant characteristics of our noblest
men but when man infexibly deter
mines to keep THAT side the world the
suns upon, and with quick kindling
thought and gracious cheerfulness,
reflects its light, he will add to these
the remedy for ills which comes from
a glad heart, and give to his COM
psnions the music of honest laughter
set to merry words.
Let US bear in mind that around a
family board and in the intercourse of
our daily lives we can, without know
ing it, kill every germ of these bright
qualities in our children's minds by
enveloping them in clio uds of danger
dresding anxiety. Gradually laughter
will cease to be heard in the house,
and the spectre-laying spear of quick
wit lie idle in its place. Today it is
not rare to see children-boys especi-
ally-of ten and twelve and onward,
keen and sharp in practice, energetic
an annoying degree, and perhaps
boisterous in their clamor of one sort
or another, who never laugh joyously
or sincerely or attempt any playful
raillery. Home is responsible for their
unnatural hardness and maturity, and
parental example has deprived them
of the jolly spontaneitv proper to their
years.
Our human lives and mutual inter
course might well take pattern from
the lovely aspect of midsummer ma
ture. whose smiling face expresses joy
even when clouds pile darkly on the
horizon. The whole earth seems full
of jollity, and in the deep shadow Of
the woods we yet hear the laughing
flow Of running streams.