Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-01-29
THE oRAclovsNEss OF MlRTH.


THE cRAciovsNEss OF MlRTH.
One of the Greatest Treasures q House,
hold Can Possess.
The man who labors and unselfish-
ly 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 n measureless
boon at his own fireside and endear
him to his children. Parents and chill
dren who laugh together become COM
rades in very close way and when
serious speech becomes necessary it
has far more weight and force, be-
cause it is unusual.
Anything more dismal than the or
dinary 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 provider
of oxygen to labored breathing, is
wholly unconscious Of q mission and
gives forth its healthful influences as
the sun and the sea breeze and the
ripping water give, with the effort
less beneficence of q wholesome, vital
ly strong nature. Merriment which
is infectious belongs to him who
has a clean heart and a wholly
true nature, whose mental environ
ment is proof against the microbes OF
distrust and deceit, and who counts
love and good faith more precious than
a fortune.
Such 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 a marvellous example
of what 1 mean. And other such have
I seen, valiantly smiling while death
stood at the door, though helplessly
feeble on a long-required bed, or
standing erect, with a quenchless
cheerfulness of eye and lip, encour-
aging his loved ones, even when the
summoning angel laid his hand upon
his gallant heart.
Endurance, courage, resignation,
Spartan defiance Of pain, are concom-
liant characteristics of our noblest
men; but when man infleXibly de-
termines to keep that side the world
the suns upon," and with quick kin
ding thought and gracious cheerful
ness, reflect it's light, he will add to
these the remedy for ills which comes
from glad heart, and give to his COM
panions the music of honest laughter
set to merry words.
Let us bear in mind that around
family board and in the intercourse
of our daily lives we can, without
knowing it, kill every germ of these
bright qualities in our children's
minds by enveloping them in clouds
of danger-dreading anxiety. Gradu-
ally, laughter will cease to be heard
in the house, and the spectre-laying
spear Of quick wit lie idle in its place.
To-day it is not rare to see children
boys especially-of ten and twelve and
onward, keen and sharp in practice,
energetic to 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 ma
turity, and parental example has de-
prlved them of the jolly sponraneity
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 jolllty, and in the deep shadow OF
the woods we yet hear the laughing
1ow of running streams.