The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1902-03-29
TEE SMILE ANp THE LAUGH.

separation from them,'' remarked a
gentleman recently, is that they
laugh less than they used to-"
"Do you not consider that en-
couraging?" asked lady present.
els it not sigh of increased sense
that people grow more serious as they
grow older :"
IL hadn't thought of that, .
said the first speaker, hesitatingly,
II simply thought that they had
grown sadder."
"'Sadder' and wiser have not
been welded for nothing, in time
honored proverb," laughed the lady.
II had thought of my aged con-
temporaries heretofore as only to be
pitied. I shall think of them after
this as also to be congratulated, +" adj
mitted her friend.
Probably there is nothing more
absurd, in small way, than the
spectacle presented to the disinteres-
ted looker-on by your smiling man
as he appears in public, walking up
the aisle of church, or riding in
car. However sweet and amiable the
spirit signifed by his perennial sim
per, the simplicity of mind argued
by such a wearing of ones heart
upon ones sleeve" is too patent to
be agreeable. The habitual smiler
or Laughter, what ever else he may be,
can never be man of deep thought,
nor of any other depth; unless per-
haps, hypocritical Shakesperean
villain.
Most people with large bump of
appropriateness acquire unconscious
ly trick of laughing, more or less
deprecatingly and differentially, at
almost every remark they make, sug-
costing Lady Mary Wortely Monta-
CUES cutting line about the man who
was always Laughing because he
had nothing to say"
As they meet you in the street the
conversation runs something like this:
GIVE just been to see my dress
maker" (giggle, giggle).
Have you, indeed %
eyes it's an awful nuisance, isn't
it?" (great mirth).
Eyes; nobody likes it very much,
I fancy" (you try at least to frame
sickly smile, in order to keep your
friend in countenance).
eyes, I guess you're right l
know 1 don't p And, with another
hysterical little laugh your friend
departs. (This example happens to
be woman, but women are not the
only offenders in this regard).
''You think, as she moves away, of
the homely remarks of one of Miss
Murfree's characters 'Nuthin' this
worl' are so becomin' to a fool as
shet mouth. +"
''You may be rather simple-mind-
ed, my son." mother was once over
heard to say to her bright boy of 10,
who had been smiling over much in
public, ''but conceal your weakness
from the public as much as possible
reserve those broad and expansive
smiles over nothing in particular for
the family circle strictly"
Carlyle says, in his Life of
Burns :" "Are men grown sudden
ly wise that laughter must no longer
shake his sides, but be cheated of his
farce ?" Addison remarks: Laugh
ter, while it lasts, slackens and I'M
braces the mind, weakens the facul-
ties, and causes a kind of remissness
and dissolution in all the powers of
the SOUL"
This is undoubtedly true, and even
if such embracing be good for us
all occasionally, it does not follow
that what is good if taken three times
a day, may not be ruinous if taken
hundred.
The sharper is always watching for
the man who smiles too much, for he
knows full we'll that it is easy to
overreach too openly display good
nature.
1t is part of the modern social creed
that one should be as inscrutable as
possible in public. 1t seemed to Mrs.
Leyburn, you remember, "unlady-
like" to be even too cheerful"
1t is in accordance with doctrine
that we reserve for our own familiar
friends our smiles and laughter. They
indicate Our choicest moods, and
should not be wasted upon heart
less public, who, as a cynic has re-
marked, are "more apt to laugh at
us than with u.s.. And even among
our "boon companions Can express
sion much misunderstood, the smile
and the laugh should be used with
discretion. Laughter, is, no doubt,
"a most healthful exercise" "a great
aid to digestion )" perhaps, az one
puts it, next only Ito the Ten
Commandments - as Milton says, it
from reason flows" and is to brute
denied - but, like every other good
thing, it has its abuses; and, even
more, is its sweeter and more refined
twin, the smile, threatened with the
loss of its proud and favored place
in literature and in life, unless it is in
some way rescued from the misuse to
which it is constantly subject by the
silly and discriminating.
DISEASE germs of all sorts, being
slightly heavier than air, finally settle
on carpets or furnishings. The in
dustrious housewife fills the air with
them again and again with the broom
and buster.
"WHAT back again." exclaimed
the housekeeper. why, 1 gave
you soup only yesterday" eyes,
lady," responded the polite tramp,
IAN one good turn deserves an
other"
"THAT woman next door, "she said,
''is the newsiest thing. She's for
ever standing in her dining room
peeping over into ours" "How do