Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1904-04-29
LAUGHING THE BEST TONIC
People Should Be More Free in
Laughing as it is a Means by
Which Dark, Gloomy Thoughts
Are Driven Away.

If people only knew what the habit
of practicing real side-shaking laughter
every day would do for them, thousands
Of physicians would be looking for a
change of employment. If you want to
be we'll and happy practice laughing.
Don't be afraid to let yourself out.
Shake yourself with deep flarty laugh
ter several times every day. 1t will do
more for you than horse back riding.
a gymnasium, or solemn sober walking.
1t is the best kind of recreation. It is
natures great safety valve. 1t gives
the body more resisting power. 1t
doubles ones force and increases
capacity for endurance.
Most of US take life too seriously. In
Old Germany there was law against
joking. It makes my men forget war,
said the King One would think as he
goes through the streets of Grand
Rapids that there must be a law a.
gainst laughing. Especially does this
apply to the average business man, so
grave and sad are the majority of faces
he sees. Among the thousands who
hurry to and fro bright happy rad
iant face is rarity. Even when at
lunch in restaurants men cannot for
get the serious side of life. Most of
them eat with long faces and without
speaking word or exchanging joke
or smile with any one. They are
thinking, thinking, worrying, worry
ing, and planning, planning. The
almighty dollar is too serious subject
to be trifed with. There is no time to
laugh during business hours or at meal
time. That must be left for holiday
which, alas, for many people, never
comes.
We have no longer time for making
a life; it is all used up in making
living. Happier far then the solemn
dollar chasers is the poor farm hand,
who, when asked how he would like TO
die, "Wal' I'll tell you, boys, I'd like
something that would jest tickle me
to death and let me die laughing"
Give me the man that laughs at
poverty and misfortune. Give me the
JOY that is independents of circumstan-
ces, and lifts above environment.
No matter how hard your lot or how
dark the day; if you work a little fun
and good cheer into it, it will lift your
life above humdrum joylesS existence.
Cheer will take the drudgery out of
your work and make it more interest
ing. 1t will make you more interest
ing too, for dry over-serious people, as
rule, are monotonous and unattrac-
tive. The man who never laughs, who
has no fun in him, who cannot see a
joke and who has no sense of the
ludicrous, is dull and uncompanion:
able. His capacity for enjoying life,
for making it pleasant for others, dries
up and evaporates.
Many people have changed their
disposition from sour, morose, melan-
chOly ones, to bright, cheerful, Optim-
istic ones by forming habit of laugh
ing, even forcing themselves to laugh
heartily several times day. Smiles
have made all the difference in their
lives between sadness and gladness,
between gloom and bloom, and be-
tween failure and success. Try this for
yourself. A great many people never
learn to laugh heartily. A sort of a
half smile or a disagreeable chuckle is
as far as they ever get. They look upon
side-Splitting, uproarous merriment
as misdemeanor, a breach Of geod
manners. They cannot imagin such an
unbecoming performance in a well
regulated home.
1t is positively sinful to suppress