Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-02-25
THEM|A|||N ViHOI.A!|U.G|A|!S. |
BY the May He Does L He Gives
an Index to His Character.
THE POTENCY OF LAUGHTER.
Shown BY Tho Effective Way In Which
csrvantss Smiled SPANS vain and
Foolish chivalry Away-Msn Who
Never Laughed and Rarely Smiled.

csrvantss Smiled spain's vain and
Foolish chivalry Away-Msn Who
Never Laughed and Rarely Smiled.
What an index to character is mans
laugh What surer clew can we have
to both his: intellect and his temper IN
less 1t be that he seldom or never
laughs? Nothing" says Goethe, lis
more significant of mems character
than what they nnd laughable." you
know no man. says Tieck, It'll you
have heard him slaugh-till you know
when and how. he will laugh" 'The
perception OF the ludicrous." says EN-
erson. ~ a pledge Of sanity. A rogue
alive to the ludicrous is still converti-'
BILE. II that sense 10 lost his fellow
men can do little for him."
Lavater, the great physiognomist,
lays his great stress on the very un-
equivocal and derisive nature OF q
laugh as an index of character. II It
be free and hearty and occasion gen..
eral and light movement In all the
features and; dimple the cheek and
chin, it rs an almost infallible EVIL
dence Of the absence Of any great ma
terial wickedness OF disposition. Cae-
sar instructed :Cassius because tnat
lean and hungry conspirator rarely, II
ever, INDUCED In laughter. When Hor-
ace Walpole was In Paris In 1895 he
found, that laughing was out Of fash
lon In that gay capital. GOOD folks,"
he writes, "they have no time to laugh.
There are God and the king to pc
pulled down first, and men ana won.
en-, one and all, are devout1y employed
in the demolition"
How often man fails to betray the
tiger that turks within him untll ne
laughs! p there nothing dgnihcant
In the fact recorded BY Plutarch OF
Cato the younger that nothing could
make him laugh, that his countenance
was scarcely softened even by q
smile2 S1s it not q characteristic trait
Of the gloomy tyrant, Philip II. OF
Spain, that he rarely smiled and that
he laughed but once In his entire LIE,
and that when he heard Of the massa-
ere on st. BartholomeW's day. Is 1t
not a suggestive fact regarding the
gloomy, taciturn Wallenstein, the ter:
ror OF the people, at the sight OF whom
as he paced through his camp with his
lofty figure enveloped IN 2 scarlet
mantle and with RED feather IN MS
cap strange horror took possession
OF the soldiers, that ne was never
seen to smile! Can we wonder tnat<
the poor little dwarf, Alexander Pope,
the cynical sattrist, afnicted with asth-.
mn q and sdropsy, tortured With rheuma-
.tlsm, racked with headaches ana
threatened with CATARACT, should never
nave laugned' out only smlled1
IT mas been SAID OF the greatest o.
english dramatlsts, VINO united WIN
MS 1ntense numor an eQuaAy 1ntense,
piercing insight INTO the darkest ana
most 1ear1ul depths OF human nature
atnat no neart Wouid nave Deen strone
enough 10 noia the woe OF Lear ana
a o'tneiio' except tnat Wnlcn nad the IN.
auencnaDie eiasticity OF faistan and
.tne Mlosummer Nlgnts Dream,
M.ent not a slmnar remark 90 maze
o1 snat pendu!um DetWlx - = snl q ana
= iear' Abraham lE5 :hlncoln, - wnom
saaness ana a keen sense q !ne comic
WeIe 10 strlklnely eomDlneu. now
eAuoerant was MS mlrtn, sparklng =
Jest comic story ana anecoope' ana yet
nov now o1ten the very next monent tnose |
5 sAa' patnetic. meiancnoay eyes sno"ed
: man 1amlia1 VIII soFfows ana &C.
qu ~, WIN s.aeAs ~: x, - -
S y NC can oouD. tlat Dut ZOE .tne
=; lneltlment =. wncn NC lnoulEeo-tne
CONTAGIOUS l8UROter winch Welle0y Up