Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1909-03-06
THE MAN WHOLAUGHS
BY the Way He Does II He Gives
an Index to His Character.
THE POTENCY OF LAUGHTER.
Shown by the Effective Way In Which
csrvantss Smiled SPANS Vain and
Foolish chivalry Away-Men Who
Never Laughed and Rarely Smiled.

1
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 un-
less II be that he seldom or never
laughs? Nothing" says Goethe. "is
more significant OF mems character
than what they find laughable." You
know no man." says Tleck. It'll you
have heard him laugh-till you know
when and how he will laugh" 'The
perception OF the ludicrous." says En-
erson. lis pledge OF sanity. A rogue
alive to the ludicrous Is still converts.
BILE. II that sense Is lost his fellow
men can do little for him."
Lavater, the great physiognomist.
lays his great stress ON the very un-
equiyocal and derisive nature Of u
laugh as IN index OF character. IL 1t
be free and hearty and occasion gen.
eral and light movement In all the
features and dimple the cheek and
chin, IL Is an almost infallible evil
dence OF the absence OF any great ma
terial wickedness OF disposition. Cae-
sar mistrusted Casslus because that
lean and hungry consplrator rarely, IL
ever. INDUCED in laughter. When Hor.
ace Walpole was in Paris In l765 he
found that laughing was out Of fash
Ion In that gay capital. Good folks"
he writes. "they have no time to laugh
There are God and the king to be
pulled down first. and men and wom-
en-. one and all. are devoutly employed
In the demolition"
How often n man fails TO betray the
tiger that turks within him until he
laughs! Is there nothing significant
In the fact recorded by Plutarch Of
Cato the younger that nothing could
make him laugh. that his countenance
was scarcely softened even by d
smile? Is II not a characteristic trait
Of the gloomy tyrant, Philip II. Of
Spain, that he rarely smiled and that
he laughed but once In his entire life.
and that when he heard Of the massa-
ere OH st. Bartholomew day? Is 1t
not 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 enyeloped In scarlet
mantle and with red feather In his
cap a strange horror took possession
Of the soldiers, that he was never
seen to smile? Can we wonder that
the poor little dwarf, Alexander Pope,
the cynical satirist. afflicted with asth.
ma and dropsy. tortured with rheuma.
tism, racked with headaches and
threatened with cataract, should never
have laughed. but only smiled?
1t has been said of the greatest Of
English dramatists, who united with
his intense humor an equally intense,
piercing insight into the darkest and
most fearful depths of human nature
that no heart would have been strong
enough to hold the woe Of Lear and
Othello except that which had the un.
quenchable elasticity Of Falstaff and
the Midsummer Nights Dream"
Might not similar remark he made
of that pendulum betwixt smile and
fear" Abraham Lincoln, In whom
sadness and keen sense Of the comic
were 30 strikingly combinedf How
exuberant was his mirth. sparkling In
Jest, comic story and anecdote, and yet
how often the very next moment those
sad, pathetic. melancholy eyes showed
a man familiar with sorrows and ac-
quainted with grief!'
Who can doubt that but for the
merriment In which he indulged-the
contagious laughter which welled up
from his soul as naturally as do bub.
bles In the springs OF Saratoga-he
would have sunk under his weary
weight Of care long before he fell by
the pistol OF Booth?
1t Is indeed statesmen, students and
thinkers generally who most need the
rela xation afforded by occasional mer-
riment. Some centuries ago 1t was the
fashion In Europe for men Of rank to
keep buffoon, and banquet was
considered incomplete where privi-
legged jester was not an attendant.
This was perhaps for those days a
wise custom. 1t Is surprising how
much few minutes sleep will refresh
the body and few minutes laughter
the mind. and many useful life might
be prolonged by the substitution OF
these remedies for ''carking care" and
WEAKNESS In place Of the usual treach-
aVnsto fAnNa. nd aff
What dismal deduction would be
made from the happiness Of our homes
" they were robbed Of their merri-
ment! What pictures OF innocent
mirth has Goldsmith given In the
"vicar Of Wakefield" and how artless
the remark OF the good DIR. Primrose
"If he had little wit we had plenty
Of laughter"
What power for good and evil Is
the worlds dread laugh. which scarce
the Arm philosopher can scornw How
many men have been cowed by It who
could have faced without fiinchIng a
battery's deadly fire! How many bad
customs and wicked practices. how
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