The Washington bee., 1910-10-29
BY the Way He Does 1t He Gives
an Index to His Character.
THE POTENCY OF LAUGHTER.
Shown by the Effective Way In WhIch
Cervantes Smiled spain's Vain and
Foolish ChivaIry A~ay-Msn Who
Never Laughed and Rarely Smiled.

laughs? Nothing" says Goethe, 'ts
more significant Of mems character
than what they hnd laugbable." You
know no man." says Tieck, It'll you
have heard him laugh-till you know
when and how he Will laugh" The
perception Of the ludicrous," says EN-
erson, rs a pledge OF sanity. A rogue
alive to the IudicroUs Is still convert
BILE II that sense Is lost his fellow
men can do little for him"
Layater, the great physiognomtst,
lays his great stress on the very un-
eQuiyocal and derisive nature Of e
laugh as an index Of character. II II
be free and hearty and occasion a gen
eral and light movement in all the
features and dimple the cheek and
chin, it is an almost infalltble evil
dence Of the absence Of any great ma
terial wickedness OF disposition Cae-
sar mistrusted Cassius because that
lean and hungry conspirator rarely, II
ever INDUCED In laughter. When Hor-
ace WalpOIe was in Paris In 1765 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 a 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
| smile? Is It 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 on st. BarthoIomew's dayf Is It
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 a scarlet
| mantle and with a red feather in his
| cap a strange horror took possession
J of the soldiers, that he was never
seen to smile? Can we wonder that
the poor little dwarf, Alexander Pope,
| the cynical Sattrist, afiicted with asth-
ma and dropsy, tortured with rheuma-
tism, racked with headaches and
threatened with cataract, should never
| have laughed, but only smiled2
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-
quenchabIe elasticity Of Falstaff and
the Midsummer Nights Dream"
Might not a similar remark be made
Of that pendulum betwixt smile and
a fear" Abraham Lincoln, in whom
sadness and a keen sense Of the comic
were so stTikingly combined? How
eXubeTant was his mirth, sparkling In
jest, comic story and aneCdOte, and yet
how often the very next moment those
sad, pathetic, melancholy eyes showed
l
quRinted 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 S"ratoga-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
relaxation afforded by occasional mer-
riment. Some centuries ago IT was the
fashion In Europe for men Of rank TO
keep a buffoon, and a banquet was
considered incomplete where a privi-
legged Jester was not an attendant
This was perhaps for those days a
wise custom. 1t is surprising how
much & few minutes sleep VIII refresh
the body and a few minutes laughter
the mind, and many useful life might
be prolonged by the substitution OF
these remedies for "carking care" and
WEAKNESS I'm place Of the usual treach-
erOus tonics and stimulants.
What a dismal deduction would be
made from the happiness Of our homes
II they were robbed Of their meFri-
ment! What pictures Of innocent
mirth has Goldsmith given in the
Vicar Of Wakefield" and how artless
the remark OF the good DR. Primrose
IF he had little wit we had plenty
OF laughter
What a power for good and evil Is
the worlds dread laugh. which scarce
the drm philosopher can scOFn" How
many men have been cowed by II who
could have faced without flinching a
battery's deadly fire. Low many bad
customs and wicked practices, how
many quixotic schemes Of philanthropy
or reform, how many absurd doctrines
in politicG. theology and sociology
which have dened the artillery Of aFgu
nent have been Laughed on the pub
lie stage" never to return! Did not
Carvantes "smile Spsin's vain and
foolish chivalry awayT'-William Ma
thewS IN London Great Thoughts.
III COTTON Goods never prOsper~9sr
man PrOvPrb