The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1912-09-05
Laughter.


Truly there are tongues in trees,
books in therunning brooks, sermons
in stone, and good in everything
If there is anything for which we arel
indebted to the blatant demagogues
Of the period who declare they are
advocating alleged reforms not for
their own beneft-Heaven Forbid!
but for the sake of increasing the
sum of human happiness, 1t is "a
sight to shake the midriff of despair
with laughter; an unwilling appl-
cation of world-old prescription
for various Ills and unhealthy moods.
We should be grateful to them for
the laughter they provoke. This old
world is sober enough anyway and we
want all the laughter We can get.
1T is a good thing to laugh, at any
rate" said Dryden. land If straw
can tickle man, it is an instrument
of happiness HOLMAN, noted
German philosopher, said laughter
brings out a mans happier nature
and shows of what sort of stuff he il
really made" Laughing cheerful
ness" said Richter, throws the light
of day on all paths of life; and
sterne, a celebrated Irish humorist,
said, Il am persuaded that every
time man smiles, but more so when
he laughs, it adds something to thls
fragment of life"
J., There are, of course, many different
kinds of laughter, not all of which is
mirthful. The whole gamut of the
human passions is traversed by the
laugh. There is the sardonic laugh,
an ;nsincere, derisive, scornfully and
bitterly sarcastic utterance of great
utility now popularity known as the
horse" laugh. 1t is of great service
in properly rebuking hamfatters,
make believe jokesters, INSCRIPTIONS
politicians, social climbers and other
persons who at times come into the
undesirable class. 1t may be only, a
smile, when 1t is a deadly feminine
weapon, such as Homer said was
from the heart, fell, sardonic
smile" Akin to it is the scoffing
Abderlan laugh. Then we have the
Homeric laugh, such as among the
tolymplan gods rose "irrepressible
at the sight OF Vulcan hobbling
around the spacious hall" We have
the silly laugh and the school girl
giggle, the hollow laugh and the
laugh of despair, the ill-t.med laugh
and the excessive laugh; and others
too numerous too mention"
~iWilliam Pitt. the elder, Lord of
Chatham, In a letter to his nephew,
Thomas Pitt, wrote: at is rare tot
see in any one grateful laugh; 1t is
generally better to smile than laugh
out, especially to contract a habit OF
laughing at small or no jokes Some
times it would be affectaton. or
worse. mere moroseness, not to laugh
heartily, when the truly, ridiculous
circumstances OF an incident, or the
true pleasantly and wit of a thing
call for and Justify it; but the trick
of laughing frivolously is by all
means to be avoided-risu fnepto, res
iueptior, nulla est +"
Wherefore, we may conclude that
there is only one worthy kind OF
laughter-the true, hearty laughter,
the kind that must flow from joy
GUS heart, the kind that we should
develop. Cultivatingfit does not near
the continual utterancc of VI CHASTITY
scachlnation, nor studied and sys-
tematic effort to emit outlaws every
time the voice lie used. Culdyating
it is nothing more nor less than cul-
tfyating Misunderstanding to live
better and to find the pleasures that
life affords where they are unseenl
and unsuspected.