The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1914-10-13
The LAUGHING WOMAN
Williams. in Roanoke
Times.

neT IOeS,
She shall have music wherever she
goes"
So the Mother Goose rhyme goes
The rhyme itself brings the pic
ture of the laughing woman tossing
on her swinging leg the baby astride
her instep or watching the father
do it while her smile illuminates
the room and gladdens the house
hold and her laughing peals and
tinkles through the house, be il
palace or hut. The woman with the
laugh does not need the rings on her
fingers or bells on her toes. She
has within her and carries with her
music wherever she goes. And it is
music that lives behind her after
she has gone. 1t is music that lives
and will not be lost or forgotten. 1t
makes itself the happy and loved
guest OF the innermost recesses of
our hearts and in them lives and
gladdens as melodious and sweetly
thrilling echoes. The memory of the
laughing woman's womanly lowell
ness and graces may fade with the
passing of years and her fine quail
tiles may be merged in the general
thought that she was of fine char
acter. The pealing and tinkling of
her laughter will be alive, invisible
solace and luxury, some of the
beauty and glory we may feel but
may not see, some OF the delight we
may absorb into our souls, but may
not define or describe. The souls
within us sometimes flutters and
beat like Gagged birds against walls
of words, seeking vainly for egress
into expression. So it is impossible
to tell in words the meaning of the
music of the laughing woman's
laughter left lingering and living in
the heart-the heart OF the man who
just heard her laugh, the hearts of
the children who recall her laugh
in her youth or maturity or age and
hold it as music in their souls. A
real poet has described some laugh
ter with real music and beauty
"It ripples into song
or showery April days and Summer
time.
OF Autumn footballs over golden
leaves,
or souls asleep in folding flowers
unborn"
In all seasons the musical laugh
ter of the laughing woman is ap-
propriate and welcome and carries
with 1t a wholesome infection Of
hopefulncss and cheer and joyous
ness. Her laughter carries with il
assurance of a sense OF humor. The
faculty of finding humor and laugh
ter in the most desperate situations
as in enjoying to the fullest the
happy and peaceful and hopeful
and sunlit times, goes with the
sturdiest and most dauntless cour-
age.
We do not teach girls to laugh,
as we should. Too many of us spend
too much time, money and effort
training girls to catch men and too
little training girls to hold men.
The way to hold a man-to hold his
soul and heart and loyalty and love
is to help him when he needs
help. Nothing else can help him so
much as the laughter and cheerful
ness of woman. 1t is the evidence
Of her courage and her faith when
there is trouble, OF her appreciation
and comradeship and vital force
while there is peace.
Poets have sung and writer's OF
prose have told in stirring, splen-
did words of the glory of the smile
and laugh of men, of knights and
nobleman, gentlemen and common
ers, sailors and soldiers. who have
faced death and horror and torture
laughing and unafraid. Nobody has
sung of te laughing and smiling wo-
men who, through all the genera
tions of human life, have met dis
aster and modification, danger and
death and privation and laughed
merrily and happily in the face Of
all the calamities These are the
heroines, surprising in courage all
the heroes of history.
Teach the girls 10 laugh. if they
are to be real helpmates for men.
Do not teach them to giggle or sim
per or litter family or force de-