El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-03-11
Dorothy Dix Says Perpetual Laughter
Is Bad Fault In Women
WOMAN writes me that She and

! "A her husband are IN a perpetual
4 Il family spat because she laughs
all the time. She declares that she just
/ can't make her laugh behave, and so
she wants to know what TO do with
her husband.
am free to say that in this case
my sympathles go out 10 the husband
The woman who smiles is delightful
] The woman who has a funny bone and
I who laughs at the right time and place
Z IS enchanting. But of all bores under
the sun none is so insufferable as the
/ woman with the continuous perform
I ance laugh.
We have all met her. and we would
: all 20 miles out Of our way TO avoid
meeting her again. What it must be
Z 10 be married 10 a wife afflicted with
! a chronic laugh fills ones heart with
/ pity for the martyr who has to endure
| It Certainly any man who stands 1t is
/ entitled TO the iron cross OF the hero
for having got the double cross in
7 matrimony-
/ Different From One Always Laughing.
OF course. a nice cheerful woman.
/ one who is temperamentally optimistic
I and who always looks on the bright
! side OF things is Gods best gift to
I man Shes like a ray Of sunshine about
D d house. and makes bright the dark
/ places Of dOmesticity, but the cheerful
woman and the woman who is a per-
Z petual laugher are as far apart as the
poles
The woman who laughs in season and
/ out OF season is a fakir. She is q
poseur- She is putting on what she does
not feel, for daily life is not a funny
affair, and there's nothing in II TO eX-
cite ones risibilities.
Nor is there any mirth in the laugh
/. ter Of the woman. who is forever laugh
, ing. It's like the cracking OF thorns
under pot or the braying Of a dom
key, or any other meaningless sound
that you can imagine A real laugh, a
laugh that bubbles Up suddenly and
spontaneously from some well Of hu-
NOR that has just been tapped, is as
contagious as the measles. Everybody
catches II, but nobody is ever melted
to join in the hysteriCal cackle OF the
woman who keeps her laughter always
on tap, and turns It on whenever
stranger approaches
The woman who laughs all the time,
IN season and out Of season, has no
sense OF humOr. or else she wouldn't
do it She is one Of the poor, silly, hen
Drained creatures, who have been told
by some enemy that they are vivacious,
and who feel called upon, ever after, TO
live up TO the part
You see them, young girls who would
be nice and attractive II they didn't
Shrek and howl, and giggle and -cackle
until they resemble nothing on earth so
much as the laughing Hyena in the zoo.
Everybody condemns them for being
loud, and they get the reputation for
being fast and sporty, when all the de-
luded poor dears are doing is trying TO
be yiyacious. More pitiful still, we see
teeth. and rolling their faded old eyes.
and giggling, and Sinking, and laugh !
ing their tin pan laughter because, in I
their youth. they also had somebody 3
wish the curse OF vivaCity on them ]
IndulEing in Abnormal Gayety.
No woman ever makes a greater mis- /
take than when she thinks she renders ]
herself attractive &c men by being alb i
normally gay, and for ever laughing
To begin with men are afraid Of i
the woman who laughs, because they ]
are always afraid that the women are /
laughing at them Men are curiOusly Il
sensitive to q wOman's opinion. and the
mere suspicion that tiiey might pos
slbly look ridiculous TO the Laughter.
and furnish the subject for her mirth, /
sends them ShlVerlng with cold sus-
picion away from her vicinity. The Vi
vacious maiden who goes off into peals
of laughter never is a belle. 1t takes
your dumb little maiden, who has TO
have joke diagramed for her. to trail
professions Of beaux in her wake /
When a man thinks about a home, I
and the kind of a woman he wants in ,
II, he doesn't think Of woman who
IS suffering piece Of human fire :
works. He doesn't think Of a loud wom- /
an, nor a noisy woman. nor a woman J
who will be forever grianing around.
The thinks Of quiet and peaceful |
woman, woman who is full Of SYM
patty and tenderness and pity; a Wom-
an to whom he can come with all his
troubles and worries and cares A wOm-
.
ness Of tears That's the kind OF a
woman he wants to marry. A woman
who viii be restful, not a laughing ma
chine grinding out its wearisOme cachi-
nations
Women know little Of men II they
think they make a hit with them by
perpetual laughter. It's the lassie who
weeps on the second button OF a mans
waistcOat that he invites TO accompany
him TO the altar.
smile Is Best.
These few words are not to discour- ]
age the sense Of humor in women. Far
from it There is only one worse thing
than the inability Of a woman to see
the point of . good story, and that is
for her TO laugh before the story is told. |
Also the only thing that enables a Wom-
an TO endure matrimony with fOrtitude
is perceivinS how funny il really is.
But let the woman who wishes to
catch husband and the one who has
one and desires to keep him. can her
laughter, and dispense il in homeo-
pathic doses Remember that the one
picture above all others that has caught
and held the fancy OF men for ages is
that Of Mona Lisa with the soft, in
scrutable. maddening smile that has
kept them guessing as 10 what she
meant
And IL still works that smile