Evening star., 1916-08-05


Laugh and be fat. sir, your pennance is known.
They that love mirth let them heartily drink.
'T1s the only receipt to make sorrow sink.
Artemus Ward. Bill Nye and Mark
Twain are held in pleasant remem-
brance by the world, for they were the
apostles OF the good gospel Of laughter.
Even the circus clown and the stage
comedian and the droll wit. whoever
he be. are blessings to mankind, for
they make us. in an all too serious
world. see the lighter and brighter side
of things. AS We journey along the
highway of life mingle in the
crowd let US meet not the pessimist.
but the optomist. not the man who al
ways looks on the dark side of things
but the one who has a heart full of
hope. Give us the woman with smile
and the man who knows how to laugh
heartily and well. There is nothing
laughter of a child. These laughing
people tone up this old world and
heaven will not be complete without
the sound Of their Joyous voices.
Rhodes wrote:
Is he gone to q land OF no laughter,
This man that made mirth for US AMI
Proves death but q silence hereafter
From the sounds that delight or appallsf
Once closed. have the lips no more duty;
Has the heart done o'erhowing with beauty,
As the eyes have with tears?
Than that earth's good decays not with earthly
And OF all the hearts springs none are purer
BE that sounds them has pierced the hearts
hollows,
- The place where tears are and sleep;
For the foam fakes that dance in life's shadows
Are wrung from LIES deep.
He came with a heart full Of gladness,
From the glad-hearted world Of the west.
Won our laughter, but not with mere madness:
Spoke and joked with u.s. not in mere jest;
mn hear
When the merriment died from our ears
And those that loudest in laughter
Are silent in tears.
Thinking about the spirit of mirth
and the laughter of children reminds
US that the children themselves are
among the things in life that are worth
while. What Is home without the chill
dren? Suppose there were no children
in our schools or churches and no chill
dren romping in the streets and playing
in the parks. what would the world be
like?
George Francis Train liked to gather
the children daily around him in the
park in front of Madison Square Gar
den. He used to say that he preferred
the society of children to that OF
grown-up people because they were
innocent and honest. and knew none
of the artful ways of their parents.
truthful page is childhood's lovely face.
wherein sweet innocence has record made
An outward semblance Of the young hearts grace:
Where truth and love and trust are all
portrayed.
Dana says:
Better to be drummed out from among men
than to be disliked of children.
Christ loved the children. One Of the
best pictures of the Master Is when
He takes the children up in His arms
and blesses them and says that OF
such is the kingdom OF heaven. When
Christ made His triumphal entry into
Jerusalem. the children were among
the people who ran into the streets and
shouted their hosannahs. and later In
the day, when Christ went to the tenn
ple, He saw the children there in the
courts and heard them singing. ana
nothing pleased and impressed Him
more.
Massey said Of child:
A sweet new blossom of humanity.
Fresh fallen from Gods own home to flower on
earth.
Longfellow wrote:
All. what would the world he to us
II the children were no more.
We should dread the desert behind 10
Worse than the dark before.
Oh, child Oh, newborn denizen
OF nfe's great city! On thy head
The glory of the morn is shed
Like a celestial benison
Here at the portal thou dost stand
And with thy little hand
Into the futures undiscovered land
God bless the children, They bring
us cares. but they also fill our lives with
pleasures We look at them in their inno-
cence and sincerity and listen to their
talk about what they will be and do when
tered ideals and blighted hopes. and turn
time back and relive our youth again. and
that is well! They are among the things
in life worth while.
Another great blessing is music The
world is full of it, Carlyle wrote:
See deep enough and you musically;
The heart of nature being every where music,
IL you only can reach it,
The birds twittering in the trees, the
breeze signing in the forest, the storm
laundering across the mountains or on
the bosom of the deep; in fact. the very
hum of all nature is Gods sweet music.
God is its author. and not man; He laid
The keynote of all harmonies; He planned
All perfect combina tions, and He made
Us so could hear and understand.
Byron felt the truth of these words
when he wrote:
There is music in the signing Of a reed.
There is music in the gushing of a rill.
There is music in all things; II men had ears
Their earth is but an echo OF the spheres
The heart of nature is full of music,
but it is from the soul of man that the
finest melodies come forth. 1t takes
the body, brain and soul of a man to
bring forth from the treasure houses of
nature and human life music's most ex-
luisite trains.
But not Without mems hands, BE could not
make
Antonio Stradiraris vioIins
Without Antonio.
Longfellow held that:
Music is the universal language of
mankind" and Carlyle. went a little
farther in his appreciation and said:
Music Is well said to be the speech of
angels"
1t is difficult to conceive of a human
being who has not some natural love
Tor music. There me- be, however,
some people who do mot appreciate
music. Shakespeare in the Merchant
If Venice" pays his respects to such in
he following words:
rhe man that hath music In himself
And is not moved with concord Of sweet sounds
s ut fer treasons. stratagems and spoil.
Who can describe the wonderful ef-
ect that music has upon people? lit
soothes, inspires. Very true
s the familiar quotation.
Music hath charms to sooth a savage breast,
To soften rocks or bend n knotted oak.
David who had tuned his harp to the
totes of nature in the Palestine hills,
,layed to Saul in his palace SO sweet
Y that for the moment, at least. the
vii spirit left the soul of the poor old
ting.