The Washington herald., 1921-06-15

We are IN the way OF tninAine
that a sense Of humor comes by
nature. as Dogberry thought that
knowing how to read and write did,
and that one was no more respon-
sible for not having a laugh that
was hung on a hair trigger and
went OF at a touch, than We are
for not being born with . classical
profile and naturally curly hair.
OF course. to arrive on this sad
old earth with q protuberant funny
bone is to be the darling of the
gods, for to have an intuitive sense
Of what someone has called the
sweet absurdity of things" Is to
have a magic that takes the sting
out of misfortune and puts an ex-
ira kick into the cocktail of Joy.
Nevertheless, IL fate has denied you
this precious gift, you need not de-
spair. You can acquire sense of
huuor. You can Burbank the smile
Of politeness into the rip-roarfng
laugh of hilarity.
You don't believe It? You know
too many glum. grouchy people
whose lips would crack IL they
tried to laugh. You know too many
Grape hangers who never read any
thing but Russian novels, and the
deaths and accidents in the news
papers, and who drink black tea,
and believe that the Judgment day
in at hand. You know too many lit
eral men and women, upon whose
heads a surgical operation would
have to be performed before you
could insert a joke into their poor
old heads and you are convinced
that people have to- be born with a
sense of humor, just as they are
born with tenor voices. You can't
get that way yourself
That is where we have made
mistake. That's why there are so
many depressed and depressing
whiny, complainly, stolid, heavy
people in the world We have be-
ueyed that IL anyone didn't natur-
arly see the funny side of things,
or catch the point OF a joke, that he
or she was like the helplessly blind
or deaf, and all that we could 60
was to endure the poor, afflicted
creature with what patience we
could. We never dreamed of such
a thing as trying to lift the curse
from the victim
Yet It can be done, as I am wit
ness, before and after the TACT
Among my friends Is a superwoman
who is wise as she Is witty, and
who is equally filled with imagina-
ton and hard. practical common
sense. She married a widower who
had a lovely and Intelligent little
daughter years old, whose one
defect was that she had absolutely
no sense of humor.
She was as tone deaf to laughter
as Trilby was to music Wit
ticisms made no more dent upon
her understanding, than a SNOWFALL
would upon armor plate. When
people about her would roar over
a funny story. she would stare at
them in round-eyed wonder her
keen little mind searching through
the sea of talk to try to find the
clue to the mystery of what amused
her elders Humorous exasgeration
was simply a lie to her. Every
thing was bald, up-and-ooWn
literalness to her.
MY hISl OuNy 10 ~
child how to laugh" said the step
mother.
But you can't do it," said the
child's relatives. You couldn't
make her see a joke with tele-
scope She has absolutely no sense
of humor whatever"
I'll develop one in her" replied
the new mother. Il can't let her
miss the best in life. 1 don't see
how anyone can have the courage
TO carry on through life II they
haven't a sense of humor. There's
so much that one must either cr>
over. or laugh over. and to be able
to laugh is the brave attitude.
So this wonder-woman took the
funny papers and diagrammed their
jokes for the little girl, and ex-
planned their quips, and dissected
their humor, and showed her where
the laugh came in. and why certain
things were funny. 1t was slow
work. but at last she opened up
the unsuspected spring of humor in
the little girls soul, and from II
bubbled UP full-throated laughter,
and today that child, now a woman,
has an almost abnormal apprecia-
ton of the ridiculous and is noted
as an exceptionally good story
teller.
This tip is passed on to other par
ents and teachers. Don't let chill
dren for whom you are responsible
grow up without a sense of humor.
1t Is as criminal a thing to do as
it Is to let them grow up cross
eyed, or bow-Iegged, or knock
kneed, when a little judicious treat
ment would save them.
For a sense of humor Is more than
just an added enjoyment in life. 1t
is a sword and buckler against the
slings and arrows of Outrageous tor
tune. Fate cannot down those who
always come up laughing after each
fall
IL is the serious people, the in
tense people who break under
strain. The merry-hearted have the
residence of India rubber. The men
who commit suicide when things go
wrong with their business; the
women who are literally driven into
the insane asylum by their chill
dren and their servants are those
who take life as a tragedy instead
OF seeing IL as a comedy. The men
and women with a sense OF humor
never despair. because they always
see something SO diverting and in
teresting even in their misfortunes
that they fight on until their luck
changes.
Also. q sense of humor will do
more to keep US from making fools
Of ourselves than anything else. 1t