KEEP SMILING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 95, 22 April 1922, Page 17

KEEP SMILING.

"SAVING GRACE OF HUMOUR."

(By THE SCRIBE.)

In times like these, when the world seems to be upside down, a Charles inckens with his fun, or a Mark lwaw with his keen shafts of humour, would be a glorious asset. Alas! there is none to take their place. Jacobs, VVodehouse, Pettridge, ajid others do their best, but how far their elVorts fall short of the two giants mentioned! Still there is a vast amount of fun about, and if a really good comedy is shown at the pictures, how the crrowd roars- with delight!

Get into a smoke room at an hotel nlled with C.T.'s—members of the noble army of bagmen who do so much to' carry on trade and commers-and sec how the chairs are pulled round when •the raconteurs of the party bring forth 'new yarns, garnered in their travels and given with _. skill that is surprising. And all the smoke room stories are not blue, nor even of a cerulean tinge. Some time ago I was in such a party in one of out towns, and one ohap raised the problem, "What is the greatest invention of man?" There were various answers. One said "language," another "steam," another "electricity," another "wireless " and so it went on. Suddenly a quiet man in the money line (he represented a 'big loan company) rose and walked to the door. He then turned round and said: "Gentlemen, there's a great deal in what you say, but the man who invented interest was no slouch!" There was a thoughtful pause after he left the room. "And this reminds mc," said one, "of an incident that happened in Christch-Tci some years ago. A wellknown moneylender had been done by his clerk for £500. He was up before tbe Beak—the saturnine old Beetham. Tlir case was proved. The culprit was sent up for trial. Then Beetham stroked his ibeard and said: "Seems as if the employer had been so engaged watching the interest, that he forgot to look after the principal!" "Ah!" said another, "Remember that West Coast case? Ik was like this. The couvty ewurcia passed their member a vote of thanks and sent him with i. a cheque for £250. He wrote expressing thanks, but added his surprise that they did not know he could not receive pay from them for his services. He therefore sent his cheque for the amouiit. But it was dishonoured!"

1 And now, gentle reader, how are you feeling in these hard times? For they are hard. The income tax is bitting the .business men, the 'banks are adopting what they call a "cautious and coascrvative policy," unemployment is genuinely rampant, the women at home are worried to keep the house going. And so on. What's the remedy ?

Pack your troubles In jour old kit bag, And smile, smile, smile.

As <that most sensible Yankee philosopher, Josh BilKngß, wrote—"Grin and bear it!" That's the remedy. Smile and keep smiling! It may be hard work, hut it's the only panacea—the only remedy. After you've had a hard and disappointing day, don't make the wife miserable. Just sit down and her up pith the funny .things you've seen, the jokes you've heard in your wanderings. Don tgo to your library and take down a book of sermons On original sin or the doom of the wicked. No. no! Take down your Dickens and read over one of your favourite chapters from the immortal "Nicholas Niickleby," or your Shakespeare and get some of the scenes from the "Merry Wives," and then march your wife out for a Larry Semoi or Mack ; Sennett comedy at the pictures, and you will both wake up next morning with a new view of life!

Optimism is a great asset in a man or a nation. 'Hope springs eternal in the human breast," and it is this faculty that carries thousand's along in the time of depression through which we are passing. Cultivate it, my boy. Learn to look on the bright side, for there's always a silver lining to every cloud. And above all "don't cross the bridge before you come to it!" In other words, "Don't look for trouble!" It will come to you all right. You'll get your share. We all do, in some form or other. When it does come bear it bravely as becomes your manhood, but don't go about looking for it.

In the meantime cultivate "the saving grace." Tell your new jokes—or even your old ones —to your friends. Pick up theirs and retail them, with alterations and improvements, as you go about. Carry with you an atmosphere of brightness. Take up, as a mission, the lightening of burdens by making them laugh. Thus you' will "(scatter seeds' of- brightness for the reaping by and by!" And let the humour be clean and white—the kind you would not mind the other fellow telling in the presence of your wife! Yes, humour'is a grace—and the power to see the t humorous side has saved many a poor beggar from suicide. Cultivate it!

The reply may be made, "Oh, it's easy to advocate hope, and optimism and humour; but that won't fill the larder or pay off the mortgage or get one a job!" Quite true, old chap, but it will assist you to wait with patience till your chance comes along, and depend' upon it the man or woman arways '-.as a hetter chance who carries about with him or her an atmosphere of courage and hope. Nowadays people look for "the fire in the eye," and if instead they see depression, fear, timidity, hopelessness—or a grouser —they pass on to the next applicant. Therefore, let us wind up with an encore, Fac_ your troubles in your old kit bag, And smile, smile, smile.