VARIETIES OF LAUGHTER.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1860, 26 February 1892, Page 3

VARIETIES OF LAUGHTER.

Theie is the hearty laugh, the convulsive laugb, the eiplosive the he! he ! laugb, and the uproarious, almost tumble-out-of-the-chair laugh. There was the laugh of Prince Hal,

who wa« said to laugh " till his face wan wet like a wet cloak—ill, laid up." There is the incipient laugh, which is not a laugh, but a smi'e. The late Charles Backus, the minstrel, who, it will be remembered, had a very mouth, was once having his photograph taken. The operator told him to look pleasant, to smile a little. The famous minstrel gave an elaborate smile.

" Oh, that will never do! " said the photographer. " It's too wide for the instrument."

Speaking of a popular actress the reporter wrote: "Her smile opened out like a Devonshire valley on a May morning." When another well-known actress played Hester Grazebrook in the "Unequal Match." her laugh was said to be of the character " that first, as it were, looks out of the eyes to see if the coast is clear, then steals down to a pretty dimple on her cheek, then waltzes at the corners of the mouth like a thing of life, then bursts its bonds of beauty and fills the air for a moment with a shower of silver-tongued and the n steals back to its lair in the heart to watch again for its prey." How different from the kind of laugh of Prince Hoar, a friend of Hsydon, painter ! This gentleman was a delicate, feeble-looking man wth a timid expression of face, and when he laughed heartily he almost teemed to be crying It runs in families sometime t) distort the f» atures in laughter. Mr Labouchere speaks of a family who laugh a preat deal, and who always shut their eyes when they do so It is funny at the table, when something witty is said, to l-ok around and see the same distortion in every face. There is not an eye left in th« family. A trio of sisters is spoken of who show half an inch of pale blue gums when they laugh. In their presence "one never dtres to be as one can," for fear of seeing this applau !- ing trplt t of gum*.