The Uses of Langhter

Southland Times, Issue 15058, 30 September 1901, Page 4

The Uses of Langhter

A Freooh patriots of the -more tboughtfa - type are eeid tobemaeh ezaroised In mind Jast t>ew by the dieo.very that the art snd praatice of laaghiog bat almost died out ia their ooeegty coantry. Tbis, however, 1« not the only time in which suoh a calami' y has -Oeanexl. Daring the whole time Pari, was invested very littlo Uaght-r was beaid many part of Fiat c*. Even at tbe few cafes ch-ntanta whioh still opened their doore, p-trlotio songs of a far from bil-riovs natare, song with grim aad petbe ie solemn. ity, took the place of the ditties whioh babitnally do service tbere. Tho existing Republic was inaugurated in no merry mood ; sad if ws look back to tbe fint Republic no

one will imagine tbat daring the Reign of Terror many people were much disposed to l-ogh. These, oertainly, were exceptional periods, whereas no epeo'al oausa can be aldooedfortbe great accession of seriousness which is now said to bate seized open the nation. Fashion, probably, hu laid it down among her immutable laws that Republicans ehould always be a more eerioos set than Royalists or Imperialists. Certainly the England of Cromwell was a sadder place than that of Qaeen Bess or old Rowley, just as the Rome of tbe Elder Cato was less frivolous tban that of Horace or Martial. How far tbe reetor_ti_n of a Monarchical form of Government was due in eiiher cse to the disgnstof the publio for ite lack ot amusements and the desire of more gaiety ie a question which historians may answer in various way*; but it is, at any rate, well snown that, the coop d'etat which overturned ! the Beoond of the Frenob Repnblios owed a deal of its popularity to the hearty laugh wbioh was excited on the boulevards when, <*n the eventful morning, placards bearing ttie w_tobwo.de of K'publ c_nis_) were found to have been quietly metamorphosed into Imperial manifesto-*, pro.laimiog a military dictatorship. To laugh at a thing i and to be at the same time ceriously angry at it is hardly possible; and many a feat hea been acoompliehed in j icular style whioh . >voald bave been impossible if attemped In a spirit of deooroue dignity. The Palmerstonian tona of banter may succeed where all the thuodere of Aristotelian logio of Demosthenic oratory would fail. A laughless nation, eaoh as is occasionally portrayed for us in history and fiet'on, is not very amiable or interesting. The 'aU work and no play' system will induoe dnlces in men and women as well as boys. Doctors deolare that the exercise of the risible {acuities assists the digestive organs, while the specialists in mental affectione tmpeet no one so readily as the person who never laughs. The human iottinct differs perhaps most from that of tbe brutes in this one particular, that it imp-Is men to go in search of sights and sounds that divert and am ace the mind. No a _imal except man takes any delight in a Punoh and Judy show. Wby! Became none c»n laugh at it. T&ke from a collection of human beings, whether assembled round a dinner table, in a theatre, or on Epsom Down*, tba disposition to laugh at oomioal incidents, and y o rob it at onoe of half its power of e_ joyment. If the oapaoity for laughter were by some bad fairy withdrawn from mank 'nd, more than half ef the professions whioh are kept alive by the business of providing It with entertainments would miserably perish.— Globe.