TRY SMILING.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 253, 23 February 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

TRY SMILING.

AN ARTICLE FOR THOSE WHO MAY BE FEELING BLUE.

Smile awhile, For when you smile another smiles, And soon there's miles and miles of smiles. And life's worth while Because you smile.

Do you know that being cheery is a virtue, something to be proud of. and something which makes one deserving of a niche in the Hall of Fame?

Don't look glum—smile. Do you realise the tremendous power of a smile? Tt is, indeed, mightier than the pen and the sword. Try it when you feel blue, and you will be surprised at its wonder working effects. But remember, there's a time to smile, as we'll as a time not to smile Don't become such an habitual smiler that you'll smile at a funeral. The fact is. one almost has to be educated to smiie. The habit of smiling is one tbat can make the poor man rich and the rich man richer. Start now, cultivate the best habit in the worldsmile.

Were you born with a smile on -•our face? That, you know, Is far better than having been born with the proverbial silver spoon in your mouth. Some people seem to have been borike smiling. They don't count. They, and their sort, are masqucraders. Indeed, they are the ones who would smile at a funeral.

DEFYING FATE. But what of the man who has to fight down a scowl before he fan produce a smile? What of the man or woman who was not born smiling, and yet has so schooled Dame Nature that "the smile which breaks through the placid surface of the face at the right moment is the sweetest and most entertaining thing one sees in the whole course of the d.ay? What of these? They are the salt of the earth. They are the people whose friendship is worth cultivating. They are the ones who know the true meaning of the art of being glad. The poet says something about learning In sorrow what he teaches in song, and another says something About our sweetest songs springing from saddest thoughts. How true! The smile which defies Fate, which laughs at impossibilities, and thereby renders them possibilities, which says to the tremulous and the halting and the fearful: "Come on. you chaps! What are you afraid of? Buck up—play the game! Don't depress the spirits of your neighbours. Cheer up! Smile!" That is the smile worth while.

The value of a smiling clerk or shop assistant to an employer is not to he measured in mere money. There are thousands of shoppers, as well as countless numbers who are "just looking," who daily enter our great shops in search of this or that little trifle. They know what they want —they know at what counter they can get what they want. Now imagine how these people are affected by a man whose face proclaims that he is at odds with the world in general—-whose fare has indelibly stamped on it "In memoriam." The shopper makes her purchase and breathes a sigh of relief at being able to escape from the immediate vicinity of the "joy chaser." Those who are merely "just looking" take one 100k —and look no more —except for the nearest exit.

WORTH MILLION'S IN BUSINESS. On the other hand there is the smiling shop assistant— the man wlic-e snii.'es are infect : nns. the memory of which lingers with the customer. Let shoppers come in contact with your smiling assistant. and how wonderful the result. Nine times out of ton the shopper buys more than she had intended in the first place—she fit may even he a man i goes on her way with a joyous countenance, passers-by are infected witli the joy of living, and—why, it's endless. Haven't you ever noticed that? Smiles are worth millions in the business world.

[lid you ever practise smiling? Well, not many people do. Hut why not? One practises golf, swimming. and tennis. Why, shouldn't one practise smiling? And do not for one minute think it an easy job, for it is anything but that: in fact. it is one of the hardest hits of discipline. Just try it, for instance, when a slump in business sets you face to face with disaster, .lust try it when there ranMes in your heart n piece or Pad news you wish to keep from your wife or husband. Just try it when thinrs have been going from lad to worse for weeks and weeks, and you are beginning to feel that you are "up against it." Jusl

try to practise that easy smile, and see how hard it really it.

THE SMILE THAT COUNTS

It can be done, though. It has been done. And that, by the way, is the time when smiling is akin to a virtue, when it is something to be proud of, something that is worthy of commendation. And it is then, of all times, when it is a splendid help to others.

By the way, did it ever occur to you that the "glad hand" does not necessarily mean shaking hands in a most, apparently, convincing manner? No, indeed; it's just the smile that counts; watch and see for yourself just how it works. Why, one ran almost judge a person's character by his smile. A good, cheerful smile is infectious. One warms right up to the person who wears a cheery or benign smile on his face; it is the surest of all signs, pointing oui that he is real, genuine, not a counterfeit, not spurious.