GRINNING.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3138, 10 March 1879, Page 1

GRINNING.

People laugh not because they are amused, or because they feel hilarious, or because they are particularly at peace with all the world, but simply because it is the fashion to do so. Or, perhaps it is more correct to say that they grin, a grin being the nearest approach to a genuine laugh that some people ever attain. But, then, they grin iwith a persistency which seems to indicate that, they hare plenty of laughing power in them, and that if they would but consent to keep that power in reserve they would be able to indulge m an honest laugh now and then. If you meet them in the street they grin at you; if you look round at them during prayers at church they grin in acknowledgment of the compliment; if you stumble aerota them at the theatre, and oommit an out* : rage upon their corns, they grin as they writhe in agony; if they hare to tell you i that their wires are dead, or that they , themselves are upon the verge of ruin, or that something particularly dismal is about to happen, they grin ai they impart the mournful intelligence; if you call them fools they grin, though there is no „,-«on to suppose that your doing so ™*i, o its them; in fact, at every serious ™«mi'nf •* their, lives the one thing that J?° me°L -We to rely upon doing is grinmng. They*. they have good ones, teeth or whethe. \rf * BOOn „ Some, indeed, put [^ you and keep ever they are introdu °.~ *T j" ? at their ginning till th. V . !f»J| J™ aence. You may be as •uW.|> »- -. , but they will grin at every -worn you utter. They may, themselves, talk ««» •<> ra&ny idiots, yet they will grin on* every syllable which falls from their own* "ps. You may feel inclined to wish that they, would scowl or do anything but grin, however grin they will, just as if you loved to see them doing so. • The result of all this is'that laughing and smiling have little, if any, meaning or significance, and that it would be as reasonable to judge a man by his laugh as it would be to judge him by his toes. Indeed we may go farther than this and say that grinning is in most cases, worse than no guide at all to those who indulgo in it, and that if you wish to find a man of humour, sense, and good feeling, you must not look for him amongst the grinning fraternity. Yet in spile of the fact that there is a vast deal too much grinning indulged in nowadays, there are hosts of individuals who are prepared to exercise all their talents in exciting grins. It is not uninteresting to contemplate tho depths of inanity, not to say idiocy, which people will descend to in order to bring - about this end. The English language suffers terrible mutilation at their bands. Assuming that they have got the idea into their heads that there is a profundity of humor in word'twisting, they will watch as keenly ai a terrier will watch a rabbit-hole each sentence you utter, not with the view of discovering whether there is any wisdom or humor in < it, but in order that they may find som» word capable of being used in another sense from that in which you have used it.. Of course you grin as they reveal to you the great fact that they have discovered that a oertain term has two meanings, though you are at a loss to imagine why they should have Men fit to take you into their confidence upon a matter as to which any school boy might be supposed to be informed. It would appear that they are unable to think

there is anything in a conversation the thread of which is not being continually broken by a series of preposterous puns. But if individuals rested content with devoting their lives to the purpdse of showing that most words can be used in more than one sense a great deal of harm would not perhaps be done, except to themselves. The misfortune is that your confirmed grin exciter is not satisfied with indulging in a number of silly quirks. It is his pleasure to turn mountebank in general. He will say the most ridiculous things, all the time knowing them to be ridiculous, if by doing so he can raise a grin on your face. Uis conception of jocosity often indicates itself by his making one statement when. he means precisely the opposite of what that statement would imply that he meand. If you are an unusually steady sort of party he will insinuate or assert that you are a rake of the wildest description; if you are remarkably abstemious he will allege it against you in his own peculiarly jocular way that you are exceedingly fond of the contents of the bottle. "■ He will then grow very funny—save the mark !—about your doings with the ladies, and especially if you are disposed to give those fair creatures a wide berth he will rally you upon being a veritable Don Juan. Persons laugh at what he does, because they are expected to do so, and because they would be considered rude if they did not, but it would be absurd to suppose that they derive any pleasure or profit from his performances. This, however, is perhaps apart from the question before us. What we desire to indicate is that his tendency is to make laughter more artificial and deceptive than it would be without his efforts; and what we wish to enforce is that he is one of the worst nuisances in our midst, especially as he is one against whom it is not easy to protest without committing an outrage upon the laws of decorum. He would, however be comparatively easy to deal with if people would but recognise that there is^ no necessity why they should be everlastingly on the broad grin; Let them make up their minds that it is only needful for them to laugh when they are pleased" jor feel amused, and nothing will be easier than for them to snub him as he deserves to be snubbed. Besides, they will then * peak almost as much with their laughs as with their words, and that is an advantage not to be lightly under-estimated. What language is there in that face which is always veiled by a grinP Yet from a true, honest, and well-regulated countenance almost as much can be gleaned as from the tongue.—Liberal Review.