i have learned to have deep sympathy for the man who cannot laugh. he may have great learning or power or skill or wealth, but if fate has denied him a keen sense of humor he is like a mcintosh apple with the glorious flavor left out. most of the deaf are denied what we may call “the healing balm of tears.” unless there chance to be some volcanic eruption of the heart they must go in dry-eyed sorrow through their years. yet, if they are able to laugh it is probable that the deaf see more of the ludicrous side of life than do those who have full hearing. it comes to be amusing to notice how men and women strive and worry over the poor non-essential things of conversation, and waste time and strength trying to make others understand simple things which the deaf man comes to know at a glance. those who are so unfortunate that they are forced to hear all the litter and waste-basket stuff of conversation may wonder why the inability to hear may act as a torture to the tender heart. they do not know how closely sound is related to the emotions. they cannot understand without losing many of the finer things of life. yet, as between the tearless man and the unfortunate soul who is denied the joy of laughter, the latter is more deserving of sympathy. one may be nearer insanity but the other is nearer the gallows.
one great reason why the negro race has come through its troubles with reasonable success is because fate has given the black man the blessed privilege of laughter. many a time when other races would have gone out to rob and kill the black man has been able to sing or laugh his troubles away. so, as between the man who cannot weep or lash himself into a rage and he who cannot laugh, the latter is a far more dangerous citizen and far more to be pitied.
i suppose i ought to be an authority on this subject, as some years ago i was in the business of trying to inoculate some very serious and sad-minded people with the germ of laughter. we had some specimens so tough and so hard-boiled that it was a difficult matter to start them. i was stranded in a farm neighborhood in a western state working as hired man through a very dull winter. back among the hills, off the main roads when prices are low and crops are poor, you strike a gloom and social stagnation which the modern town man can hardly realize. i did my work by day and at night went about to churches and schoolhouses “speaking pieces.” we called those gloomy and discouraged people together and tried to make them laugh.
i remember one such entertainment held in a country schoolhouse far back in the mud of a january thaw. the dimly lighted room was crowded with sad-faced, discouraged men and women to whom life had become a tragedy through dwelling constantly upon their own troubles. at intervals during my entertainment two sad-faced women and a couple of men who would have made a success as undertakers at any funeral sang doleful songs about beautiful women who died young or children who proved early in life that they were too good for this world. during one of these intervals a farmer led me outdoors for a conference. your modern artist can command a salary which enables him to ignore criticism, but in that neighborhood the financial manager was the boss.
“see here now,” said the farmer, “we hired you to come here and make us laugh. why don’t you do it? i’ve got my hired man in there. he’s all ready to go on a spree and he will do it if you don’t make him laugh. we have paid you $2.50 to come here and speak. that means $1.25 an hour or $12.50 for a 10-hour day. no other man in this neighborhood gets such wages. it’s big money, now go back and earn it. make that man laugh! it’s a moral obligation for you to do it.”
there was the hired man, a great hulk of humanity feeling that he would be a hero, the champion of the neighborhood, if he could hold humor at bay. when i went back into the schoolroom the teacher stood up by the stove and said it was the unanimous request of the audience that i should read or recite the “raven,” by edgar allan poe. that was not exactly in my line, but who is large enough to resist such an appeal? years before i had heard a great actor in boston recite the poem, and with the noble courage of youth i started the best imitation i could muster. no one, not even the author, ever considered the “raven” as a humorous poem, but it struck the hired man that way. i had cracked jokes in and out of dialect. i had “made faces” and played the clown generally without affecting the hired man. yet, at the third repetition of “quoth the raven—nevermore!” the hired man exploded with a roar that shook the building, and the rest of the entertainment was one long laugh for him. the rest of the audience joined with him, and long after the meeting closed and the lanterns twinkled down the dark and muddy roads, you could hear roars of laughter from the farmers, as they journeyed home. just what there was about the “raven” to explode that man i have never known. it changed his life. it broke a spring somewhere inside of him and his jokes and roars of laughter changed the whole social life of that neighborhood. the minister told me in the spring that his people had received a great spiritual uplifting during the winter. he gave no credit whatever to poe and the hired man.
that same winter i went to a church for another entertainment. i sat in the pulpit beside the minister and every time i stopped for breath he would lean over and whisper:
“make them laugh! give them something humorous! make them laugh!”
he saw that laughter was religion at such a time. it was a gloomy night. the people were sad and discouraged. their religion was a torment to them at the time. nothing but laughter could cure them, and i did my best with discouraging results. i will confess that i lost faith for once in my life and quit trying. there was one intelligent and prosperous farmer in the front pew. he seemed to be a leader and i directed my efforts straight to him. it came to be the one desire of my life to make that solemn-faced man laugh, and he would not do it. it seemed to me as if he sat there with his solemn face a little bent forward, like some wise old horse listening to the chatter of a young colt. i could not stir him and i confess that i quit ingloriously and “took up the collection.”
but, when we all went out on the church steps while lanterns were being lighted and the boys brought up the horses i saw my solemn-faced friend talking with another farmer.
“john,” said the farmer as he snapped down the globe of his lantern, “how did you like the show?”
“well, henry, it was good all the way through. i am so sore around my ribs that i’m going home to rub liniment on my sides.”
“how’s that?”
“why, henry, that young feller was so funny that i never come so nigh to laughing in the house of god as i done tonight. when i get home out of sight of the elder, i am going to stand right up on my hind-legs and holler.”
