Being and Making Others Happy A MERRY heart doeth good like a medicine, said Solomon but a sad spirit drieth the bones. Then I commanded mirth, wrote Ecclesiastes, the preacher, because a man hath no better thing under the sun. It was Goethe who observed that joyfulness is the mother of all virtues, and another German poet who declared that a lugubrious manner widens the circles of sorrow and dread. All hail to the cheerful person man, woman or child, old or young, erudite or ignorant, homely or handsome who walks in a spirit of gladness and sheds sunshine along the pathway trod. The friendly smile, the hearty greeting, the cordial clasp of a warm hand how inspiriting to the depressed, how stimulating to the weak, how reassuring even to the active and strong are these manifestations of kindly interest! Like the sun that shines upon the earth, causing fruits and flowers and grains to grow and blossom and ripen, is the cheerful disposition of a man or woman in every zone of personal influence. Like stars that brighten the night and guide shipwrecked mariners in the direction of safety, is the sympathetic smile of either friend or stranger. Mankind recognizes the true worth of cheerfulness in the emergencies and struggles of life and values it higher than genius, polish, wealth or beauty. The smile of interest, of indulgence, of forgiveness, of approval, of appreciation, is more of an incentive to high resolves and renewed efforts than all the somber looks of wisdom, the arrogant offers of wealth or the coy glances of beauty. The smiling babe, the bright faced boy, the blithesome lass, the jovial friend, the complacent matron or the uncomplaining elder, graces each path, however short or long, each may follow from the cradle to the grave. In the home of affliction, at the bedside of suffering, in the face of menacing calamity, decorous cheer doeth good like a medicine. Franz Donders (1818 to 1889) Dutch physician and professor of physiology at Utrecht 1847, Donders studied astigmatism and gave to ophthalmology a knowledge of refraction. He died in 1889 the last of the famous triumvirate, with von Graefe of Berlin and Arlt of Prague. According to Wordsworth, it is by the deep power of joy we see into the life of things. Melancholy, looking through a glass darkly, gazes on a gloomy world. Joy sees the beauties of nature, the kindness and generosity of the Creator, and, in a roseate picture of our inheritance, reads the purpose of life and the promise of hereafter. Robert Louis Stevenson told the world that there is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy, and of making others happy. To counteract the scowl of selfishness and the frown of disapproval, often assumed or cultivated for effect by asinine aspirants to greatness, the simple antidote of cheerfulness may be administered to prevent epidemics of hate and resentment. 15 FRIDAY NOVEMBER Let those who would get the most out of life and give the most back to the world they are traveling through, lay aside their smoked monocles and look at the sunny side of every range they climb and every valley they cross. To or from an old friend or a new acquaintance a kindly glance and a friendly smile are priceless, but nothing they cost in the giving. Like the sunshine rift in a cloud of fears, Or the rainbow gleam on a mist of tears, Such smiles are treasured for many years. Good cheer and good humor are as becoming to the old as they are to the young; to the poor as well as to the rich; to the highest as to the lowest in a social scale; to the head of the government as well as to its humblest citizen. According to the consensus of opinion among newspaper correspondents in the national capital, one secret of President Franklin D. Roosevelts acknowledged popularity with members of all parties, creeds and classes is revealed in his sunny smile genial frankness and happy disposition. Bowed though he is with grave responsibilities, handicapped by an ailment that would have overwhelmed many men, confronted by problems which have puzzled the minds of sages and economists for centuries, he presents a pleasant countenance with a twinkling eye and smiling lips and speaks in terms of hopefulness and happiness. As an intelligent man, as a loyal American, as an experienced official and as commander in chief of the army and navy, President Roosevelts duties are many, onerous, exacting and unremitting. Yet he smiles at every station, upon every audience. and his manner is reassuring. Any other attitude might prove disquieting at a time when the people are regaining their spirits, their courage, their determination to go ahead and win overfall obstacles, their feeling of security from foreign entanglements.