Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 February 1885 — The Use and Abuse of Fun. [ARTICLE]

The Use and Abuse of Fun.

What should we be without this gift to brighten our existence on our earthly pilgrimage? A love of fan is most often accompanied by a cheerful and lively cnsposition. We can imagine no drearier state than that of an individual who, during the whole of his lifetime, can obtain no fun or pleasure in the slightest degree, in his daily intercourse with his fellow-creatures. But it is a well-known fact that even of the best of things one can have too much. Even fun has its limit, and a more wearisome thing can scarcely be imagined than an individual -who, at the most inappropriate time, cannot refrain from turning the most commonplace of conversation into fun and ridicule. This is certainly a great failing; but of course there is a graver aspect under which it can be Regarded, namely, the love of ill-natured fun. A laugh raised at the expense of a well-meaning person is highly injudicious, and in many cases r itely forgotton. The turning into ridicule of another person’s words and ideas in a most uncharitable and hurtful habit, when long forgotten by the speaker, rankles in the mind of the 1 victim. There is nothing more disagreeable to a very sensitive nature than the fear of being made fun of or turned into ridicule, and the very slightest inclination toward this unchristianlike habit will cause the victim of it such pain and shrinking a less sensitive mind would scarce deem possi de. We should be especially careful of these sensitive ones, the more so as one can never tell the harm a careless word leveled in mere jest may do. It rankles in the mind of the sensitive one,and gives a pernicious precedent to the hearers, which happily is not general, and brings its own punishment; for those few who find real pleasure in giving pain to others by illnatured and personal fun are rarely well spoken of, even by those who profess to see no harm in it. A sarcastic person may have many admirers, but no real friends, as, directly personal intercourse with them ceases, and when one's back is turned, then one trembles for one’s own character. But this is a spiteful and uncharitable fun, only resorted to by those who, disgusted with and weary of the world, can find consolation only in the endeavor to convert others to their opinion. There is one more abuse of fun which is necessary only just to touch upon, and which, while the love of pure and holy things exist, can never become a habit—l mean the danger that one has to guard against of speaking in fun of sacred and holy things, or in any way bringing them into ridicule. It may be that, to a really witty person, the inclination to this irreverent practice has to be moie carefully guarded against than to those whose sense of wit is less keen. If a witty speech or joke is on our lips which would turn into the slightest fun or ridicule things only to be spoken or thought of with reverence, let the witty sentence be wasted, rather thambe uttered to fall perhaps on some untutored and wavering mind, and prove a stumbling-block in that mind for years and years after the words were uttered and forgotten. So much for the abuse of this gift. But, on the whole, much more may be said for than against it; for though it may prove a stumbling-block and “occasion of falling” to some few, it is an undeniable blessing to those who, with a constant and ever-ready source of cheerfulness and fun, can make lighter daily trials and difficulties, and even afford help to a less hopeful brother or sister on their earthly journey.— Harper’s Bazar.