Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1882 — Cheerfulness. [ARTICLE]

Cheerfulness.

The Fortnightly Kovtew. Of ail the surface qualities—l use the word “surface” not as excluding “substance,” but rather implying it—none is more noteworthy among the Japanese than their cheerfuluess at work. It is a quality shared by all classes aud common to all employments. The Japanese statesman dictates a dispatch or discusses a cabinet question with a smile on his face; the financier, more astonishing yet, smiles over the intricacies of a deficient budget; the K teacher smiles during every pause in is sermon; the writer at tils desk; the shop-keeper smiles while chaffering with his customer, the servant on receiving his master’s orders, the smith while forging, the , metal, the potter manlpiilatlug the 61ay, the husbandman as he wades knee keep in mud across tbe rice fields, tbe bargeman propelliug bis clumsy boat against wind aud tide, the coolie straining to lift tbe heaviest loud, nay, even the convict at hiH forced labor at the roadside. And what is more, a very slight occasion will broaden the smile into a hearty laugh. All this is true and genuine good humor, based firstly, no doubt, on a good digestion, but also on a remarkably elastic temperment,great courage, ami tbe sound, good sense that everywhere aud every bow make tbe best of things. Had Mark Tapley been somewhat more of a gentleman in manners, be might have passed for aa average Japanese.