LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Laugh and Live
Do You Ever Laugh? 
Over the Hedge and on His Way
Preparing to Pair With the Prickly Pear
A Little Spin Among the Saplings
Over the Hills and Far Away—­Father and Son
A Scene from “His Picture in the Papers”
A Scene from “The Americano”—­Matching Wits for Gold
Taking on Local Color
A Scene from “His Picture in the Papers”
Douglas Fairbanks in “The Good Bad-Man”
Squaring Things With Sister—­From “The Habit of Happiness”
A Scene from “In Again—­Out Again”
Bungalowing in California
Demonstrating the Monk and the Hand-Organ to a Body of Psychologists
“Wedlock in Time”—­The Fairbanks’ Family
Here’s Hoping
A Close-Up

LIVE AND LAUGH

CHAPTER I

“Whistle and Hoe—­sing as we go”

There is one thing in this good old world that is positively sure—­happiness is for all who strive to be happy—­and those who laugh are happy.

Everybody is eligible—­you—­me—­the other fellow.

Happiness is fundamentally a state of mind—­not a state of body.

And mind controls.

Indeed it is possible to stand with one foot on the inevitable “banana peel” of life with both eyes peering into the Great Beyond, and still be happy, comfortable, and serene—­if we will even so much as smile.

It’s all a state of mind, I tell you—­and I’m sure of what I say.  That’s why I have taken up my fountain pen.  I want to talk to my friends—­you hosts of people who have written to me for my recipe.  In moving pictures all I can do is act my part and grin for you.  What I say is a matter of your own inference, but with my pen I have a means of getting around the “silent drama” which prevents us from organizing a “close-up” with one another.

In starting I’m going to ask you “foolish question number 1.”—­

Do you ever laugh?

I mean do you ever laugh right out—­spontaneously—­just as if the police weren’t listening with drawn clubs and a finger on the button connecting with the “hurry-up” wagon?  Well, if you don’t, you should. Start off the morning with a laugh and you needn’t worry about the rest of the day.

I like to laugh.  It is a tonic.  It braces me up—­makes me feel fine!—­and keeps me in prime mental condition.  Laughter is a physiological necessity.  The nerve system requires it.  The deep, forceful chest movement in itself sets the blood to racing thereby livening up the circulation—­which is good for us.  Perhaps you hadn’t thought of that?  Perhaps you didn’t realize that laughing automatically re-oxygenates the blood—­your blood—­and keeps it red?  It does all of that, and besides, it relieves the tension from your brain.