Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1874-06-20
LYING AS A FINE ART,

That lying has at all times been a
common vice of humanity is proved by
David's sweeping statement that "AU
men are Liars This remark by-the-
bye was afterwards acknowledged by
the Jews harpist to be of a reckless
and hasty nature, and his intention was
doubtless to have especially referred
to women. It would be more nearly
correct nowadays to say that all men
are not really liars, but that all try to
be. You do not count your neighbor
as q sportsman because he, day after
day wades about in swamps, banging
his gun at ducks without ruffling the
feathers of single Anatidae. So, too,
the majority of men make tremendous
efforts to deceive, but rarely succeed in
bagging a really good canard. System
in telling lies is very different thing to
systematic lying. Good liars to blum
derers are as one to hundred, and this
paucity of artists arises from the fact
that most people imagine deception an
accomplishment too easily attainable.
Great liars are great men and are as
much to the manner born as poets.
Good schooling may improve ALTAR, but
to be master in his art he must from
the first be blessed with genius for ex-
aggeration and deception.
Chief amongst thecuriosities of artis-
tic lying, is the fact that really great
liar, invariably has the reputation of
being truth teller of the most ordinary
and inveterate class. The fact that O
man is known rs liar is conclusive
proof of his being..a bunglersand fail
ure.
The qualifications of liar tremen-
dous and successful are indeed numer-
Gus. Not only has he to be perfect
student of human nature and to be pos
sessed of ready invention, but con-
summate acting is necessary, coolness
under the most trying circumstances is
indispensable, whilst his memory should
equal that of Macauly or Frederick the
Great. As student of human nature
he is enabled to understand at once
just the kind Of "a lie his victim would
most readily swallow. A vivid imagina-
ton enables the liar-artist to color his
work we'll and furnish such minor de-
tails as shall render it natural and real
istic. Goodness enables the liar to be
perfectly at his ease, for there must be
no blush, no casting down of the eyes,
no halt of speech, but a ready off-hand
manner, a square front and if not an
air of conscious innocence, certes that of
superiority. The qualifications of an
actor enable.the liar to complete the de-
ception by means of appropriate ges-
lures and magnetic facial expressions.
A born liar soon develops into law
yer, an editor or novelist. Women
lie naturally and artifcially. Decep-
ton with them, whether in the matter
of figures of speech, .or their own,
seems inherent and is probably another
phase of the prineval curse.
Exa9geration is the death-blow to
any lie. The most successful lie ever
published, next to the book of Job,
was the story of Robinson Crusoe, q
story taken as gospel truth by many
because of the absence of exaggeration,
whereas Baron Munchausen's inventions
are of the most transparent and clumsy
description.
From thorough practical and theo-
retical knowledge Of the subjects the
writer could enlarge thereon, almost ad
,nfnium, but it is matter of much
doubt, if after ramplifcation most careful,
the reader would have been taught any
new thing in lying.