The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1878-11-02
THE FALsEHoops OF PoLITENEss
BY RUTH.

The falsehoods of politeness are as many
as the falsehoods Of malice. and spring from
a desire to be agreeable. They have. never
theless, deception for their root even
though the flowers appear fragrant and
pleasant to the sight. We would not let
our friends understand the exact state of
our feelings; SO, like Janus, we wear two
faces.
We know the baby to be very far removed
from perfection-in fact, 1t is decidedly
ugly it will not do for us to tell the doting
mother our impression of her SON and heir.
When she holds him up delightedly, and ex-
claims, is he not prettyf" we have not
the heart to say that, in our estimation, he
is very ugly. We do violence to our con.
science, and say, "Yes, he is very pretty"
We must say something, for silence would
be construed into dissent. OF course, we
told a deliberate falsehood we did not
wish to hurt the mothers feelings on a
point tender with oil mothers, SO we did
evil that good might come of it. We must
be careful, however, not to express q CON
trary opinion to our friends, bearing in
mind that people are sometimes disposed to
malicious repeating.
We see the carriage driven up to our
door filed with Mrs. Jones and her numer-
GUS "olive branches" We would rather be
put In the p~enitentiary for q month than
have to entertain SO troublesome q company
at lunch as Mrs. Jones and her children.
But when the lady blurts out, al did not
know whether you wanted to see us or mott
what can we say but yes, we are very glad
to see Mrs Jones and the little Jones's, even
though We said one moment before as we
saw her red, round face at the carriage
window, - do declare, how provoking |
There is that horrid Jones woman and those
detestable Jones children. 1 wish they
were at the bottom of the Red Sea" Then
we clear our face Of its frowns. and go
smiling into the parlor, and kiss Mrs. Jones
and each little Jones, and respond with
warmth to Mrs. Jones' remark that we are
very much pleased indeed to see herself and
her interesting family. What are we to do,
we say we cannot be impolite to a visitor,
and must be polite even at the expense Of
truth.
A friend asks our opinion concerning the
beauty and becomingness of her new bon
net. We have said in private to our friends
that we thought it a perfect fright" and
made Mrs. Brown look " hideous." To the
wearer OF the bonnet we say in response to
her query, 1T is very pretty and becomes
you exceedingly" We had too much ten
derness and too much politeness to tell her
that her fifteen dollar bonnet was anything
but a love of a bonnet we did not wish to
make her dissatisfied with her purchase and
plant thorns amid the roses which were
would do no good, and only harm, to cloud
her perfect satisfaction. We had seen WON
en- cry when they had been put out of con-
ceit OF a new bonnet, and we did not de-
sire to see Mrs. Brown in tears in our par
Tor. We told q f~alsehood, of course. but
our motive was good and we quoted our
conscience.
The old gentleman who, unlimited, takes
tea with us every night is warmly well
coined, although we daily preface his com
ing by wishing him lat Jericho" The
distant cousin, who writes us a yearly letter,
announcing a visit of indefinite length, re-
ceives a reply, that it will give us pleasure
to see her. We have been looking forward
with dread to that letter, and said q dozen
times " what o bore " our cousins yisits
were, and how we wished she was a distant
cousin in more ways than one. We could
not, Of course, tell her that her visits were
unacceptable she was entitled to polite
ness, even if we had to pay it at the ex-
pense of truth. 1t would never do to tell
the awkward young man who spills the con-
tents Of the gravy dish over our best silk
dress what our feelings are to him. We &C.
cept his regrets smilingly, and blandly say
that it is not of the slightest consequence.
At home we rave over the accident, and can
find no words strong enough with which to
speak of the awkward young man.
While these falsehoods are dictated by
politeness-a good thing in itself-they give
an mir of insincerity to our words, and ways.
and feeling of insecurity even with our best
friends. 1t is to be deplored that human
nature is 30 sensitive that it shrinks from
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth and a pity that so pure a thing
as politeness is compelled to walk hand in
hand with so foul a thing as falsehood