Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-19
An Essay on Lying.
By an Expert-They all do it-HumOr-
 ists, CaricRturists and Others. From the Indianapolis Journals Report of Lecture

By an Expert-They all do it-HumOr-
 ists. CaricRturists and Others.
 [From the Indianapolis Journals Report of Lecture
 by "Eh Perkins.'1
 Now, my friends there has been 8 good deal said about lying in this country lately. I confess that have been called great liar myself. In fact the Tyre has been struck a great many times. Laughter. You remem- Der that Henry Watterson, of the Louisville Courier Journal, said publicly on the steps of the hotel at Saratoga last summer that he was personally acquainted with three of the biggest liars-the biggest living liars in the world and when they asked him who they were he said: George Alfred Townsend is one and Eli Perkins is the other two !' Great laughter. Now, my friends, speaking of lying, maintain that all great humorists are great liars, and that the funniest men have always been the biggest liars. But do not say 0ice UersG that all great liars are great humorists. If this were the case then the lawyers would be the funniest men in the world. Laughter The lie to be funny must be purely innocent-it must be told to make our fellow-men happy, and harm no man, or it must be told to make wrong ridiculous, as did 'sDon Quixote," 'tGinx's Baby, :" and the satires of Juvenal and Dean Swift. In fact, the lie told must be an innocent Baron Munchausen lie. If the old humorists were not great liars, then Dean Swifts ''Tale of Tub' was a true story. 'Gullivers Travels" were as true as Moody's sermons, Thackeray's ''Yellow Plush Papers, were Sunday school tracts, and Baron Munchausen's 400 gigantic lies were as true as Macaulay's History or England Almost all fun is exaggeration, all exaggeration is lying Mark Twain is fearful liar. Show me single truth in Max Adler's ''Elbow Room Artemus Wards works are pure fictions, pure lies, with no satire, but told simply to produce innocent laughter. Laughter cannot be produced without acting, painting, or writing and ex- aggeration-in plain English, without acting, painting an innocent lie. The humorous artist the caricaturist like John Leech and Cruikshank, had no other element but the lie to draw upon to produce laughter. They had to make long nose, big ear, crooked egg, or a cock-eye. No one ever laughed at a true picture If live man really looked as Cruik- shank or John Leech painted him, we would shed tears at his mournful condition. If real man acted like Don Quixote, we would weep at his misfortune. Sometimes people laugh at great truth, for truth is often stranger Sounds like big lie) than fiction. This has always been my great trouble. Laughter. I have generally told such great, strange truths, that the people would laugh because they thought 1t was lie. So I have got the repu- tation. of being a worldly minded humorist, when, in fact, I am great truth-teller. To illustrate: One night I was telling about the big trees in California I said rode into big tree, big hollow tree on horse- back, and then walked out at the knot holes Laughter The people laughed be- cause they thought it was lie, when, in fact, it was the truth. The trees are thirty five feet in diameter, and the hole through them is twelve feet in diameter-as wide through as barn door. To illustrate what mean by an innocent Baron Munchausen story: had an uncle William once, who got caught in fear ful rain storm one night when he was on the way to attend prayer meeting at New Lon don on horseback, but when he got about half way there, there arose dreadful storm. The wind blew hurricane, the rain poured in tor rents, the lightning gleamed through the sky, and my uncle got in behind large barn. But in 8 moment the lightning struck that barn and knocked it into thousand splinters, and sent his horse whirling over into a neighboring corn patch. "What did you do then, Uncle William?" asked. ''Wel," said he, q didn't know hardly what to do. I was very | much discouraged, but to tell you the honest truth-the honest Connecticut truth, Eli, | went right out into the cornfeld, took of my coat, bumped up my bare back, and took Il strokes of lightning right on my bare back | bone, drew the lightning all out of the sky, and then got onto my horse and got into New London in time to lead at the evening prayer meeting" [Uproarious laughter.1