Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1880-02-28
AN ESSAY ON LYING.

been a good deal said about ly
ing in this country lately.
confess that l have been c;lllet
a greet liar myself: In fact til,
Tyre has been struck grea
many times. You remembcI
that Henry Watterson, of til,
Louisville Cour cr-Jourllal, said
publicly on the steps of the no.
tel ut Saratoga, last summer
that he was p.rS Dnally acquaint.
cd with three OF the biggest
liars-t!lc largest 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 9th
ertwo!" Now, my friends, speak
ing Of lying, | maintain that
all great hlmorists are great
liars, and that the funniest men
have always been the biggest
liars. But l do not say vice
versa that all great liars are
great humorists. If this were
the case, then lawyers would be
the funniest men in tha world.
The lie to be funny must be
purely innOcent-it must be
told to make our fellow-men
happy, and to harm no man, or
it must be told to make wrong
ridiculous, as did "Don Quix-
ote," 'Ginx'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 hu-
morist were not greatliars, then
then Dean Swift's "Tale of a
Tub" was a true story, "Gulli-
ver's Travels" were as true as
Moody's sermons. Thackeray's
"Yellow Plush Papers" were
Sunday school tracts, and Bar
ron Munchausen's four hundred
gigantic lies were as true as
Maca.l)ey's "History of Eng
land" Almost all fun is ex-
aggeration, all exaggeration is
lying. Mark Twain is a fear
1ul liar. Showme asingle truth
in Max Adeler's ''Elbow RooAl."
Artemus Wards works are pure
lies, with no satire, but told
to produce innocent
laughter. Laughter cannot be
produced without acting, paint
ing, or writing and exaggera-
tion-in plain English without
acting, painting, an innocent
lie. The humorist artist, tie
likeJohn Leeck and
Cruikshank, had no other ele-
nent but TIE lie to draw upon
20 produce laughter. They had
% make a long nose, a big ear,
! crooked leg, or a cock eye.
No one ever laughed at a true
picture. If a live man really
ooked as Cruikshank or John
4eech painted him, we would
she'd tears at his mournful con-
iition. If a real man acted
ike Don Quixote, we would
weep at his mistortunes. Some
lines people laugh at a great
ruth, for truth is often stran-
ger Sounds like bigger lie)
han fiction. This has always
'een my great trouble. / have
generally told such great,
'trang truths, that the people
would laugh because they
thought it was allie. So I have
got the reputation OF being a
Sordly-minded humorist, when,
II fact, l am great trutn-tel-
er. 10 illustrate: One night 1
was telling about the big trees
n California. | said | rode i'll
20 a big tree, big hollow, on
and then walked
out ut the knot-holeS. The
people laughed because they |
thought it was lie, when, in
Fact, it was the truth. The
trees are thirty-tive feet in di-
aud the hole through
them is twelve feet in diameter
-:ls wide through as a barn
loor. 10 illustrate what l
mean by an innocent Baron
Munchauscn story: l had an
lnclc William once, who got
caught in u fearful rain-storm
)ne night when he was Oh the
Yay to attend Il PRAYER meeting