Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1881-12-20
ELI PERKINS on !
Ell Defends Innocent Lying BE.
fore the n. M. G. A.

indianapolis Journal.l
Eli Perkins departed from his set
lecture last night, delivered before the
Y. NJ. c. A., ard a crowded house,
and made some wise remsrks about
lying:
Nov, my friends, there has been a
good deal said about lying in this
country lately. l confess that | have
been called a great liar myself. In
fact the Tyre has been struck a great
many times, Laughter You re-
member that Henry W~atterson, Of the
Louisville Courier. Journal, said pub
licly on the steps OF the hotel at Sara
toga, last summer, that he was per,
sonally acquainted with three OF
the biggest liars-the biggest, llv--
ing liars in the world, and
when they asked him who they
we're he said. George Alfred Town
send is one and Eli Perkins is the
other twol" [Great laughter. Now,
my friends, speaking of lying, | main
tain that all great humorists are great
liars, and that the funniest men have
always been the biggest liars. But |
do not say vice versa that all great
liars are great humorists. If this
we're the case then the lawyers would
be the funniest men in the world.
TLaughter.] 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
the satires of"Don Quixote, ""Ginx's
Baby" Juvenal and Dean Swift. In
fact, the lie told must be an innocent
Baron Munehausen lie. If the old
humorists were not great liars, thon
Dean Swift's "Tale of a Tub" was a
true story. Gulliver's travels were as
true as Moody,s sermons, Thack-
eray's yellow Plush Papers were
Sunday school tracts, and Baron
Munchausen's four hundred gigan-
tic lies were as true as Macaulay's
History of England" Almost all
fun Is exaggeration, all exaggeration
is lying. Mark Twain is a fearful
liar. Show me a single truth in Max
Adler's Elbow Room" Artemus
Wards works are pure fctiOns, pure
lies, with no satire, but told simply to
produce innocent laughter. Laughter
cannot be produced without acting,
painting and writing an exaggeration
lin plain English, without acting,
painting or writing an innocent lie.
The humorous artist, the c%aricaturist
like John Leech and Cruikshank, mad
no other element but the lie to draw
upon to produce laughter. They bad
to make a long nose. a big ear, a
crooked leg, or a cockeye. No one
ever laughed at a true picture. If a
live man really looked as Cruikshank
or John Leech painted him, we would
shed tears at his mournful condition.
Ifa real man acted like DON Quixote
we would weep at his misfor.unos,
Sometimes people laugh at a great
truth, for truth is often
stranger than fiction. This
has always been my great trouble.
Laughter l have generally told
such great, strange truths, that the
people would laugh because they
thought they we're lies. So | have
got the reputation Of heing a worldly
minded humorist, when, in fact, | am
a great truth-teller. To illustrate;
One night | was telling about the big
trees in California. | said | rode into
a tree, a big hollow tree, on horse
back, and then walked out at the
knot-holes. Laughter The people
laughed because they thought it was a
lie, when, in fact, 1t was the truth
The trees are thirty five feet in diam
eter, and the hole through them is
twelve feet in diameter-as wide,
though, as a barn-door. To illustrate
what l mean by an innocent Baron
Munchausen story: / had an uncle
William once, who got caught in q
fearful rain storm one night,
when he was on the way to
attend a praying-meeting at New
London, Connecticut. He started
for New London on horseback, but
when he got about half way there,
there arose a terrible storm. The
wind blew a hurricane, the rain pour
cd in torrents, the lightning cleaned
through the sky, and my uncle got In
behind a large barn. But in a moment
the lightning struck that barn and
knocked it into a thousand splinters,
and sent his horse whirling over into a
neighboring corn patch. What did
you do then, Uncle William l asked
well" said he, Il didn't hardly
know what to do. | was very much
discouraged, but to tell the honest
truth-the honest Connecticut truth,
Eli, / went right out into the corn
field, took off my coat, bumped up M
bare back, and took eleven strokes Of
lightning right on my bare backbone,
drew the lightning all ont Of the sky.
and then got onto my horse and got
into New London on time to lead at
the evening prayer meeting. TIP.
roarious laughter.
A Wrou0 Udaa