The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1882-05-27

~ pefends Innocent Lying Be6bro
the Young nen's Christian A.
aociation 1t 1ndianapoha.

~ Defends Innocent Lying Be0oro
.he Young Mems Christian A.
sociation 1t Indianapolis.
iii Perkins departed from hi. Get leo
- Inst night. delivered before the
T"ung Meme Christian Association,
rS !. crowded hOuae, and made some
IL, rise remarks about lying:
-.od deal SAID about lying In this coun.
,rx lately. l confess that I have been
Ltd a great liar myself. In fact the
e. ~. has been struck great many times.
H.m.bter.) You remember that Hen
N.tcrsoi,, of the Louiville Courier
iovru0i. said publicly on the stems Of
.,r hotel ut Saratoga, last summer, that
no was personally acquainted with
. rs o! tile biggest liaTs-the biggest
Txinr liars in the world, and when they
."'trl him who they were he sand:
.s:uryc Alfred Townsend is one and
n; Perkins Is the other two" [Great
i.myhter.! Now, my friends, speaking
III, iny, maintain that all great hui
",or;s,s are great liars. and that the fun.
.;..t men have always been the big
~s.t liars. But I do lot say vice versa
i .i,,t all great liars are great humorists.
m,hi- were the case, then the lawyers
",.,ld lie the funniest men in the
s"ri,,. [Laughter.] The lie to be fun
W. must he purely inn0ceut-it must
=: ibid to make our fell0w-men happy.
.ni To harm no man, or It must be told
,"n,ske wrOng ridiculous. % did the sat
;,,s of ..Don Quixote," ''Ginx's Baby"
Invenal and Dean Swift. In TACT, the
~ must Ike an innocent Baron Mum
.S.,,sen lie. II the old humorists were
m, great liars, then Dean 6wift's ''Tale
"a tut" was . tDue story. Gulliver's
ere a. true AZ n0ody's sermons,
Ti.:keray's yellow Plush Papers'
-rre sunday school tracts and Baron.
unncl,ausen's four hundred gigantic
i;es were as true % Nacavlsy's 'Histo-
~ Of England" Almost atl fun IL ex-
Iteration, all exaggeratiOn 10 lying.
Tsrk Twain IL fearful liar. Show me
.Inele truth in Max Adeler's "Elbow
RIunl." Artemus Wards works are
oure lictions, pure les, with no satire,
nj told simply to produce innocent
laughter. Laughter cannot be produced
Without acting, painting or writing IN
;.nocent lie. The humorist artist, the
c.ricsturist, like John Leech and Cruik-
hank. had no other element than the
Ne TO draw upon to pr0duce laughter.
Thry had to make long nose, . big
ear. Z crooked leg, or cockeye. No one
ever laughed Ut true picture. II . live
nan ever looked - Cruikshank or John
Leeeh painted him, We would shed team
n lis li,ourniul condition, II . real
man acted like Don Quixote, We would
weep ut bis mislortunes. Sometimes
vrople laugh vt great truth, for truth
> oiten stranger sounds like . bigger
He) than fiction. This has always 6een
ny greattrouble. Leughter.1 I have
eenenally told such great, strange
tluthes that tho people would laugh BE-
ause they thought they were lies. SO
/ have got the reputation OF teing .
volIoly minded humorist, when, In
fit, ] am = great truth-teller. To illus
t1ste: One night was telling about
tie biz trees in California. said /
pdeinto q big tree, big hollow tree, on
bsrxeback, and then walked out 1t the
knot-holes. (Laughter.1 The people
hughed because they thought Il WAS .
ke. when, in fact, It Was the truth. The
t1ees are thirty five feet In diameter, and
Tie holes through them are twelve feet
h diameter-aS wide ct through . barn
1oor. 10 illustrate what I mean by On
ihnucent Baron Munchau0en story: /
I'D On uncle William once, who got
eaught I'm . fearful rainst0Fm one night,
When he was en- the way TO ~ evening
pnyer meeting, at New London, Con-
leeticut. He started Tor New London
. borseback, but when he got about
half way there, thele arose . fearful
Aosm. The wind blew . hurricane, the
nin poured in torrents, the lightning
gl<amed through the sky, and my uncSe
et In behind . large harm. But IN
1on.ent the lightning struck that barn
md knocked It into thousand spS1nt-
as, and sent his horses whir1tng over
Into = neixheoring eor,,-petch: what
id you do then, Uncle William" l
sked. "Well," said he, II didn't
know hardly Whist to do. I w. ve1Z
nSch discouraged, but to tell the homes
tIuth-the honest Connecticut truth,
Ell, I went right out into the cornnesd,
teok on my coat, bumped up my o:re
ted, and took eleven strokes OF ught'
ing right ON my bare backl,one, drew
the 1iGhtning ill out Of the eky and then
st onto my horse and got tnta New
Loollon on time to head q the evening
mayer meeting" (Upsnartoos Iaugn'
sef:cZsdia~apoIjs Jos'spaI..
Rn.n4OnQTpal Dull