Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1885-09-02
AMERICAN LIARS.


about ninety persons and inquired:
Have you any liars in your employ VI
Eyes, sir; we have at least sixty" was,
The prompt reply.
II you were to 60 up and down the conn.,
try asking each man you met if he knew Of
the whereabouts Of a liar you would dis
cover that sixty per cent. of the population
of this country could be included under that
head. You meet liars on every corner,
you pass them on every block; you sit be-
side them on every street car and lying has
become such custom that liars are a. well
thought of as ttuth-tellers.
What do people lie about? Everything.
First ON the list is the weather liar. Fact
is, unless man is prepared to tell big lie
about the heat or the cold he'd better keep
still altogether. Coming down in the car
| of morning we all like to hear some one
shy that it is forty eight degrees below at
Fort Garry, and the liar knows this failing
and lies to please the crowd. Eight men
out of ten, if asked If they ever saw hotter
or colder day, ~ill at once reply in the af-
| frmative and draw on their imagination for
| facts.
On Jefferson avenue car recently a bust
ness man, whose word is rs good as gold in
business circles, was asked if he ever saw
more than three feet of snow in the streets
of Detroit. Without the least hesitation he
replied:
| d" should say / had In 1859 the snow
was five feet deep along here, and / kept
two teams at WORK for three days hauling
the snow off my front. We had sleighing
that winter until the 2sth of March. Snow
fell on the Sd of November and lasted right
through without thaw."
| 1t was afterward ascertained that the man
was in France from July, 1858, to October,
1861. Why did he lie? Simply because
no American will take bluff When you
ask him if he has seen this or that, you in
vite him to lie, or at least he feels that you
do. Tell him strange story and he feels
that he must tell stranger one. A case in
point occurred in the Office of one of the
hotels few evenings since. A party of
/ gentlemen we're talking about the New York
obelisk, when one of them observed:
"The Pyramids of Egypt must be grand
sight. Won't some of you who have seen
them tell me exactly how they look to mod.
ern eyes?"
Thereupon a man who was never further
East than New York, or further West than
Chicago, gave detailed description of his
every little detail SO particularly and pleas
antly that he was voted bottle of wine.
Why did he lief Simply because he was
invited to. Indeed, he felt that the ques-
toner would be disappointed if he did not
Men will lie about horses when they
would scorn to approach an untruth on any
other subject. Last fall citizen purchased
horse back in the country on the under
standing that the animal was reasonably
fast. That is, the seller said the horse
could jog along in about three minutes.
He lied at least twenty seconds in that
"about." The new owner at once told all
his friends that he had secured an equine
which could "get there i'll 2:30. He lied
plump thirty seconds In few weeks it
was generally understood that the horse
was fast, and more than one person asserted
> that they had seen him trot in 2:32 at Rec
reation Park, although lie was never inside
the fence. When the snow came, and the
|, "fyers were given rein, it was found that
the 2:3O horse was nowhere. First and last
| fifty men had ed about his speed, and yet
: he had none.
The newspapers come in contact with thu
liar every hour in the day. Let man fal
from the roof of shed on High street anl
! break his arm, and the news travels abou
= as follows;
FL One block away-Broke both arms.
!, Two blocks vway-Botb arms and leg
Three blocks away-Smashed all to pieces
J and was dead when they picked him up.
,fl Four blocks away-Committed suicide.
:, Five blocks away-Shot his wife and thel
n blew his head of.
= At the City Hall-Set fire to his house
Drained the baby, stabbed his wife, an
n then blew himself up.
:, Every iuducemement is held out for re
81 porters to exaggcrate. Indeed, plain fact
q. are of no interest to hundreds of readers
HI December last a reporter on this pape
e. assisted policeman to take drunken ma
from an alley, where he was freezing,
Q; the Central Station. The I" item " regare
ing it was only II three-liner but covcre
all the facts. Noxt day citizen encoul
tered the scribe and said
| "Was that fellow badly frozen2"
"No."
evil he lose his feet?"
"No."
Ellis handsf"
"No."
"His ears7"
. "No."
Hadn't he been robbed?"
"No"