The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-07-04
ABSOLUTE FACT.
The Biographsr's Untrustworthinsss,
 An Anciont's Great Feat.


 An Ancient's Great Feat.
 It Is a pleasure to turn from the exag. geration which Is sadly intended to be humorous, and take up an absolute fact Of all things connected with an idea. facts are the easiest to handle. They are no, SO easy to get, but when you spread tho palm of your hand on fact and press |, down upon the writing desk, nothing can proven, you from working 1t with grace iul ease. Some men spend their lives In searching for facts; other men spend their lives in avoiding facts. Danlel Webster, speaking of a contemporary, once said: Way, gentlemen, if he were to start out to look for fact and were to meet one in the road, he wouldn't speak to It." "Whyr' some one asked. Be. cause, sir, he Is man oi grea, ceremony and never speaks to any one with whom he is not acquainted" l, Is possible .ha, Webster did not say this. Biography has become SO interwoven with careless anecdote that we should be slow in be- lieving biographical Item even though we know 1t to be the truth. Andrew Johnson was fond of telling the writer hereof an anecdote relative to himself. He had told 1t fifteen or twenty times when, one day, he rushed into the writ CTS apartments, sat down on . plush di. van, sighed wearily and said:
 "You remember tha, wolf story used to tell ysuT
 "Yes."
 "Weil, k Is lie"
 "Why, MT. Johnson, you assured me that 1t was an actual fact"
 "it used to be-"
 "Why is l. no, now"
 "Because A Nashville biogFapher has used it."
 Yes, we should be very careful. The toughes, pAu of history are its pages Of biography. Oh how sweet, how easy It is for a biographer to tell 8 lie. A his- torian may handle political matters In an easy and of-hand manner he may paint rebellions in the glaring coloss Of awful truth, but when he comes to biography he says to himself: "Now will rest my mind with few flights of fancy. will gs; on little saecdc.sl sprss and knock down q lev facts" He does is, oh, yes, he never falls. It Is probsbly because the biogrspher regarding his subject as lacking in the divine elements of truth i, realizes that an emb odimens of untruth must be adorned by the drapeTy of pleas ant falsehood.
 One day \ man approached Socrates and said;
 "Oh, most noble Sock, thou art co great. how can ever speak truly Of thee7"
 Cant do it" Socrates replied.
 Is there no remedy9"
 "Yes, one"
 "Eame it."
 "keep your mouth shut"
 The Romans were careful biogrs phers but they were not truthful, and the Greeks, although some of them would lose the chance of swapping horses rather than to tell lie, turned round with Athenian dignity and wrote lis concerp- ing friend. Sometimes the ancient lies were hooest. For instance, t is related that Cesar, clad in his amor, leapsd into the sea and did not sink. Any ons who knows the weight Of an ordinary cooking stove kuows that this statement is untrue. A suit Of ancient srmos--coai, pants, vest and necktis-was about as heavy as two modern cooking stoves. Do yoa know Of man who can take up two cooking stoves, jump into the water ssd swim like duck5 No, that man is not in town. He has gone 6shiag. This Iis, though, vas honest. Cesar stepped from bis tent clad in dszsling asmos. A he walked toward the sea, great eTovd foi- | lowed him. They thought hs was going | to jump o6 the bridge, but, suGssing | reader, there vas at that time no bridge i over the ca. Reaching the shore, the great man stopped and said l.:
 "t shaiI this day perform . great SeaE It l. my purpose to show you that ths fases are my friends, that svssisssingiy | stand h with thsm. Draw nigh ssse me, oh, ys cosassssrs of the world, fos sm goisg to hop isso--as Shakespeare ssys -ths leaning biliews of ths nain.'