The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-09-28
ELI GETS THERE.
He Puts in Some Telling Points About
Truth Telling.

From the Indianapolis Journal.
Eli Perkins departed from his set lecture
last night, delivered before the Y. NJ. C.
A, and crowded house, and made some
wise remarks about truth In general:
Now, my friends, there has been good
deal said about lying in this country lately
Marx Twain and Baron Munchausen have
been called liars-and l confess that have
been called great liar myself. In fact the
Tyre has been struck a great many times.
lLaughter) You remember that Henry
Watterson said publicly at Saratoga last
summer, that he was, personally acquain ed
with three of tue biggest liars-tne biggest,
livlIg liars in the world, and when they
asked him Who they were he SAID:
George Alfred Townsend Is one and Eli
Perkins is the other two Great laughter
Now, my friends, con inued H." Perkins,
seriously, maintain that all great wits are
great liars, and that the funniest men have
always been the biggest liars-I do not say
vice versa that al great liars are great wits.
IL this were the case, then the lawyers
| would be tho funniest meg in the world,
| Laughter the wits magnify or minify
| the truth. They distort It The hum orist,
on the contrary, tells the absolute truth.
| He sticks close to nature Dickens was
pure humorist; his characters all existed ;
DombeY; Bill SlIyes and Nancy actually
| lived, and Dick described them IS he
| found them. Munchsusen and all the satir-
lists and ridicule are wits, exaggerators
liars. The rldiculet exaggerates truth, and
| the satlrist exaggerates error. They make
| error ridiculous 1t was 30 with the satires
| of the Don Quixote, "Ginx's Baby Juve-
| nal and Dean Swift. If the wits all tell the
truth then the Tale of Tub" is a true
story. Gulliver's Travels are as true as
Moody's sermons, Thackeray's yellow
| Plush Papers" are SUNDAY school acts
| and Baron' Mu nchausen's four hundred oi-
gantic lies are as true a Macaulay's His
tory of England Almost all fun is exag-
geration aOd all exaggeratfon Is lying
The parable; in the Bible are humor.
They could happen. Bunyan was humor-
| list, for the christian has experienced the
same feelings he describes. Artemus
| Ward was all exaggeratiqn-innO exag
| geration. He did not write satire, irony,
humor or ridicule. He simply exaggerated
for pure fun, as does the Detroit Free iresS
man and Max Adler Nasty was a pure
| satirist; he didn't produce laughter; he con
WINGED people by exagRerating error. Mark
| Twain Is both humorist aud wit. Tom
| Sawyer is pure humop-true to nature. The
bust of Columbus and tomb of Adam are all
| in the imagination. They are witty concsp-
tons. The humorist is photographer.
He is true in spirit and in letter. He
|
| rian only gives facts without dialect. So
the hum INST is truer than the historian.
(Sensaticn.) Dickens is really truer than
| Macaulay.
Laughter cannot bs produced without
acting, painting or writing and exaggera-
ton-in plain English, without acting, paint
ing or writing ah Innocent lie. The hum
orist artist tue caricaturist like John Leecl
and Cruikshank had no other element but
the lie TO draw upon to produce laughter.
They have to make long nose, a big ear,
| a crooked leg, or cockeye. No one ever
laughed at a true picture. If a live man
| really looked as Cruikshank or John Leec
| painted him, we would shed tears at his
mournful condition. If real man acted
| like Don Quixote we would weep at his
| miSfortunes. Sometimes people laugh at a
great truth, for truth is often stranger
sounds like bigger lie) than fiction. TuiS
has always been my great trouble. Laugh
Ter ! ave generally told such great e,
strange truths, that the people would laugh
because they thought they were lies. SO
have got the reputation of being a worldly
minded wit, when in fact, | am a great
truth-teller To Illustrate: Ono night
was telling about the big trees in California.
| said rode into tree, big hollow tree,
! on horseback, and then trotted out through
the knot holes. tLaugntr.l The people
laughed because they thought it was lie,
| Wnen, In 1hcV, IL was the truth. The treB
are thirty-hve feet in diameter, aud the
hole through them is twelve feet in diane
ter-as wide through AS barn door. 70
illustrate what l meant by an innocent
Baron Munchausen story: My uncle Will
lam got caught in a fearful rain storm one
night, when he was on his way t. attend a
prayer meeting ut New London, Conn. He
started for New London, on horseback, but
when he got about halfway there, there
arose fearful storm. The wind blew
hurricane, the rain poured in torrents, the
| lightning cleaned through the sky, aud my
uncle got Ia behind a large barn. But in
"a moment the lightning struck that barn
and knocked IL into a thousand sphnters,
and sent his horse whirling over into
neiehboring corn-patch.
What did you do, then, Uncle Wiliamf'
! | asked.
Well said he, ~ didn't hardly know
what 10 do. was very much discouraged,
but to tell the honest truth-.the honest
Connecticut truth, Eli went right into
the cornheld. took Off my coat, bumped
up my bare back, and took eleven strokes
Of lightning right on my bare backbone, drew
the lightning all out of the sky, and then
got onto my horse and got into New
London in time b. lead at the evening
prayer netting tUproarious laughter. ]
Lewis 1896 Whisky, Imported Brandy, choice