The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-12-27
EVERYDAY LYING.
A New York Preachers Opinion Of
Polite Society, Trade and Politics.

u
Rev. DR.. E. c. Bolles, pastor of the
Third Unitarian church on West Eleventh
street, preached recently on the Ques-
ton. lis Lie Ever Right?" Dr. Bolles
said he presumed the people had come to
hear him decide the right and wrong of ly-
ing to screen criminals. cheer the sick. sup
press unnecessary scandal. shield honesty
from fraud and innocence from vice. But
he wasn't going to touch any such hair split
ting points. They had best be left to every
mans conscience and common sense when
the emergency came. Nobody would say
that war is not an unmitigated wrong, and
yet emergencies came in every nations life
when it was necessary to slay ones fellow
men. There might be such emergencies in any
mans life. He would talk of the lies of
everyday life. Il denounce." said he,
1.-THE social lie. the lie of a life veneered and
vanished with the pOliteness and fashion
of the world; the lies men live and the lies
men tell to make life easy. society pleasant
and tie wheels of existence esmO0th-running.
The lies men live are worse than those
they tell. The great lie of life is
to live beyond ones means, to keep
up appearances. as the phrase goes;
to assume position one does not
earn: to form relationships one is not enti-
tied to; to spread examples that are lies,
and eventually to defraud creditors except
for the lie that the man has lived. ' - &"
mo life in the universe is so hollow as
the life of polite and fashionable society.
In no life is there more falseness. less honor,
more polite palliatiOnS, more moral rotten
ness. There is more honor among thieves
than in the parlOrs of New York, more
truth among gamblers and more honesty
amOng sharpers than among those whose
pride it is to be the most polite and the
most fashionable. To prevent unpleasant
truths from coming up. to make things go,
to lubricate the social machinery-fOr these
reasons social lies are told and acted and
the result is that sOcety's ideals are bad
and its methods false. The truth told in a
drawing room is like breath of pure air in
an atmosphere of feverS and aSthmas. Is
social life ever right and healthful? one in
voluntarily asks. five could have honesty
there it might be.
Another everyday lie is the commercial
lie. the profitable, money making lie. Is
there ever any justification for it? The
plea is made every day that in these days of
competition it is impossible to get along
without complying with the general custom
of commercial lying. Men say they can't
get to the top and be honest with their
competitors. l should be sorry to think the
flower of our civilization so poisonous, so
nOxious as that. But, if it is true. one can
better afford not to get to the top than to
lie. 1t is not necessary to tell the truth.
''Now comes the most provoking of all
lies. 1t seems strange that in this Christian
church. city and cOuntry-a country ruled
by a religion which stands for eternal truth
we should have to speak of political lies.
Men labor under strange delusions in these
enlightened times. Many think they can
cover their personality under the flag of
hall. party or committee. But they can't.
Back of every slander, every lie told to pam
der to the lower elements, every trick,
every rascality. every editorial and stump
speech which does not deal in truth, there
stands man. He may think himself hid
den, but he isn't. Because every body
else lies is no excuse. For every deed there
is responsibility. and the arrows of God are
surer than those of MANN. Y. Sun.