The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-12-06
ABOUT EXAGCERATION.
It L. But Little Less Than Deliberate Pro
varicatiOn.

It L. But Little Less Than Deliberate Pro.
varication.
The love of truth is taught AZ a
matter Of course to all children, but
there is too much tolerance generally
shown to the obscurer forms of un-
truth, such as exaggeration. or its OPP
poslte-unjust depreciation-or to the
partial suppression of truth. Men
and women who would not under any
consideration tell positive untruth
for the purpose of deceiving will Of
fend in other ways that may at times
be almost as bad. They will silently
permit friend or acquaintance to be
traduced without uttering the word
OF truth that might save his reputa-
ton; they will give partial accounts
OF things, conveying wrong impress
sion. sometimes carelessly. sometimes
maliciously. But the commonest Of
tense is that of exaggeration, or of
allowing the imagination to adorn the
actual facts. Sometimes this does
little harm. especially among friends,
who know what allowance to make on
the statements made. and it is not in
frequent to find an exaggerator con-
sidered rather amusing than vicious
Yet there are occasions when the hab-
1t OF exaggeration may do much mis-
chief. The great storm that has just
swept the Atlantic seaboard furnishes
many examples of this kind. For
twenty-four hours or more there was
40 direct communication with the
afflicted seaside resorts on the
Atlantic coast. News was difficult
to obtain. It came to reporters
on the mainland in the shape of
rumors or in the tales told by boatmen
who brought hearsay information from
the coast. The widest and most ex-
travagant stories were circulated be-
cause they passed from mouth to
mouth of persons who had acquired
the pernicious habit of exaggeration
They meant no harm, but they guessed
that hotels and cottages would be
swept away, and the next narrator
said they had been swept away, and
others added particulars to ornament
the story. The mischief arose from
the fact that there were tens of thou
sands of guests at these seaside places,
with tens of thousands of relatives and
friends in the larger cities, all of
whom were cruelty alarmed and wor-
ried by stories, some of which had no
foundation in fact When commune
cation had been opened it was found
that hotels reported to have been
swept away had not been touched by
the waves; that others from which the
guests were said to have fed. leaving
their effects behind them, had been
closed for the season, and that the
whole situation, bad as it was, had
been grossly exaggerated. This was
not. as a rule, the fault of the re-
porters. who were obliged to transmit
the news as it reached them, but of
their infOrmants, who had never been
trained to that full and complete
respect for truth that forbids ex-
aggeratiOn as it fOrbids the
grosser forms of lying. A similar
tendency to exaggerate evil is shown
whenever a great calamity occurs
which can not for time be reached
by trained reporters. 1t shows that
the absence of proper training in a
sincere respect for truth is widespread.
It is fault that should be corrected
by precept and example, for the vice
of exaggeration is only less mischiev-
Gus than that of deliberate lying. Yet
so little IS it reprobated that one form
of alleged humor in current literature
consists simply of outrageous exag-
geration. 1t has the plausible excuse
for its existence that being gross, no
one is likely to be deceived by it. yet
exaggeration in any form is liable to
become mischievous and may do an
incalculable amount of harm-as
where false reports are spread of
calamities in which thousands of peo-
pie are interested. The plain rule of
conduct is to respect truth so highly
that no form of untruth shall be toler-
ated, neither evaporation nor depre-
citation, neither the suppression of a
part nor the silence which conveys q
false impression. It is not an easy
matter to be strictly truthful by this
high standard, but no one with proper
regard for his duty to himself and fell
lowmen can fail to see that he ought
to endeavor to reach this standard and
use his best efforts to get all within
his influence to follow his example,
Baltimore Sun.