Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-08-31
MEN HATE 4 LIAR.
PLEASURE OF STANDING ON THE WANT
AGE GROUND OF TRUTH.
Why Clerks Do Not Enjoy Stating the
Facts About the Goods They Have
to SeIl-Love of Truth.

the fear of lockjaw. 1t is as difficult for
them to make veracious statement as it
was for the father of his country to make
one of the contrary kind. One of the best
jokes Mark Twain has made was that the
difference between him and Washington
was that while the latter could not tell a
lie he (Twain) could, but wouldn't; and
the moral credit was rather greater in the
case of the humorist than in that Of the
''6rst in war;" etc. Something like a
working majority of the people of this
town seem to be imbued with the idea that
they are not smart if they tell the truth,
and they go about answering all inquiries
with fabrication, and then trusting to
luck for some way out of the difficulty, if
any one catches them in the deception
This does not seem to be SO much with the
intention to injure the questioner, as to
simply refrain ON principle from informing
him. He is creature entirely distinct
from "The Liar" in Henry James novel
of that name. "The Liar" was simply a
romancer. He told of things which never
had happened, but he told of them in a
most charming manner, and with fashion
SO amiable that he corrupted the most
veracious of wives, while he was enter
tanning crowd of listeners; and won his
way to many dinner to which he could
never have hoped to 60 had he depended
on his qualities aside from this one
But the man under discussion is not a
romancer. He is liar, pure and simple.
Ask him if he carried his point with his
Alderman last night and he will tell you
he did, when at the same time he is wish
ing with all his heart he was able to do
the very thing he is ready to claim he has
done. He does not wish to further the
Alderman's reputation for compatibility,
nor to lead you to lose any money on the
strength of his having scored point He
simply does not care to put you in posses
sion Of the facts with which he is armed.
Ask him if he intends to appeal his case
to the Supreme Court, and he will tell you
that he does and that he will file his bond
and perfect the appeal to-day; yet at the
same time he knows he has already paid
off the fine against him, and was glad to
have the thing settled without any further
trouble Ask him if he got out even on
his deal in suburban lots and he will tell
you that he is already out, and that with
| large margin of profit; that lots there
are going to be worth money and plenty of
| it in another year. Now, he would make
Just as much to confine himself to facts,
and you would think just as much of him,
and you would run no kind of risk in
shaping your acts by his reported condi-
tions; but he cannot do it. He avoids the
truth as instinctively as hydrophobia
patient avoids a cup of pure water. He
knows something, and if he told you, you
would know it too; and that he does not
mean you shall by any act of his.
But this habit of purposely misstating
things is most pernicious when it settles
like blanket on the clerk or salesman
There are myriad of things the average
buyer cannot know about the things he
wishes to buy, and all of them are well
known to the seller. He can tell you, and
you feel like depending on him to do So
But you ask, and he tells you Just the
thing he ought not to, and as conse.
quence you are injured. 1t is no good to
go back and complain, for he will laugh at
you or at least cover that untruth quite
out of sight in mountain Of others. Sc
you pocket your chagrin at having trusted
| too much in the statement of some other
man-and that is all the good you get out
of the whole affair.
About nine clerks out of ten know a
good deal more about the things they sell
than they care to reveal. When pros.
pective buyer appeals to them they feel
their Importance and would lose all of it.
they think, if they put you in possession Of
what they have learned. 1t is the one
place where they are superior to you, and
they do not care to resign the only point
of superiority. If a clerk sees you looking
at thing, he wants you to buy it. If you
ask him about it he is afraid to tell you
the truth for fear it will spoil sale. and
so he lies about it and traps a customer
But he never traps that customer again
So long as reason maintains her sway in
that distracted brow, that particular man
will go a long way before he Will put il
into the power of that clerk to gouge him
again.
How many of us know salesman who
will tell the truth all the time? Those o
US who do will go out of our way at any
time to buy of him. We know we can de-
pend on him. We know that he will pre-
fer to lose sale and keep our confidence
to cheating US once and losing all sight o.
our patronage. That last clause may moi
embrace very exalted motive, but any
motive which will keep man from rob
bing his fellow is exalted enough to do bus
mess with. Now and then even a clerk
may be mistaken, and may say thing is
different from what he afterward find it tc
be; but any one with charity enough tc
cover his sins can excuse that, and will
willingly do it. The men who can be de-
pended on to tell the truth at all times SC
far as his information goes, and to tell you
when he has reached the limit of his in
formation, is crown jewel, and he can dc
| business as long as there is customer In
the country. "No pleasure is comparable
to standing on the vantage ground Of
truth"
1t NAV be that the common run of NOR
tails cannot understand the rare beauty and
matchless courage of the man who always
tells the truth. Let it be understood that
| few men living are able at all times to
face the world without the shadow of de-
ception, and that there is something Of
latitude allowed even in the closest
of circles; but the fact remains that
the man who is to be relied on at
all times, whose word is confessed yer.
| ity-he is the man we all love to
grapple to our souls with hooks oi
steel. He is the man who makes oaths
superfluous and bondsmen useless. He
is the man who makes all laws dead let.
tiers, for he drinks at the fountain of JUS
tice and right He is the man who knits
! the bonds of land and home and family,
and whose movements are fearless and free
in the sight of all men.
1t is stronger than falsehood. 1t is more
potent than deception. 1t is surer than
| fraud. 1t is better than that silence which
speaks lie. Not all men will choose, for
all men cannot see its beauty. All men
will not attempt it, for not all are noble
enough. Not all men want it, for the
fountain of right is dried up within them
and they have sunk to level where truth
cannot come.
For truth is precious and divine:
Too rich pearl for common swine.
CURRENT NEWSPAPER WIT.
The man who goes to seashore resort