Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-04-03

'o " ihuuce ner 10 put ner Semlclrcle OF
white beautiful teeth into forbidden
apricot or plum or peach or apple He prac-
acaiiy said TO her, "Oh, Eve, Just take a bite
OF this and you will be omnipotent and
omniscient. You shall be as gods.n just
opposite was the result. 1t was the first lie
that was ever told in our world. 1t opened
the gate for all the falsehoods that have ever
alighted on this planet. 1t introduced a
plague that covers all nations the plague of
lies. Far worse than the plaques OF Egypt,
for they were on the banks Of the Nile, but
this on the banks Of the Hudson, on the banka
OK the East River on tho banks Of the Ohio,
and the Mississippi, and the Thames, and
the Rhine, and the 1iber, and on both sides
OF all rivers. The Egyptian plaques lasted
only few weeks, but for six thousand years
has ragged this plague Of lies
There are hundred ways OF telling a
lie A mans entire life may be a falsehood.
while with his lips he may not once directly
falsify. There are those who state what Is
positively untrue. but afterward say "may
be" softly. These departures from the truth
are called white lies;" but there is really no
such thing as white lie.
The whitest lie that was ever told was as
black as perdtion. No inventory Of public
crimes will be sufficient that omits this gi-
gantic abomination. There are men high in
church and state actually useful, self-denying
and honest in many things who, upon cer-
tain subjects and in certain spheres, are not
at all to be depended upon for veracity. In
deed, there are many men and women who
have their notions OF truthfulness so thor
oughly perverted that they do not know
when they are lying, With many it is a cul-
tivated sin; with some it seems a natural in
trinity. l have known people who seemed
to have been born liars The falsehoods Of
their lives extended from cradle to grave
Prevarications. Misrepresentation and dis
honesty of speech appeared in their first ut
terancss, and were as natural to them as any
of their infantile diseases and were a sort OF
moral Group or spiritual scarlatina. But
many have been placed in circumstances
where this tendency has day by day and
hour by hour been called to larger develop
ment. They have gone from attainment TO
attainment and from class to class until they
have become regularly graduated liars.
The air Of the city is filled with falsehoods.
They hang pendent from the chandeliers of
our finest residences; they crowd the shelves
OF some our merchant princes; they I'LL the
sidewalk from curbstone to brown stone
facing; they cluster around the mechanics s
hammer, and blossom from the end Of the
merchants yardstick, and sit in the doors of
churches. Some call them Fiction" Some
style them "fcbrication." You might say
that they were subterfuge, disguised delu-
sion, romance, evasion, pretense, fable, decep.
ton, Misrepresentation, but rs l am igno-
rant of anything to he gained by the hiding
Of God defying outrage under lexico-
grapher's blanket, shall call them what my
father taught me to call them-lies.
I shall divide them into agricultural, mer
camille, mechanical, ecclesiastical and social
| lies.
First, then, will speak OF those that are
more particularly agricultural. There is
something in the perpetual presence OF
natural objects TO make man pure. The
| trees never issue false stock" Wheat fields
are always honest. Rye and oats never mora
out in the night not paying for the place
| they have occupied Corn shocks never
make false assignments. Mountain brooks
are always current" The gold on the grain
| is never counterfeit The sunrise never
haunts in false colors. The dew sports only
genuine diamonds. Taking farmers as II
class l believe they are truthful and fGir i'll
dealing and kind hearted. But the regions
| surrounding our cities do not always send
this sort OF men to our markets. Day by day
there creak through our streets and about
| the market houses farm wagons that have
not an honest spoke in their wheels or truth
| tul rivet from tongue to tailboard.
During the last few years there have been
times when domestic economy has foun-
dered on the farmers firkin. Neither high
| taxes, nor the high price OF dry goods, nor
| the exorbitancy Of labor, could excuse much
that the city has witnessed in the behavior
Of the yeomanry, BY the quiet tiresldes in
Westchester and Orange Counties | hope
| there may be seasons OF deep reflection and
hearty repentance. Rural districts are ac-
customed to rail ut great cities as given up
TO fraud and every form OF unrishtcousness,
but our cities do not absorb all the abonlina-
tions. Our citizens have learn ned the import
ance of not always trusting to the size and
| style of apples in the top of n farmers bar.
rel as an indication Of what may be found
farther down. Many Of our people are ac'
customed to watch and see how correctly a
| bushel of beets is measured, and there are
not many honest milk cans.
Deceptious do not all cluster round city
halls. When our cities sit down and
weep over their sins, all the surrounding
countries ought to come in and weep with
| them, There Is often hostility on the part of
producers against traders, as though the
| man who raises the corn was necessarily
more honorable than the grain dealer who
pours 1t into his mammoth bin There ought
TO be no such hostility. Yet producers often
think 1t no wrong to snatch away from the
trader; and they say 10 the bargain maker,
''You get your money easy" Do they get
It easyP Let those who In the quiet field
and barn get their living exchange places
with those who stand to-day amid the ex-
citemeuts of commercial life and see il they
find so is very easy.
While the farmer goes to sleep with the
| assurance that his corn and barley Will be
| growing all the night, moment by moment
adding to his revenue, the merchant tries to
20 to sleep conscious that that momeut his
cargo may be broken on the rocks or dam
aged by the wave that sweeps clear across
the hurricane oeck, or that reckless specu'
lators may that very hour be plotting some
| monetary revolution, or the burglars be
prying open his safe, or his debtors fleeing
the town, or his landlord raising the rent OF
the fires kindling on the block that contains
all his estate. Easy Is lf dod helE
the merchantsl 1t is hard TO have the palms
of the hands blistered with outdoor work
but more dreadful process when through
mercantile anxieties the brain is consumed
In the next place we notice mercantile
lies those before the counter and behind the
counter, will not attempt to specify the
different forms Of commercial falsehood
There are merchants who excuse themseive'
for deviation from truthfulness because ol
what they call commercial custom In Other
words the multiplication and universally
of A Gin turns it into a virtue. There hav,
been large fortunes gathered where there
was not one drop of uurequited toll In tht
wine: not one spark of bad temper flashing
from the bronze bracket; not one drop Of
needle woman's heart blood in the crimson
plush, while there are other great establish
nents In which there Is not one door knob
NOT one brick, not one trinket not one thread
of lace but has upon it the mark Of dishonor
What wonder II, some day, a hand Of toi
that had been wrung and worn out and blis
tered until the skin came of should be placed
against the elegant wall paper, leaving it'
mark Of blooi-four fingers and thumb
or that some day, walking the halls, ther'
should be a voice accosting the occupant
saying "Six cents for making shirt" and
fying the room, another voice SHOULD say
Wrwelye cents for an army blanket" anc
the man should try to sleep at night bu
ever and anon be aroused, until getting W
on one elbow, he should shrek out, who
therer
One Sabbath night in the vestibule OF my