The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-03-28

day by day, hour by hour, utter what
they know to be wrong? You say that
you are selling at less than cost. If so,
then it is right to say it. But did that
cost you less than what you ask for it?
II not, then you have falsified.
You may consider it insignificant be-
cause relating to an insignificant pur>
chase. You would despise the man
who would falsify in regard to some
great matter in which the city or whole
country was concerned, but this is only
a box of buttons or a ROY of pins or a
case of needles. BE not deceived. The
article purchased may be so small you
can put it in your vest pocket, but the
sin was bigger than the pyramids and
the echo of the dishonor will reverber-
ate through all the mountains of eter-
nifty.
You throw on your table some speci.
mems of handkerchiefs. Your customer
asks: SIS that all silk? no cotton in it?"
You answer: sit is all silk" Was it all
silk? If so, all right. But was it part
ly cotton? Then you have falsifed.
Moreover, you lost by the falsehood.
The customer, though he may live at
Lynn, or Doylestown, OF Poughkeepsie,
will find out that you have defrauded
him and next spring when he again
comes shopping he will look at your
sign and say: Il will not try there.
That is the place where 1 gotthat hand
kerchief." So that by one dishonest
bargain you picked your own pocket
and insulted the Almighty.
In the next place l notice mechanical
lies. There is no class of men who ad-
minister more to the welfare of the city
than artisans. To their hand we
must look for the building that shelters
us, the garments that clothe us, for the
car that carries us. They WELD a wide
spread influence. There is much deris-
Ion of what is called muscular Christi
anity," but in the latter day of the
worlds prosperity 1 think that the
Christian will be muscular. We have
the right to expect of those stalwart
men OF toll the highest possible integ-
rity. Many of them answer our high
est expectations and stand ut the front
of religious and philanthropic enter
prises.
But this class, like the others that I
have named, has in it those who lack in
the element of veracity. They can not
all be trusted. In times when the de-
mand for labor is great it is impossible
to meet the demands of the public or
do work with that promptness or per-
lection hat would at other times be
possible. But there are mechanics
whose word cannot be trusted at any
time. No man has a right to promise
more work than he can do. There are
mechanics who say hat they will come
on Monday, but they do not come until
Wednesday. You put work in their
hands that they tell you shall be COM
pleted in ten days, but it is thirty.
There have been houses built of which
1t might be said that every nail driven,
every foot of plastering put on, every
yard Of pipe laid, every shingle ham
mered, every brick mortared, could tell
Of falsehood connected Herewith.
There are men attempting to do ten or
fifteen pieces of work who have not the
time or strength to do more than five or
six pieces; but by promises never full
filed keep all the undertakings within
~ " grasp. Ia "ldG Tic
call nursing the job.
How much wrong to his soul and in
suit to God a mechanic would save, if he
promised only SO much as he expected
to be able to do. Society has no right
to ask of you impossibilities. You can
not always calculate correctly, and you
may fail because you cannot get the
help that you anticipate. But now /
am speaking of the willful making of
promises hat you know you cannot
keep. Did you say that that shoe should
be mended, hat coat repaired, those
bricks laid. hat harness sewed, that
door grained, that spout fixed, or that
window glazed by Saturday, knowing
that you would neither be able to do it
yourself nor get any one else to do it?
Then before God and man you are a liar.
/ next notice ecclesiastical lies; that
Is, falsehoods told for the purpose of
churches and sects, or for
the purpose of depicting them. 1t is
impossible for one denomination
of Christians, without prejudice or mis-
representation, to state the sentiment
Of an opposing sect. If q man hates
Presbyterians, and you ask him what
Presbyterians believe, he will tell you
that they believe that there are infants
In hell a span long.
It is strange also how individual
churches will sometimes make misstate-
ments about other individual churches.
1t is especially so in regard to false
hoods told with reference to prosperous
enterprises. AS long as q church is
feeble, and the singing is discordant,
and the minister, through the poverty
of the church, must go with a thread
bare coat, and here and there a wor-
shipper sits in the end Of a pew, having
all the seat to himself, religious SYM
pathiZers of other churches will say:
"What a pity!" But, let a great day Of
prosperity come, and ven ministers Of
the gospel, who ought to be rejoiced at
the ~largeness and extent of the work,
denounce and mi~srepresent and falsify,
starting the suspicion in regard to
themselves, that the reason they do not
like the corn is because it is not ground
in their own mill. How long before we
shall learn to be fair in our religious
criticism! The keenest jealousies on
earth are church iealousies.
Next l speak of social lies. This evil
makes much of society insincere. You
know not what to believe. When peo-
pie ask you to come you do not know
whether or not they want you to come,
When they send their regards you do
not know whether it is an expression
of their heart or an external civility.
We have learned to take almost every
thing at a discount. Word is sem mot
at home" when they are only too lazy
to dress themselves. They say, ''the
furnace has just gone out" when in
truth they have had no fire in it all
winter. They apologize for the un-
usual barrenness of their table when
they never live any better. They decry
their most luxurious entertaining nts to
win O shower of approval
They apologize for their appearance,
as though 1t were unusual, when always
at home they look just so. They would
make you believe hat some nice sketch
the wall was the work of a master
painter. SIT was an heirloom, and once
hung on the walls of the castle; and q
duke gave it to their grandfather"
When the fact is, the painting was
made by a man down east" and
baked, so as to make it look old, and
sold with others for $40 q dozen. Peo-
pie who will lie about nothing else will
lie about a picture. On a small income
we must make the world believe that
we are affluent and our life becomes a
cheat, q counterfeit and a sham.
Few nersonsa are raallv natural Whan