The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1891-09-02

timeS-and when I say sometimes,
Inean a great many times 1t Is hard to
tell the truth the first time. But when
you have told it there is an end Of it.
You have won the victory; the fight is
over. Next time you tell that truth
you can tell in without thinking. Your
memory may be faulty, but you tell
your story without single lash :-om
the singing whip Of that stern, old,
task-master-con You don't
have to stop and remember how yoc
told it yesterday. You don't get halt
through with it, and then stop with the
awful sense upon you that you are not
telling it as you did the other time, and
can not remember just how you did tell
it then. You won't have to look around
to see who is there before you begin
telling it. And you won't have to in.
vent a lot of new lies to reinforce the
old one. After Ananias told lie, his
wife had to tell another just like It.
You see, if you tell ties you are apt 20
get your whole family into trouble,
Lies always travel along in gang with
their co-equals.
And then, it is SO foolish for you to
lie. You can not pass lie off for the
truth, any more than you can get coun.
terfeit money into circulation. The
leaden dollar is always detected before
it goes very far. A bogus quarter is
always found out in a little while.
When you tell lie it is known. Yes,
you say God knows it." That's right
but He is not the only one. So far as
Gods knowledge of it is concerned the
liar doesn't care very much. He
doesn't worry himself about what God
knows-if he did, he wouldn't be a
liar; but it does worry the man, or boy,
who tells lies to think that everybody
else knows it. The other boys know
it; your teacher knows it; people who
hear you tell "whoppers," know it,
your mother knows it, but she won't
say SO. And all the people who know
it, and don't say anything about it to
you, talk about it to each other, and
dear! dear! the things they say about
boy who is given to telling big stories
If he could only hear them it would
make him stick to the truth like flour
to a miller.
And, finally, if you tell the truth al.
ways, don't see how you are going to
get very far out of the right way. II
isn't well to have too many rules OF
conduct and laws of living, because II
you have a long code of many laws, it
is so much easier to forget one-half OF
them than it is to remember the other
half. But any boy can remember one;
you can remember to tell the truth.
And how people do trust truthful boy.
We never worry about him when he is
out of our sight. We never say: 81
wonder where he is; l wish / knew
what he is doing; wonder who he is
with; I wonder why he doesn't come
home" Nothing of the Sort We know
he is all right, and that when he Gomez
home we will know all about it and get
it straight. We don't have to ask him
where he is going and how long he will
be gone every time he goes out of the
house. We don't have to call him back
and make him ''solemnly promise" the
same thing over and over two or three
times. When he says Eyes, will" or
"No, / won't" just once that settles it.
He may 60 where he will and we
won't fret about him. We don't have to
cross-examine him when he comes
home to find out where he has been.
He tells us once, and that is enough.
We don't have to say ''Sure?" "Are you
sure, now?" when he tells anything.
Sure? We would as soon think of ask
ing the sun if he was sure he rose in
the east this morning.
All these things will soon be righted.
The worst whipping that can be
laid on boys back won't keep him
out of the water in swimming time
longer than week; but lie will burn
in the memory fifty years. Tell the
truth for the sake of the truth, and all
the best people in the world will love
and respect you, and all the liars re-
pect and hate you.-Robert j. Bur.
dette,' in Ladies' Home Journal.