Morning journal and courier., 1892-05-10
Probabilities or Truth Telling.

lFrom the Washington Star. | People talk about the wickedness ol lies, but I would like to know how they could be got along without in polite socie | ty," said woman of fashion. s.Imagins for a moment an afternoon call, for cram. pie, where both hostess and visitor had conscientiously made up their minds to speak with entire frankness and truthful. ness.
 Figure to yourself the mistress of the house in the act of entering the drawing room. Instead of rushing impulsively forward and grasping the visitors hand with pleasant smile and words eIpres. sive of pleasure at seeing her, she simply says:
 "'You ugly old thing, why on earth have you come to bother me with 6 call this afternoonf
 Simply for the sake of getting through with an unpleasant duty replies the call. CT. hoped very earnestly that I should not find you at home.'
 eff l had had any notion that you were coming should have told the maid to say that was not receiving returns the hostess. What horribly unbecom- ing gown you have onr
 Such a remark coming from & woman so notoriously badly dressed as yourself seems rather absurd rejoins the visitor.
 "At about that point in the conversation the restraints of politeness are altogether dispensed with, and clapper-clawing and hair pulling follow.
 Certainly it would not be proper to conduct affairs on such basis The con- ditions of civilized life are in a high de- gree artificial, and we are all of us com pelled by circumstances over which we have no control to act parts very much as if We were on the stage, instead of being our real selves. Few of us realize the fact, think, but every person does actual ly assume a certain role in the world The only people who are altogether their nstu- ral selves are ssvsges.
 ''l have known a good many persons who made it a point to be particularly frank, deeming it virtue, and going so far as to boast of it. They would not hes itate to say dissgreeable things, implying that so long as they were true there could be no harm in uttering them. Such peo- pie do not realize that they are acting in imitation Of savages. After all, the most important difference between the savage and the civilized individual lies in the fact
 
 the natural impulses. It is always the most natural impulse to tell the truth. A falsehood signifies constraint by fear of other motives.
 Certainly nothing can be more cruel and calculated to injure than 8 brutal truth often is. Accordingly there can be no objection to the employment of harm less deceptions when they contribute to peoples happiness. Hence, in polite soci- ety people are continually saying things which are untrue. An amusing thing oc- cured to a lady of my acquaintance the other day which will serve to illustrate the point-
 ''She went to call at the house of some people whom she knew but slightly. The maid, coming to the door, informed her that the mistress of the mansion and her daughter were not at home. So she left her card, and was starting to descend the steps when & mans arm WAS thrust out from the psrlor window and the hand at tached to the arm detained her. At the same time gruf voice said: My pretty young woman, who are your
 "My friend at once comprehended that it was the old general, the father of the family, who had thus made her pause. She knew his reputation for gruff and well-meant rudeness, but replied, men, tioning her name and saying that she was sorry to have found his wife and daughter not at home.
 "'Who says they are not at homer de- manded the general, poking his grizzled head out ot the window.
 "'The maid so informed me at the door, said my friend.
 cts a d--d liel' exclaimed the gen. eral- They are both of them up stairs st this moment. Come into ths house and I will have them down in a jiffy. The lazy women are lounging on the bed and read ing novels'
 "'oh. I pray you, do nothing of the kind' protested my frieud, quite sghast I will come again some other day.
 No, insist upon your coming in nowr declared the general; and, in fact, he obliged her to come into the house, in structing the maid to tell those ladies to come straight down to the drawing room.'
 ''So, after about twenty minutes, the wife and daughter made their unwilling appearance: as you may imagine, to the extreme embarrassment of all parties con- cerned, with the exception of the old gen. ersl. who referred with glee to the success he had in this particular instance in cor recting what he cslled feminine tenden cy to falsehood in the ladies of his family"