The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-03-12

were coming / should have told the
maid to say that | was not receiving
returns the hostess. What a horribly
~unbecoming gown you have on
"'Such a remark coming from a woman
SO VIGOROUSLY badly dressed as yourself
seems rather absurd ~reioins the visitor
cat about that point in the converse
ton the restraints of politeness are alto
gether dispensed with, and clapperclaw-
ing and hair pulling follow.
"Certainly it would not be possible to
conduct affairs on such a basis. The
| conditions of civilized life are in a high
degree artificial, and we are all of us
compelled by circumstances over which
we have no control to act parts very
much as il we were ON the stage instead
of being our real selves. Few of US re-
alize the fact, | think, but every person
does actually assume a certain role in
the world. The only people who are al
together their natural selves are savages.
II have known a good many persons
who made it a point to be particularly
frank, deeming it a virtue and going so
far as to boast of it. They would not
hesitate to say disagreeable things i'm
plying that so long as they were true
there could be no harm in uttering them.
Such people do not realize that they are
acting in imitation of savages. After
oil tho moot M rnrtont Hifor0noo no
tween the savage and the civilized indi-
vidual lies in the fact that the latter ex-
ercises a restraint upon the natural i'm
pulses. 1t is always the most natural
impulse to tell the truth. A falsehood
signifies constraint by fear or other mo-
tives.
"Certainly nothing can be more cruel
and calculated to injure than a brutal
truth often is. Accordingly, there can
be no good objection to- the employment
of harmless de :eptions when they con
tribute to peoples happiness. Hence,
in polite society people are continually
saying things which are untrue. If it
were otherwise there could be no pleas
ure in meeting ones fellow beings. A
very amusing thing occurred 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 at the door informed her that the
mistress of the mansion and her daugh-
ter were not at home. So she left her
card and was starting to descend the
front steps when a mans arm was thrust
out from the parlor window and the
hand attached to the arm detained her.
At the same time a gruff voice said, My
pretty young woman, who are you?
"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 r%udeness, 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 home :"
demarded the general, poking his griz-
zled head out of the window.
"'The maid so informed me at the
door, said my friend.
cts a id lier exclaimed the gen
They are both of them upstairs at
moment. Come into the house and
| will nave them down stairs in a iiffy.
The lazy women are ~lounging on the bed
and reading novels
"Oh, | pray you do nothing of the
protested my friend, quite aghast,
4 will come again some other day
ono, | insist upon your coming in
nowH declared the general; and in fact,
he obliged her to come into the house,
instructing the maid to tell those ladies
to come straight down to the drawing
ROOM
$50, after about twenty minutes, the
wife and daughter made their unwilling
appearance, as you may imagine, to the
extreme embarrassment of all parties
concerned, with the exception of the
general, who referred with glee to the
success he had had in this particular in
stance in correcting what he called a
feminine tendency to falsehood' in the
ladies of his family"