The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-03-01

~ n the village of White Oaks, in one OF
the great Pacific States, lived and
practiced two mem bers of the legal
fraternity, through courtesy generally
classed as lawyers, and known re
spectively as Jerry Fellows and Barney
Kraiken. Had either of them resided
elsewhere the other would easily have
taken rank as the greatest liar in the vii
lage; but as between the two the question
of precedence and superiority in the art OF
fabrication remained one not readily deter
mined.
The differences between them in the
particulars noted were more those of
method and practical detail than of re-
suit. Whatever the modus operandi OF
avoiding mere vulgar fact, and of giving
the fullest expression to "the thing that is
not" none ever doubted that either of
them possessed great ability in that direc-
ton. Fellows, it may be said, was not
especially gifted with the qualities which
make plausible and convincing ro-
mancer; but he was industrious, pains
taxing and persistent. What his
creations lacked in quality he made
up for in quantity; and the fact
that his narrations were sometimes crude
and clumsy in a large degree, lacking not
only consistency, but quite often other
necessary elements of probability, de-
tracted nothing from his fame except SO
far as it prevented his being generally
recognized as an artist in his profession.
As will be seen, however, when the exl-
gencieS of the occasion demanded, he met
every requirement of a practical nature so
thorough ly and well as to leave nothing
further 10 be desired, except, perhaps, for
eetfulness OF his reDuta ton for veracity.
Kraikens talent was OF a much higher
order. Being less industrious than his
competitor, he was unable to turn out so
large an amount of the raw material; but
the exquisite finish on one OF his produc-
tons made it worth, to the lover of tn e
artistic in mendacity, at least dozen of
the ordinary "mistits" of his rival. Nor
did this finish impair the force or strength
OF his inventions. In the matter of pictur-
esQue originality and lofty disregard OF
the verities, lie could have made Munchau-
sen, had they been emporaries, re-
double his efforts or lose his laurels. In
deed. in his mouth as in that of Fellows,
truth would have been much stranger than
fiction, though mainly, perhaps, on ac-
count of its unusual environment. But he
was little given to such experiments for
! the sake OF comparison or otherwise. For
him all truth lay at the bottom of the well,
and that fact and the consequent diff
Guilty of reaching it may have furnished
him some reason for preferring to use the
substitute therefor which his intellect
seemed spontaneously to generate.
So, between the two professionals" at
the time our story opens, honors were
about even, some contending that Fellows
was uneaualed in oral fiction, others that
! Kraiken only was worthy to compare or
rank with himself; but, in general, each
| individual espoused the claims of which
ever one he had last heard detailing the
marvellous or incredible.
II.
The magistrate who "dispensed with jus
tice' in the village was the soul OF surly
honesty and possessed much common
! sense. The Gordan knots of law and fact
/ that were brought to him for disentangle-
ment he often cut in way that justities
our estimate of his judgment, albeit he set