The Monitor-register., 1897-10-29

says, "Are these all silk?'' Eyes" mo
cotton in them?' ''No cotton in them.
Are those handkerchiefs all silk? Then
the merchant told the truth. Is there
any cotton in them? Then he lied
Moreover, he defrauds himself, for this
customer coming in will after awhile
find out that he has been defrauded,
and the next time he comes to town
and goes shopping he will look up at
that sign and say: "No. l won't go
there. That's the place where l got
those handkerchiefs. First, the mer-
| chant insulted God, and, secondly. he
picked his own pocket.
Who would take the responsibility
of saying how many falsehoods were
Yesterday told by hardware men and
clothiers and lumbermen and tobacco
| nists and jewelers. and importers and
shippers and dealers in furniture and
| dealers in coal and dealers in groceries!
| Lies about buckles, about saddles, about
| harness, about shoes, about hats, about
| coats, about shovels, about tongs, about
| forks. about chairs, about sofas, about
horses, about lands, about everything.
1 arraign commercial falsehood as
| of the crying sins of u time. .
The Lying Mechanic
l pass on to speak of mechanical
| falsehoods. Among the artisans are
those upon whom we are dependent for
the houses in which we live, the gar
| ments we wear, the cars in which we
| ride. The vast majority OF them are. so
| far as / know them, men who speak the
truth, and they are upright, and many
| of them are foremost in great philan-
thropies and in churches, but that they
all do not belong to that class every one
knows. In times when there is a great
demand for labor it is not so easy for
such men to keep their obligations, be-
cause they may miscalculate II regard
to the weather, or they may not be able
to get the help they anticipated in their
enterprise. | am speaking now of those
who promise to do that which they
know they will not be able to do. They
say they will come on Monday; they do
not come until Wednesday. They say
they will come ON Wednesday; they do
not come until Saturday. They say they
will have the job done in 10 days; they
do not get it done before 80. And when
a man becomes irritated aRdswin not
stand it any longer. then they go and
work for him a day or two and keep
the job along. and then some one else
gets irritated and outraged and they go
and work for that man and get him
pacified, and then they go somewhere
else. l believe they call that nursing
the job"
All, my friends, how much dishonor
such men would save their souls if they
would promise to do only that which
they know they can do. "Oh," they
| say, tits of no Importance; everybody
| expects to be deceived and disappoint-
| ed" There is a voice of thunder sound
ing among the saws and the hammers
and the shears, saying, "Al liars shall
have their place in the lake that burns
with fire and birthstone"
The Society Lie.
| pass OF to speak of social lies. How
much of society is ~insincere? You hard
ly know what to believe. They send
their regards. You do not exactly know
whether it is an expression of the heart
or an external c%ivility. They ask you to
come to their house; you hardly know
whether they really want you to come.
We are all accustomed to take a dis
count off what we hear. mot at home"
very often means too lazy to dress. 1
was reading of a lady who said she had
told her last fashionable lie. There was
. knock at her door and she sent word
down, mot at home" That night her
husband said to her, "Mrs. So-and-so
is dead" SIS it possible?" she said.
eyes, and she died in great anguish Of
mind She wanted to see you SO very
much. She had something very impor-
tant to disclose to you in her last hour,
and she sent three times today, but
found you absent every time" Then
this woman bethought herself that she
had had a bargain with her neighbor
that when the long protracted sickness
was about to come to an end she would
appear at her bedside and take the Sc
cret that was to be disclosed. And she
had said she was mot at home" !
Social life is struck through with
insincerity. They apologize for the fact
that the furnace is out; they have not
had any fire in it all winter. They apol-
ogize for the fare on their table; they
live any better. They decry their
most luxuriant entertainment to win a
shower of approval from you. They
point at a picture on the wall as a
work of Il of the old masters. They
say it is an heirloom in the family. It
hung on the wall of a castle. A duke
gave it to their grandfather People
that will lie about nothing else will lie
about a picture. On small income we
want the world to believe we are afflu-
ent, and society today is struck through
with cheat and counterfeit and sham.
How few people are NATURAL Frigid-
ity sails around, iceberg grinding
against iceberg. You INST not laugh
outright; that is vulgar. You must
smile. You must not dash quickly
across the room; that is vulgar. You
must glide. Much of society is a round
of bows and grins and grimaces and
obs and abs and he, he, hes and SIM
perings and namby pambyism, a whole
world of which is not worth one good
honest round of laughter. From such a
hollow scene the tortured guest retires
at the close of the evening, assuring the
host that he has enjoyed himself. So
clety is become SO contorted and deform-
ed in this respect that a mountain cabin
where the rustics gather at a quilting
or an apple pairing has in it more good
cheer than all the frescoed r~efrigerators
of the metropolis.
The Church Lie.
l pass on to speak of ecclesiastical
lies, those which are told for the adj
vancement or retarding of a church or
sect, 1t is hardly worth your while to
ask an extreme Calvinist what an Ar
minian believes. He will tell you that
an Arminian believes that man can
save himself. An Arminian believes no
such thing 1t is hardly worth your
while to ask al extreme Arminian what
a Calvinist believes. He will tell you
that a Calvinist believes that God made
some men Just to damn them A CAL
whist believes no such thing. 1t is hard
ly worth your while to ask q Pedo- Bap-
fist what a Baptist believes. He will
tell you a Baptist believes that INNER
sion is necessary for salvation. A Bap-
fist does not believe any such thing. It
is hardly worth your while to ask q man
who very much hates Presbyterians
what a Presbyterian believes He will
tell you that a Presbyterian believes
that there are infants in hell a span
long, and that very ~phraseology has
come down from generation TO genera
tion in the Christian church There
never was a Presbyterian who believed
that. "Oh," you say. 81 heard soma