News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1897-10-27

anu lNul HllbNNIH III lut IluSlC anu LlltAl
danes in the quick feet of the children
pattering through the hall has in it the
favor of God and the approval of man.
And there are thousands and tens of thou
sands Of merchants who from the first
day they sold yard of cloth or firkin of
butter, have maintained their integrity.
They were born honest, they will live hon
est and they will die honest. But you and
l know that there are in commercial life
those who are guilty of great dishonesties
of speech. A merchant says, Il am sell
ing these goods at less than cost" Is he
getting for those goods price inferior to
that which he paid for them? Then he
has spoken the truth. Is he getting mOreS
Then he lies A merchant says, Il paid
S25 for this article" Is that the price he
paid for it? All right But suppose he
paid for it 1928 instead of $25? Then he
lies.
But there are just as many falsehoods
before the counter as there are behind the
counter. A customer comes in and asks,
"How much is this article?'' 1T is So.
81 can get that for 81 somewhere else. "
! Can he get it for 81 somewhere else or did
he say that just for the purpose of getting
it cheap by depreciating the value of the
goods? If so, he lied There are just as
many falsehoods before the counter as
there are behind the counter.
A man unrolls upon the counter bale
of handkerchiefs. The customer says,
, "Are these all silk" Yes. "No cot
ton in them?' ono cotton in them. Are
those handkerchiefs all silk? Then the
/ merchant told the truth. Is there any cot
| ton 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 |
| 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 yester-
day told by hardware men, and clothiers,
| and lumbermen, and tobacconists, and
| jewellers, and importers, and shippers, and
! dealers in furniture, and dealers in coal,
! and dealers in groceries? Lies about buc-
kles, about saddles, about harness, about
shoes, about hats, about coats, about shov-
! els, about tongs, about forks, about chairs,
about sofas, about horses about lands,
about everything. l arraign commercial
| falsehood as one of the crying sins of our
! time
Mechanical Lies.
pass on to speak Of mechanical false
hoods Among the artisans are those upon
whom we are dependent for the houses in
which we live, the garments we wear, the
cars in which we ride. The vast majority
of them are, so far as l know them, men
who speak the truth, and they are upright,
and many Of them are foremost in great
! philanthropies and in churches, but that
they all do not belong to that class every
| one knows In times when there is great
demand for labor it is not so easy for such
men to keep their obligations, because they
may miscalCulate in regard to the weather
or they may not be able to get the help
they anticipated in their enterprise. l 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 Wednes-
day. They say they will come on Wednes-
day. They do not come until Saturday.
They say they will have the job done in
ten days They do not get it done before
80. And when a man becomes irritated
and will 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 20
and work for that man and get him paci-
fed, and then they go somewhere else.
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 dol "Oh, they say, lit S
of no importance. Every body expects to
be deceived and disappointed. There is
a voice of thunder sounding among the
saws and the hammers and the shears,
saying, "All liars shall have their place in
the lake that burns with fire and brim-
stone.
pass on to speak of social lies How
much of society is insincere? You hardly
know what to believe, They send their
regards You do not exactly know whether
it is an expression of the heart or an ex-
ternal civility. They ask you to come tC
their house You hardly know whether
they really want you to come We are all
accustomed to take discount off what We
hear. Not at home" very often means
too lazy to dress l was reading of lady
who said she had told her last fashionable
lie. There was a knock at her door, and
she sent word down, Not at home" That
night her husband said to her, Mrs So
and-so is dead lis it possiblel" she
said. "Yes, and she died in great anguish
of mind She wanted to see you SO very
much; she had something very important
to disclose to you in her last hour and she
sent three times today, but found you alb
sent every time" Then this woman be
thought herself that she had had a bargain
with her neighbor that when the long pro
tracted sickness was about to come TO al
end she would appear at her bedside ant
take the secret that was to be disclosed
And she had said she was mot at home.
Social life is struck through with insin
certify. They apologize for the fact tina
the furnace is out; they have not had an!
fire in it all winter They apologize fo
the fare ON their table; they never liv
any better. They decry their most lux
uriant entertainment to win shower o
} approval from you. They point at pic
ture on the wall as a work of one of tn
} old masters They say it is an heirloom il
the family. 1t hung on the wall of a cas-
tie. A duke gave it to their grandfather
People that will lie about nothing else will
lie about picture On small income W
want the world to believe we are affluent