Evening star., 1898-08-06
A WORLDWIDE TRAVELLER

"On the steamer that took. us to the
North Cape, early last month we came in
to contact with man whom We all figured
to be the most colossal liar on earth," said
Washington gentleman who has just re-
turned from a summer tour of north Euro
pean waters. He was with us for more
than a week, and am certain that none of
Us ever heard a man talk as he did lie
was rather a Observation-Disclosures man,
apparently Frenchman. although his En-
glish was practically perfect. He was tray-
cling in great style all by himself, with a
couple OF Wallets, and he seemed to have
more money to spend than he had any need
for He wasn't a bit ostentatious either
and as matter Of fact his manners were
| rather pleasing. But, heavens. How he did
spin yarns. We all got to talking of Bis
| marck in the smoking room on the first
night out. The Observation-Disclosures
stranger let us talk on for a while and
then he chimed in gracefully. Bismarck?
On, he had known him well. A wonderful
man, Bismarck! And he went ahead and
related lot of really good anecdotes of the
Grand Old Mon of Germany that we had
never heard before, and that really sounded
genuine.
A clever liar, that chap said one of
my friends to me in aside Its really
fascinating to listen to him.
AND 1t was fascinating to listen to him.
He seemed to have known everybody of
distinction during the past thirty wears. al
ciousn Ne looked to be scarcely more than
forty-hve himself. He had visited at Glad
stones country house. He had met Sarah
Bernhardt when the actress had lust tin-
lshed her apprenticeship as a millinery girl
we got to talking of Roscoe Conkljng
Roma q
stranger knew all about him. He told a
lot OF stories about the man with the Hy-
perion curl and the stories were strangely
IKE, too. They were full of the spirit of
Conkiing
That fellows simply master of lying
SAID my friend on the third day out He
must have done sight of reading. Did you
ever hear such realistic yarns of the great
and famous?
There were a lot of accomplished trav-
eiers In our party-men who had penetrated
70 some queer places. Well, there WASH
one OF them who had ever visited a spot
that the Observation-Disclosures stranger had
not seen at some time another. He call
ed the turn On all of them, and he called
the turn right, too. The travellers thought
TO snag him. but there wasn't a trivial de-
tail IN which they could catch him mapping
from the manners of the people of Thibet
to the habits of the rhinosceros In equatori-
al Africa. He had 1t right and he talked
smoothly and suavely of places that most
OF US had never even heard Of
Great Scctt, but the amount of infor-
nation that fellow has stuffed himself
with. said my friend on the fifth day And
the way he narrates the whole business in
the first person.
'An of the men passengers who listened
TO the dlstinguished-looking man with the
dark mutton-chop whiskers were convinced
in their own minds that the man was moth
ing more nor less than an accomplished
mar, but they wondered at his expertness
IN lying all the same, and they ached to
catch him outright in bald Justification
Wen, one evening, when the whole |
crowd were having an after-supper cigar in |
the smoking room, little, squat English |
man, who is famous throughout the world |
as mountaineer, a man who has scaled |
most or the almost inSurmountable peaks |
began to talk quietly of a certain terrific |
ally difficult peak among the Andes This |
middle-agtd Englishman was one of the |
party whose skepticism concerning the dis |
tinguished-looking foreigners yarns was |
the strongest. He hadn't talked for more |
than a minute of this hard peak among |
the Andes, when the easy-mannered |
stranger chimed in. |
An, yes said he. 'one would want no |
more difficult climbing than that 1 made |
the ascent in 1SS-, and my heart hasn't |
been entirely right since
The English mountaineer began to fume
from the moment the stranger began to /
speak. and when he had finished he was in |
rage.
My friend said he rising to his feet |
ana taking very determined Anglo-Saxon
posture, I've been listening to your amaz-
ing web of lies for seven days now and 7 |
peglh 10 cease to extract amusement from
them You have now convicted yourself of /
beng the brazenest kind of a liar have
TO inform you that there is but one man
now living in the world who ever made
the ascent of that peak, and that man is
the distinguished Baron D, the son of |
the late French diplomat of that name
We'll, looked for bloodshed The
MISUNDERSTANDING stranger however. re-
garded the angry-looking little Englshman
with amusement. Then he reached into
the inner pocket of his long plaid ulster
TOOK out little gold card case produced
one of the coroneted cards and handed II |
over to the Englishman with a smile hut |
saying never a word.
The Englishmans face, when he read |
the name on the card, was certainly funny |
lhe Baron D! he exclaimed Why |
good Lord, man, l have been looking for, |
ward to having a meeting with YOU ever
since L began climbing mountafnsr and
the apologies he made were of the most
genuine character. In less than a minute |
the TWO men were off in a corner talking |
over the ascents they had made and they |
were thicker than thieves in less than |
twenty-four hours.
Every story related by the distinguish
ed-iookng man was literally true. His
latner was one of the most famous of the
word diplomats, and the son had been |
stationed with his father from his bov |
hooo IN most OF the earth's corners and
mad rounded out his experiences by a vast |
amount of travelling on his own hook He |
is noted throughout Europe for his strict
truthfuineSS. 1t was about as oueer a soil |
as ever experienced" |