Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-03-26

his head would hitch himself to the post.
There he would stand and stamp and snort
of his family would call him to his meals
can't eat IN the house.. Urging did no
until some would be bro. ght to him. Then
he would insist on eating Y out OF a trough
without using his hands c. II knife or fork.
he would turn. in fancy. into q bear. The
curved back OF the lounge made q con-
yenient den. and from. it he sailed forth.
believing SO fully In his new identity that
he almost .chewed up his smaller brother
when the latter happened to become prey
Of his hearship: At other times he fancied
forty Ss.se aa masss Of IN land a yt ior t sS,od %in and killed. hHld
or. Amputating the propeIiers Of the
beasts he met was the particular long
SUIT OF this small boys sportive fancy.
He never killed his imaginary foes in any
other way.
Lying for the sake of keeping up with
the exercises of childhood. Not all children
timental Tommie. did in the openinS chap;
bis playmates. and Tommie. had been in
duiging In a gentle round of boasting. In
sRfsr a, ' ssepias ahead ad s ISm%'s said: s" aWaiiF
my father We're once at a hanging" Tom
ME sustained his reputation nobly by re-
es"9 Blu, rw syes ny II f they st as w soma nshst
short of this they can succeed in achieving
some fairly artistic lying. Two little girls
ago were won't to regale each othe- with
descriptions of beautiful wax dolls and
SPLENDID silk dresses they had. The ex-
these choice articles was that they We're
entirely too fine for anything except the
secluSion OF the highest Shelf in the dark
est closet in the house.
A little schoolgirl here in Kansas City
had been in the habit Of reporting interest
Ing occurrences in her sci,oolroom each
evening when She returned home. Finding
that she had became the center of ali
attractions on that account she could not
resist resist the the impulse for Imp Imnproyising events
cessful until she told that her teacher had
whipped twelve children that day. Her
r a1aark ae upo one the .ea facf tb 5as s next ma aay hand ana
had a busy time the day before. On in
quiry. the truth became known and the
little girls mad career as a romancer was
summarily checked.
The same teacher admired a 6-year-old
g rs new 9. dre as ons day n asked who
teacher demonstrated with her but she
She insisted. Finally she MAt hung Ss4 her SsrsI head
so the statistician says. stick to their lies
better than boys do. A boy wa asked not
long ago why he was late to school. He
had come into collision. When asked
how that could happen on a double track
railway, he answered: They can't usual
ly but they did this morning. He gave
the minutest details of the wreck. every
BIT being the product of his overestimated
imagination. In that case the story was
told to escape punishment and belongs to
the class of lies which nave the commonest
motive.
Another case of similar kind was that Of
a boy whose mother discovered him with a
knife which she knew did not belong to
him, She questioned him about. it and
the grass by the side of the sidewalk l
happened to gee something shining. l dug
around to find out what it was. and 1t was
this knife" Another small boy was with
him and claimed the knife. saying that it
had been taken away from him by its
present possessor just a few minutes be-
fore. The mother knew the boys failing
from experience and finally succeeded in
persuading him to acknowledge his guilt.
Only one mother interviewed was able
to positively state that her children had
never told her a falsehood in their lives.
The teachers all agreed that children taken
singly and collectively are averse to speak
ing the truth. apparently on general prin-
ciples. All agree. however. that after the
Imaginative period is over the most daring
romancers subside into absolutely truthful,
practical. dependable young people. They
must be treated with consideration and
shown the difference between exercising
the imagination and telling malicious false
hoods f ALICE HUMPHREY