The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1900-05-19
THE VICE OF ExAddERATIoN.


n. O. Times Democrat.
I 1t is painful to have to say it
but it is fact ali the same that
as people, we are considerably
given to exaggeration. We ta6'
a positive pleasure in seeking tc
make things appear bigger thar
they really are. When for exam
! pie we have to do with crowd o.
people and have an object in max
! ing the crowd to seem Of unusua
dimensions. we put down 200C
where 500 would be an outside
calculation. And in order to con
! vince not only others but Ourselve;
also that there were 1000 in atten,
dance, we say 1000 "by actua
count. There can be no denying
then that the crowd numbered
1000. Denial after that would bt
flat blasphemy.
| Exaggeration is a favOrite meth
od dealing with large fortunes
/ When a person in this country in
herits fortune of $4,000 in Eu-
rope from relative of atfiuence,
he has fallen fortune of $500,000.
When Marcus Alonzo Hanna pro-
ceeds to raise a corruption fund
of $3,000,000 or of s., 100000 at
most, it is a corruption fund of
| $4,000, 900 that he raises. We
call the United States Senate a
"mifionaires' club" and it is
often stated that the Senators are
all millionaires with the exception
Of the two or three whom each
one of us knows. Yet the other
day at Montauk Club banquet
Chauncey NJ. Depew, himself a
Senator and a millionaire, and a
man who generally knows what
he is talking about, said: '"There
are ninety Senators. Ten of them,
according to general belief, are
worth more than million dollars.
Ten more may be able to live upon
the income of their accumula-
tions, but more than three-fourths
of the Senators have little or no
property, and no income beyond
their salaries and what they can
gain in addition, by limited oppor-
tunitiss from their public duties,
with the practice of their profess
sions, contributions to magazines
and other literary efforts"
The Duke of Westminster's re-
venue, when it possibly might be
$4,000 a day, IS represented as
being that amount an hour or even
a minute; it being just as easy to
say . hour " or "minute" as to
say "day," while it is a great deal
more impressive and picturesque.
When man is seen the worse for
liquor two or three times a year,
he is "always drunk" and when
a woman is SO eXtravagant as to
change her bonnet eight or ten
times a year, she "never wears
the same bonnet tWice!" When
card-player loses $500 over a
game, his loss is $4,000; and when
a person makes application for an
Office three times, he is a chronic
or perpetual office-seeker.
This vice of exaggeration has
become a sort of "quitch i the
blood;" we are are never free from
it. 1t assails us in the streets,
in business offices, in the eX-
changes, in the theatres, at home.
They are the exceptions who take
without indulging in the vice of
exaggeration: it has come to be
regarded as a sort of Righteousness
by many people to say 100 when
they mean 3, to say 10000 when
they mean 100. Indulgence in the
vice very naturally and very pro
perly leads IN many cases to the
serious questioning of person
voracity. Cultivating the habit
of exaggeration tends irresisti5ly
to loose discrimination between
what is false and what is true.
| The New York Sun, with the as
sistance of Banker &c. Benedict
Grover Cleveland's friend,a mem
Der of whose family was married
with considerable pomp and cere,
mony a few days ago, makes 6
beautiful expose of the exaggera
ton of which we have been speak
ing, in connection with the mar
rage referred to. The "mis
statements were published il
! New York papers, the ''facts" are
supplied by Mr.. Benedict:
Misstatement-The wedding cost 81, ,F0),C coo.
Fact-It didn't cost more than $4,000.
Nisstatement-Mr. Benedict's present to tn
bride was a check for s., ,005,G05.
Fact-No check whatever was gi7eni bride ar,
groom have Independent means.
MIsstatement-A special wedding march wa
written for the occasion by Victor Bayer.
Fact-No music was written for the occasion
Familiar music was played.
Misstatement-Tne oldest tasperies in II
world were bought for the occasion.
Fact-No tasperies were bought; some wer
borrowed.
Observation-Disclosures trousseau cost $3.50, ,00C
Fact--It probably didn't cost $500, and was a
bought here except one Paris gown.
DIsstatement-The floral decorations at tn
church cost $4,000.
Fact-Except some smilax sent from the Soutl
they came from Mr. Benedict's garden. Tn
only other cost was dozen mems work half day
Misstatement-Ar. Benedict followed the En-.
Clsh cDsr0 and ifstriburad sTg)0 ir Gifts IN sev