The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-24

| the silent assertion that nothing is going on
which fair and intelligent men are aware oil, and
are engaged by their duty to try to stop.
What l am arriving at IS this: When whole
races and peoples conspire to propagate gigantic
| mute lies in the interest Of tyrannies and
shams. why should care anything abou. the
trifiinR 1ies told by individuals? Why should we
try 10 make it appear that abstention from lying
is virtue2 Why should want to beguile our
selves in that way? Why should without
shame help the nation lie, and then be ashamed
| TO do little lying on our own accountf Why
shouldn't We be honest and honorable, and lie
every time get chance? That is TO say, why
shouldn't be consistent. and either lie all the
time not at all? Why should We help the ma
! ton lie the whole day long and then object to
telling one little private lie in own interest
TO go to bed on? Just for the refresmcnt of it,
| mean, and TO take the rancid taste out OF our
mouth.
And here is one of those delicious para
graphs peculiar to Mark Twain:
Some may think me not strict enough in my
morals, but that position is hardly tcnable There
are many kinds OF lying which do not approve.
do not like injurious lie, except when it in.
iures somebody else; and ] do not like the lie OF
bravado, the lie OF virtuous ecstay; the lat
ter was affected 10y Bryant; the former by Car
lyle.
Mr.. Bryant said: Truth crushed to earth will
rise again." | have taken medals at thirteen
worlds fairs, and may claim TO be not without
capacity. hut | never told as h!E one as that.
Mr.. BRYANT was PLAYING To the gallery; we all
do it. CARLYLE said in substance this-l do not
remember the exact words: This gospel is eter-
nal-that lie shall not live" have 4 reverent
affection for Caryle's books, and have read his
Revolution eight times; and ! prefer TO
think he was not entirely at himself when he told
that one. To me it is plain that he said 1t In a
moment OF excitement, when chasing Americans
out Of his backyard with brickbats They used
TO 80 there and worship. At bottom he was
probably ford of them, but he was always able
to conceal it. lie kept bricks for them, but he
was not a good shot, and it is matter of his
tor: that when he fred they lodged and carried
on the bricks.
This whole essay is one of the things
in our literature which could not possibly
have been evolved by anyone but an
American. Mark Twain is the only Ameri-
can writer who fully and adequately ex-
presses the national spirit, and never gets
away from it or puts on the mannerisms
of anyone else. In this essay on lying he
has whimsically given expression to the
feeling of a whole people, and in just the
way in which they themselves, if they
could, would do it. The typical American
of the middle class is very different from
the Englishman of the same order. The
difference lies in his sense of humor and
lis earnestness. He takes himself serious
ly. but he doesn't want you to know 1t.
This is precisely the attitude Of Mark
Twain. By putting his serious arguments
in satirical form he gets out of the oblga
ton of explaining them to matter-of-fact
Philistines. who could not understand. and
addresses himself to the select body OF
readers who can penetrate the whimsical
ity and get at the solid. earnest truth un-
derneath. AS nation, We keenly realize
the hollowness of what he calls the lie OF
silent assertion. There is a general pro-
test against ii, an uneasiness and desire
to get rid of it. In some other countries
this lie is accepted as a matter of course.
except by a few passionate souls who are
so exceptional as TO have no influence. The
Philistinism of England is an example of
this. Gladstone was a colossal example OF
the man who plays to the gallery, and
through the willingness of a whole nation
to countenance hypocrisy. becomes well
nigh immortal. The difference between
Gladstone and Lincoln is just the differ |
ence between the two countries which pro- |
duced them. Lincoln's ways were crude; !
but he was n great. healthy. honest soul, |
and he never pretended England will |
never produce a Mark Twain.
a delightful humorous sllit with a prac- |
teal morsel of common sense at the bot
tom of il is Travelling with a Reformer." |
THE Esquimau Maiden's Romance is a |
satire on wealth and luxury, OF the sort |
which only MARI; Twain can produce. Most |
people who saw the North American Re- |
view four or five years ago will remem-
Der the private history OF the jumping
Frog story, which appeared in the pages
of that magazine. The retrnslation of |
that story from the pages of The Revue
des Deux Mondes" (done by Mark Twain |
is fully equal to the original story. No
body who has read that remarkable con-
coction will ever foget it, and those who
have not, have great joy before them:
Eh bieni this Smiley nourished some terriers,
n rats. and some cocks OF combat, and some cats.
and all sorts OF things; and with his rage of bet
ting no had more Of repose.
The peculiar dioms of the French tongue
take on new fascination as rendered into
English by Mark Twain.
The story which gives its name to the
book is more a novelette, than a short
story but il is good. 1t is precisely the
involved. bewilderng, mixed-up kind of n
tale which the author has always loved to
distraction. and there is enough psychology
n it to supply some professors of that
science for the rest of their lives, If they
,nly knew it. Altogether. the book will
De delight to all lovers Of the greatest
American humorist. (New York: Harper
Z Bros. S1.75.)