The Nome nugget., 1902-02-22
ARE AIASkANS ALL LARS?


 It was neither original brilliant remark whch,was uttered by Judge Arthur H. Moves in the trial of the contempt in San Franc co. when he said that "no is able to tell the truth in Alaska " David the Psalmist, is credited with ir,t enunciang the statement to the universal propensity of man to lie. but he applied it generally the mouthl iece of the Otnnipotert Men are as prone to evil, and lying is evil, the sparks that fly upward, we told. and it is be wondered, therefore that Alaskans being human, are to q certain extent afflicted with the nlendacious maady, But WE are inclined to think that AlaSkans not in sui generis That is to say that wherever civilized man " is found there too. will be found who the truth with penurous frugality. We also told that where the sincivized man has his habtation, free and un- setlered, not having been polluted by contact with modern civilization he is truthful animal not knowing how to lie or even dissimulate. We do not alQw how this may be, why the untutored savage should be alone the pos of this great virtue the art of telling the truth.
 We take t to be islander in its broadest sense that Aaskans, whole people, should be classified liars. Indeed, believe that the broad statemen, should be resented, not only base slander but slur and an insult upon the people of this vast territory. We do not believe that they deserve the appelation. It will not be denied that lying is not d lost art, either in Alaska elsewhere. Lying is an inherited well acquired vice. The first record we have of its appearance in Eden, when Adam lied to his Maker, i'll vain attempt to account for his reason for donnng fig leaf garment to cover ais nakedness. Lying seems to have been trans, rnited to most of Adams decendants, WE believe, in a lees marked degree. Instances of gross moral turptude in this respect crops out here and there all through the pages of sacred history. Even good St. Peter wae guilty of prevaricaton in denying his Master, and have read of the fate that overlook Ananias and sapphi'a, his wife.
 Asskans have be- e, dubbed liars oitener than they deserve. We do not presume to say that when l, comes to truth-telng, Alaskans are any more punctilious than their contemporaries. matte, where found. This is country of magnificent dis tances the imagination is neither cribbed, cabined nor confined Mankind here has breathing space and it is not to be wondered if things seen, and felt in larger than amid the hurlyburly and the marrow contractedness" of the "centers of civil zatiou." 4 successful liar, 1t s said, must have vivid imagination sud a good memory, but success in liars net plentiful, and the who lies fol the sake of lying is very poor specimen of his kind We willeventure the statement that the man who in his unveracious career before coming hithcr. The lying habit is neither in the country nor in the atmosphere which surrounds it; where it abounds i: in tho blood and it must find vent, whether at the poles or in the torrid clime
 We do not apologize for Alaskan liars, but we dc gay that they neither better than those which inhict every country under the sun, neither they proportonatey whit numerous.