The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-04-18
on THE WORST DiSADVAN-
TAGE OF LYING AS \
FINE ART.

the license office that she was "ovt
eighteen it appeared subsequently
that. in order to do it conscientious!y
she had written the figures "lS' OF
two separate slips Of paper which sht
had put inside her shoes. AS | sup
pose she took great pains to keep the
slips between the bottom of her stock
ings and the in-soles of her shoes, sc
that the tenderness of her 11-yearolC
conscience might be respected, | have
no intention whatever of making he1
conduct a text for discourse on The
disadvantages Of lying. Her Othellt
has perfectly straie ht hair and there
is no indication of burnt cork in his
complexion. If Dcsdemona goes on a:
conscientious!y as she has begun, the
worst that can be said of her is that
she will become "a very honest woman
but sonnet hing given To lie. as woman
should moi 10 lu' IN 'ir way nf hcl
honesty" 50, instead of saying tC
her Othello:
Lon k to her. Mnor: have qu, k eye 10 sec;
She has dec ived her father and may thee!-
| am rather inclined to VAIN him to be
cautious in the way he handles tho
mattress and the pillows in expressing
his own ideas of veracity.
Altogether aside from her case, how
ever, there are certain in. vitable con
sequences Of unveracity in all its forms
the worst of which is generally lost
sight of. When a man who begins
lying for what he considers a worthy
object, finds that a lie well stuck to is
as good as the truth" for his immedi
ate purposes, he hastens to conclude
that it is better for all purposes, and
hence sticks to it and to as many more
of the same kind as he can convenient
ly invent without straining his intel
lect. The inevitable result Of this, il
he sticks to it, is that he will acquire
the habit of believing his own lie, at
first with difficulty, but finally with
the most incredible facility.
l have seen but one exception to this
rule, and | am not yet convinced that
it was real exception. | have known
of one man, and only one, in whom tie
currents Of veracity and unveracity y
seemed to run parallel to each Other
without mingling. In everything that
belonged to his business, he was exact
careful, methodical, accurate to the
asst degree. Anything he said or wrotel
on a matter Of business was matter oi
fact, with not a word or suggestion
beyond the facts. But on anything
outside ofbusiness or every thing which
belonged to his own personal expert
ence, he was so wholly unaware of what
ought to he the necessary connection
between fact and statement, that though
at last he came to believe everything
he said, no one else believed him at all
1t was found by tabulating the putative
dates of the personal experiences he
had related that he would have *
ceeded more than two of the longest
lifetimes. Hence at last no one who
knew him ever thought Of suggesting
any difficulty in the way of accepting
his stories. He was 80 thoroughly con
vinced of them himself, to all appear
ances, that it gave him pain to have
them suspected of even tritling mac
curacy. The only theory which ex
planned him was that he had misap
piled great gift of constructive imagi
nation which, if rightly applied, nigh,
have made him immortal as dramatist
or a novelist. The wholly extraordi
nary feature of his extraordinary un
veracity was that he was never known
to attempt to put it to merely com
mercial uses art for arts sake" was
evidently his rule from the beginning
until his art had become secon(
nature. That he did not attempt tt
use the art of which he had become
master in taking advantage of any ont
in any business dealings with his fellow
man he was painfully matter-of fact, i:
the unaccountahle feature of his unac
countable case.
AS genuine lie is intended to de
ceive not only for the sake of art, bu
of taking advantage of the person de
ceived, perhaps he was not, strictly
speaking, liar at all, but merely :
romancer The result was the same
however, as tar as 1T went, Tor the ar
he had mastered, mastered him at last
This must happen in the art of lying
as in every other art. At last, whel
he has mastered it, the artist and th'
art are completely at one with eacl
other; all that was at first repugnan
between them has wholly disappeared
Hence a man who has really become al
artistic liar, must inevitably lose al
repugnancc to bis own lies and regart
them with all the fondness he NIGH
have felt for the most sublime Truth i
he had given it the devotion of life
time. The result of this is twofold
In the first place, he does not know
when he is telling the truth himself
and in the second he does not and cal
not know when any one else is tellin!
it.-Loy Preacher, IN St. Louis Gioue
Democrat.