The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1903-11-04
Dedicated to Hagood and Begood.
Hits a lie.-Hez. ": XIV.

Hits lie.-Hez. ": XIV.
When Hezekiah was school boy he
acquired the provincial habit of say
ing chit for it. (He was native of
Kroy county; S. C.l) The school was
to have an exhibition and Hezekiah
vas to makeia speech, and the teacher,
by strenuous and insistant drilling hop
ed she'd cured him Of his Inspiration
butin the midst of his forid oratory and
while fercely saving the circumam-
bient air with his arms and marking
time distressfully with his feet, the
fatal word occurred and he was brought
to sudden consciousness, by the litter
ing and giggling of the scholars, that
something was wrong. Hezekiah de-
iberately ceased and looking around
with superb scorn vehemently exclaim-
ed "Hit's liep' Just so, and from
his stand point it was lie and slander
and reproach, although he had verify
aspirated the little pronoun with much
emphasis but was unconscious of the
fact and couldn't or wouldn't be con-
vinced by the whole school array Of
witnesses. We are all Hezekiahs and
scholars.
Now wot are you "pushers" gi'en
US, any way? Wot dye want? Wot ye
go'in to do about it? We lie, Of course
we lie. We all lie. Do you want US
to quit? Are you two preachers?
Well tell Us what is truth then tell
us what is lying; then, if you tell us
the truth as to what is lie, we'd like
to gee you 90 out next day and tell the
truth, the whole truth and nohing but
the truth in @<tone Of voice, hand
shake, conduct and speech" Well
bet dollar'n half agln cent'n a
half that if you, your ownselves, sur
vive the shock you'll have to run or
take refuge in the guard house or-the
asylum before sundown. You can't do
it and live in this country. Besides
you couldn't stand it your own self.
Deception permeates every part and
portion of all our systems and econo-
mics and is practiced in all ranks and
degrees of society. We take issue with
Begood that there is only one mean
liar. There's the vicious liar and
malicious liar and mischievous liar
and cheating liar and gossiping liar;
but we do grant that the meanest,
vilest, basest and most odious liar is
the duplex liar who, peradventure, is
a relative, or connection, or false
friend who will treacherously drop his
or her venomous slime along your
pathway, and which falls like the
seed Of the parabolic sower, ''some by
the wayside, - which are picked up and
scattered by the le-e-tle fowls of the
air, etc. These fowls, and the liars
too, are always, more or less, weak
minded folk, so filled with their own
little venom and malice and unchari-
tableness, so busy with Their vilifica-
tion and calumniation Of others that
what little brain they may possess has
no chance to develop anything beyond
their own despicable littleness and
selGshness. They are they of the
"sneaky snakey'' kind, a. friend with
the elision of the r. They are the kind
of pup that will as readily carry a
bone as fetch one, like the longeared,
"suck egg" breed of pups There's
also the hostile liar, who, perchance,
is near enough upon the outer edge Of
your life to hear you, or to hear what
Tom said be heard Dick tell Harry
you did say, and Immediately grasps
chance to distort your whole mean
ing, signifcation, and import and place
construction that misrepresents your
whole intention. They also deal in
the softly sinister insinuendos (radi-
cal extraction) and generally act as
tributaries to those miserably filthy
sewers of society, the gossippy liars
who are ever avid of everything that
savors of social stencil. These are full
of all manner of cussedness of the
dreggy kind. The mischievous liar