Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-09-05

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The assessor departs. About six months
later railroad corporation wishes to
have the right Of way through your
property. The representative OF that
road comes to you. How much Is
your property worthT oh you an
swer, II do not want TO sell under any
conditions. This Is the finest farm
land in all this region. Besides, the
place has for me a sentimental as well
as an intrinsic value. My father was
born here. My children were born
here. Well, II / must, must. That
farm and that old homestead are worth
at least $4,000. They are cheap at
that" There are your two answers.
Why the discrepancies? Why did you
make one statement to the assessor
and another to the railroad corpora
ton? Did you lie first? Did you lie
last? Did you lie both times?
God Abhcrs Lying.
Fire insurance adjusters meet with
the same kind Of lying. The man who
has solemnly declared to the county
commissioners that his personal hold
ings are Of little value discovers after
they have been burned that they were
worth a fortune and demands that the
fire insurance company compensate
him on that basis. False estimates and
fraudulent Misrepresentation, whether
made In the assessors office or to fire
insurance adjuster or by the merchant
to the customer or the customer to the
merchant, all belong to the same cate
CORY. They are lies. They are the Ut
terances OF false tongues, and God
has recorded his adherence and his
condemnation of all intentional verbal
misrepresentations Whether behind
store counter or over church pulpit let
your answers be yea, yea, and nay,
nay" A lie is just as black and fatal
tossed as shuttlecock between the
two battledoors Of buyer and seller as
though it were the dcathknell of an
Ananias and a Sapphira falling at the
feet of an apostolic denunciator.
Falsehoods in the political world:
oh. how many. Like the seventeen
year locusts. they never entirely depart
from a region. They. however swarm
most at certain seasons OF the year.
They are especially numerous and
virulent at municipal or state or
presidential election. The ballot box
is their footstool. A national conven-
ton to nominate a president Is their
glorification. Political falsehood will
take the record of the purest and best
public man that ever lived and abso-
lutely bedaub it over with scandals
and false accusations. They lied about
Washington and Jefferson and John
Quincy Adams and Lincoln and ayes
and Garfield and Mckinley. But,
though the concocters and utterers OF
political falsehoods may never tire OF
Safeguarding and misrepresenting our
public men, the acme Of meanness Is
uniy reached when, without Just cause,
they drag into the political mire the
wives and the children OF the men
whom they would indirectly attack. In
this generation the family OF any pub
lie man is never able, like Caesars
wife. to live above suspicion. All, then,
I wonder not that some OF our pubic
men become bitter and lose their faith
in mankind. | wonder not that many
n public man is tempted to carry his
political hatreds down to the grave.
When Andrew Jackson was very OLD
man he wished to join the church ana
be baptized at her affairs. When he ap-
peared before the church officers the
minister asked him this question, Gen
eral before you come into our fellow
ship will you forgive all your political
enemies as you would have Christ for
give youY Yes" answered Jackson.
"Whatl ALP" The old ex-president
thought a moment. Then the aged
| conoueror who once defended New Or
leans raised his head. and. with fash
ing eye and scornful lip, replied. Yes,
all except the merciless scoundrels VINO
have lied about my dead wife, God
pity the honest man who in public life
is having his heart gashed open by the
attacks made upon the characters OF
| his loved ones. Truly. then, as at the
cross. an ungrateful people are Offering
him a crown of thorns instead OF a
crown Of treasured gold.
| Untruth Is Cownrdly.
| A lie is q lie, against whomsoever
told. A lie is especially cowardly when
II is told against public men, especially
cowardly because for the most part the
victims must writhe and twist under
the insInuating and poisonous attack
and suffer in silence. The nature OF
lie is not changed by Harvesting 1t to
qualifying adjective, nor Is a political
lie less heinous than other lies. A liC
told to besmirch a political candidate
or TO benefit a political party Is an OF
tense in the sight of God which VII
have to be accounted for in the day OF
Judgment. "All liars''-there are M
exceptions to this rule-"all liars shall
have their part In the lake which burn
eth with fire and birthstone, which Il
the second death"
Falsehoods in the social world
Why? Because, as David In his hast'
grossly declared, "All men are liarsT
oh. no. Because most people would in
tentionally and deliberately rob an IN
nocent man OF his character as sneal
thief might snatch woman's pocket
book and run? Oh, no; but becaus
most people would rather hear Ill o
their neighbors than good. Therefor
when a falsehood is once started abou
a neighbor it travels on with seye
league boots, and instead Of havin
one emissary it gradually enlists ter
twenty, fifty, thousand persons t
neddle its evil and transmit its destroy
ing venom.
Falsehoods in the social world
| Dooonso fovu nQ0Olp Can a(