Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-09-29

An open brazen and shameless
liar is despised by everybody There
are people who are such notorious
falsifers that they would not be
believed under oath. They are so
accustomed to lying that they per
sist in the habit when the truth
would be more profitable for them.
They take a keen delight in decelv-
mo others and invent falsehoods for
the mere satisfaction it gives them
10 draw a long bow. They will
inter tie most outrageous lies and
do it without blushing or winking.
All such characters are looked upon
with supreme contempt and pay the
penalty upon discovery of never be-
inc believed afterwards. But While
society Justly reprobates a crude
and uncouth liar it looks with quite
q different regard upon the polite
prevaricator. To handle the truth
carelessly-if it is done picturesque
lv-is quite another matter. Peo-
nle who would not tell falsehood
for the world have established a
moral code in which appears what
is called a white lie for the use Of
the polite and the refined. I'm
willing to come straight out win
the truth and the whole truth and
nothing but the truth a subterfuge
is invented and the individual takes
refuge behind a bulwark of good
manners in his attempt to dodge.
~
In one of the addresses Of Christ
he shows up three such men. They
had all been invited to a banquet
and not wishing to attend, and at
the same time recognizing that
they must not offend the host, they
all sent their regrets and pleaded
previous engagement or circum-
stances over which they had no
control. One had bought some live
stock which he must prove and one
had bought farm which he must
see and one had married a wife and
could not come. The inference
from tie context is that they were
all liars. People who are buy ing
working cattle do not pay for them
first and try them afterward. Peo-
pie who buy real estate do not pur-
chase farms and look them over
afterwards and public banquet
would be just the place to take
new wife and appear out. The fact
is they did not want to go and they
took that polite form Of prevarlca-
ton to get out of it. The result
shows that the host so understood it
for instead of accepting their regrets
at their face value he was indignant
at their behavior and filled their
places at the feast with all the rag
tag and bobtail OF the country.
~
The temptations to this form Of
lying abound in every walk of life
and spread their net for all feet. In
mercantile life, in church affairs,
in political strife, in the rivalries OF
vanity, IN dealings of every kind
a lie often seems the readiest means
of gaining an advantage or avoid
ing a difficulty. The school boy at
his desk and the senator in his
place are tempted. The mechanic
may declare his work good job or
the merchant protest that he is sell
ing ruinous prices or the lawyer
shed tears over the pretended
wrongs of the rich knave he is try
ing to save from the penitentiary,
and even the divine may WELD a
powerful gospel ak without being
as honest as the >prophet't servant
who said ''alas my master, but it
was borrowed" Polite prevarica-
ton has surrounded us with world
unnatural and untrue. Hollow pre-
lenses and unmeaning batteries and
shams and hYpocricies everywhere!
People shake hands in public and
smile their sweetest only to SANDER
and undermine when apart. Their
words are smoother than butter,
their eyes are daggers. So now
when people ask you to come you
do not know whether OF not they
want you to come. If they send
regards you do not know whether it
is an expression of their neart or a
mere external civility. We have
learned tO take almost everVthinor
at a discount. The servant at the
door says mot at home" when she
really means don't want to see
you Because the truth hurts
there are lots of people who fear to
tell it. Yet a spoken or acted lie
hurts far worse in the end. There
are many blunt truths that need to
be told-yet the fawning sycophant
81 /, o,~o,, -