The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-02-25
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE.
History is said to be a tissue of liz

History is said to be a tissue of lies.
This is readily believable.
At least to him who starts out 10
get at the truth of thing.
| An absolute fact is the hardest prop
osition to run TO cover known to the
social world.
There is nothing as insidious as
hearsay.
Hearsay causes about two-thirds of
| all social disaster
And its use in social exchange is
almost universal
Mighty few persons try to get at the
truth
They will accept the most fantastic
stories about their dearest friends
without the least demurrer
Swallow whole the villainous insin-
uation.
Laugh at the deroeatory tale.
| Smile at the off-color innuendo.
One of the severest lessons the
average person has to learn is the lack
of loyalty among those who pose as
his friends.
Loyalty is one of the finest of the
virtues.
| And the rarest
| Self interest rules in this world.
You'll find almost anyone ready TO
turn his back on friend if it is found
to be to the formers interests.
| And loyalty itself is sneered at.
And questioned.
For disinterestedness is usually i'm
possible of comprehension.
If friend sticks to another through
thick and thin, the public is apt to
think he has some selfish reason for
so doing.
| A passion for loyalty has been
known to wreck lives.
To disappoint and discourage and
embitter
The loyal soul generally goes down
to defeat.
| Jeered at for the very attribute upon
tice of life, he passionately resents the
ignoble aspersion.
| And the passionate person almost
invariably loses out.
He never learns the lesson of self
repression.
| Never sees that he puts himself to
disadvantage by trying to expose
and reiterate the truth.
| Never admit that truth is the last
thing that Is wanted.
People like to be humbugged.
This is as old as the world and will
continue to the crack O. doom.
The average person would prefer
| lie to the truth if the latter is easier
and pleasanter to believe.
And so hearsay is handed on down
the line until it assumes the substan-
tial proportions of actually.
The writer remembers when a little
girl to have heard a man tell a story,
illustrating this human propensity to
exaggeration and enlargement.
1t was to the effect that someone
had, when suffering from an attack of
NAL de mer thrown up something as
black as crow"
And, in the finale, the person had
thrown up eight black crows.
This is about as near as the average
person gets to it.
The story sounds good and so he
hands it carelessly on.
II you pin people down and say
did he tell you himself did you
see it yourself'-you will find that
neither is the case.
ooh. no, he didn't tell me so himself
but Smith told me and Smith ought to
know"
why no, I can't recall that he ac-
tually told me so himself but Uncle
Jerusha told me and he is related to
him in some way or other"
"Why certainly I know it to be the
truth-didn't Jones tell me so and
doesn't Jones live on the next block
and shouldn't Jones know if anybody
does?"
"Why no, he didn't say so to me
personally, but he told it to Maria and
/ she told it to Ellen and"
"Why, no, I can't say that did see
her myself but"
mo I don't know that I ever met
him in my life but I know lots of
people that do and they say"
And so it goes.
In the meantime regulations are
damaged, lives ruined, friendships
jeopardized, loves damned and general
devastation results.
The whole trouble is that we judge
too largely by externals.
We see something that bears the
semblance of truth and Immediately
catalogue it as the real thing
Never taking the trouble to look be
hind the screen and see what is really
there.
1t is to be doubted, however, if the
world could stand the undraped truth
A few years ago a clever story ap