The Monticellonian., 1916-05-25
STICKING TO TRUTH
SAGE THINKS IT IS SOMETHING
 THAT GAN BE OVERCOME.
Makes the Assertion That 1t Should Be Used sparlnaly and With Tact and Judgment on All
 Occasions.

"Twigley says he never told lie in his lite" related the druggist. He says he'd rather lose all he has than take fall out of the truth"
 He hasn't much to lose" observed the village patriarch. Hes so poor the assessor has quit calling at his house, and his poverty Is largely due to his weakness for the truth at all times and seasons.
 The truth is an excellent thing, but it should be used sparingly, and with tact and judgment. Some people can't be made te realize that the truth may be superfluous, even admitting it's value at ordinary times l was read ing of a case in point the other day. The publisher of an obscure magazine in England was surprised and an= noyed when a lot of officials visited his premises. eeHfiseated everything in sight, and took him away to jail. lie had been printing a lot of unpleasant things about the Russian government.
 Tt is more than likely that what he said about the government was 
 or three years ago he would have been generally appauded and number of people would have subscribed for his magazine. but just now England and Russia are great friends, and you can t hit one without offending the other.
 Our friend. Tom Swike, the black smith, is the strongest man in town. He also has passion for punching peoples heads, and the smallest eX- cuse will serve. Tom never pays his bills when 1t can be avoided, and as d falsifer he would make Apanias look like cheap amateur. 1 know all this to be the truth. yet l would be unwise to blurt out the truth in Toms hear ing.
 You will gather my meaning from these illustrations. The truth is an admirable line of goods, yet, if man would get on i'll this world, he must handle it with discretion and not SOW it broadcast.
 Our friend Twigley, who boasts that he never told a cherry tree. couldn't sell gold dollars. He would be sure to tell some unpleasant truth about them, saying they were short weight. or he found them in the pest house. or something. He's always saying things nobody needs to say.
 Last fall, just before Thanksgiv- ing he carried a dressed turkey all over town in basket, trying to sell it. Any other man could have sold it at the first house visited, for 1t was one of the tinest-looking birds l ever saw. He came to our back door and tried to do business asked him how old the turkey was. If he had said ten months I'd have believed him and shelled out the money, for the bird had youthful appearance. Twigley said he didn't know for certain. He had worked day for a farmer and the farmer gave him the turkey for his wages. He inferred from what the farmer said that the bird was three years old, but his private opinion was that it had celebrated its fifth birthday.
 My friends, there's no hope for a man so painfully truthful He would be as poor as Jobs owl if money grew on his gooseberry bushes. Of course he didn't sell the turkey don't know what he did with it, but he may have sent it to one of the automobile makers to be converted into tires.
 "Twigley is fond of fishing and tells me all about his excursions. I have been waiting for five years to hear him describe the large and beautiful fish that got away, and he never says word about it. Such a man is i'm possible, in any human society, and the best we can do for him is to pity him" ]" Pittsburgh Gazette-Times.