Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-02-27

Y" HY do you teach your children
wv to lie to your asked the gray
haired woman of the friend she
was visiting.
Teach my children to lie to me! eN-
claimed the hostess in horror. why,
there is nobody in the world who has
more reverence for the truth than L
have, and there is nothing that l punish
my children so severely for as telling a
falsehood."
"All the same" responded the gray
haired woman, you are making little
Ananiases and Saphiras of them by pen
alizing the truth. | have observed that
every time some childish misdemeanor
has been committed, and the child that
has been at fault owns up to it, he or
she gets severely punished. l have also
observed that being normal human
children, and not story book angel chill
dren who court martyrdom, the next
time the same mischief is perpetrated,
the child denies knowing anything about
it, Your lesson has borne fruit. 1t has
shown him that the way to escape the
consequences of his act is to lie out of
it.
THE thing that makes liars of all of
us, grown-ups as we'll as children. is
fear" continued the gray haired woman.
Most of us are truthful by nature, but
experience has taught up that the cas-
Test way to save ourselves trouble is
to prevaricate, and so we do it, It's the
people about us who won't stand for the
truth that makes us liars.
"A man, for instance, wants to stay
down town and have dinner with a
friend, or play a game of rcards, or
amuse himself in some way. He's Il
grown man, a good husband and father.
and certainly has a right to an occasion
al evening off, and he would like to tell
his wife the truth about it, and just
what he's going to do.
But she is like you. She has made
him a liar by penalizing the truth, and
the only way he can escape a flood of
tears. and recrimination, and suspicion.
is by telling her some cock-and-bull
story about having to work at night, or
having to see a customer who has just
come from Honolulu, and is leaving the
next morning for South Africa.
at is the same way about a woman.
When Mrs. Brown buys a twenty dollar
hat, and her husband asks her what 1T
costs, 1t goes against the grain with
her to have to tell him the untruth that
she got it on the bargain counter for
seven-fifty. She'd like to tell him the
truth, but she knows tnat if she. did,
she'd never hear the last of his diatribe
on woman's extravaganza, and what an
outrage it is for bit of velvet and
straw and flowers to cost more than
thirty-five cents So Mrs. Brown tells
her little tarradiddle and sweats the diff
ference in the price off the grocery bill.
Her husband has made her liar
by putting a premium on deceit and
handicap on the truth.
self preservation is the first law of
nature, and when it's a question be-
tween a row and lie. we too often cor
daily embrace the lie. Everyone knows
this. and yet there are people silly
enough to- expect children to tell the
truth. when telling the truth is as good
for a whipping as a nickel is for a
ginger cake. It's idiotic. If we grown
people bubble and falsify when telling
the truth would get us into trouble, why
should we expect a little child to have
more moral stamina than we have?
why should we expect a child to
have higher sense of abstract virtue
than we have?"
81 tell you, if we want our children
to be truthful and not liars, we have
got to make truth telling the subject
of reward instead of punishment. When
we demand to know who has been dali
lying with the contents of the cooky
jar, Tommy will do the George Wash
lnSIOn act, ana say L ala II. Or he Will
lay the blame on the cat, accordingly
as he knows what the results are going
to be to him. If he knows that there
are going to be no unpleasant cOnse-
uuences, he will tell the truth, other
wise he will mendaciously establish an
alibi for himself. And which one of us
has got a right to blame him? We
have ourselves unpleasantness a dozen
times day by giving the truth a wide
berth.
1.-The other day was visiting house."
went on the gray-haired woman, I'm
which there was a mischievous little
boy who had just broken neighbours
window when throwing eat a sparrow,
and the irate neighbor came over to de-
mand that summary vengeance should be
visited on the small culprit. Jack was
called in to be questioned, and he came
in very white and scared
Son. said his father, Mr.. Graham
says that some of you boys broke his
window. Did your
"'Billy and T. began Jack, swallowing
very hard.
Don't bring in Billy said Jacks
father. L asked about you
Yes. sir said Jack, L was trying
my new slung shot, and l didn't intend
to do it, and
Accidents will happen said Jacks
father, putting his arm comfortingly
about the shiverihg little shoulders, but
you know a gentleman is always careful
not to destroy another persons proper
ty, and when he does
az know exclaimed Jack Frightening
up, he apologies and he pays
That's right, old man. said Jacks
father And Jack went over and placated
the angry neighbor by handsome apol-
ogy. and took down his bank, and dug
out the price of the window he had
broken, and paid.
More. he had learned to tell the truth,
because the truth hadn't been penalized
for him, as so many parents would have
done Most of us make liars of our chill
dren-God forgive us for it,"