Hawaii Holomua, Volume II, Number 06, 8 January 1894 — DO YOU LIE? [ARTICLE]

DO YOU LIE?

. ! Most People Crowd ihe Lioait. lt «onn.U like a rather sweep- j ing st.-ttemeut to assert tbat not i one ordinary person in a hundred is in the habit of adhering strict- . \y the trnth This however, li;«. heen the snbject of sorae discnssion in eertan circles with the eoneiueion as given above. There h» no p< »sitive intention to state what is false ueither is the exagi?eration in some cases al all marked, but. according to tbe New York Ledger, there is a de j cided tendency t<» crowd the , tiiuit of actuai trnth, and make , | matters apj>ear iu a iight more favorable to the speaLer or less ; s.) to some one else. While it inay be sa.d that this ; is only natural. it ean. with equal j propriety, be urged that, if it is uatural, it should be bred ont of ! humanity at the earliest poaaihle ag§. But inste«d of this. the 1 . hoiue intluences of most childr9u aud yonug peoplo tend directlv ito foster it. The child who •speaks up' and tells the best story to get the most notice. and , is often praised and flattered to | its face. or compIimentary 1 apeeehea inade of its smartuess : are repeated iu its heariug. Gradaallv the habit of emhelliāhment grows upon it nntil it be- ■ comes feeond nature, and the j ehikl could scarcely confine itself I to tlie trnth if it tried however mneh. This is the age of sensutioualism and unless every one is able to tell a story as good as his fellows he feels himself somewhat bebind the times. Indeed, to be ; a good stoiy-teller is to bave a J passport to geueral favor and tke i assnrance of n weleome almost everywhere. The imagination is therefore, drawn upon by those wboHSpiretosuinein thisparticu- ! lav, and every iucident of a nature in the least degree unusual is stored up in the memory against a time when some other itera raay be added to it, and from all of whieh a composite yarn raay be spun wliieh will interest the listeuing I crowd at the club roora or the oorner grocery. And after the j hahit of erabellishment has been j ; cultivated in story-telling it is very difiicnlt to coufifie the tougne gtrictly to the truth iu narrating oidinarv events