Truth Not Always the Best

1895

"I always used to be told," said Footinit, "that frankness and truthfulness endeared a man to his friends, but the whole thing is a delusion. It is lying that makes a fellow popular.

"Now, take my experiences of today. My wife made some wheat cakes for me with her own little hands. They were the worst slabs of putty I ever tried to eat. When she asked my opinion of them, being a truthful man, I told her that I had never put anything so unpalatable in my mouth and that a 10-year-old girl could have done better. Then she began to cry.

"After that I went down town to my store. A woman came in to get some dress goods. She picked out a material entirely unsuited to her years. Having been taught that truthfulness commends itself to a customer in the long run, I said to her: 'You're much too old for that sort of a dress. It is not suited to a woman over 50.' I thought she would be obliged to me for my tactful interest in her appearance, but instead of that she flounced out of the store in a rage, and I think she'll never come back.

"I don't believe frankness is the best policy at all, and I'm going to make the acquaintance of some first class liar and get him to give me a few lessons." — New York Herald.