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.

Prize For an Honest Man

1901

With $1,000 in lieu of a lantern Mrs. Nancy B. Irving, a book publisher of Chicago, has started out to emulate Diogenes in his search for an honest man. She believes it an impossibility to live a strictly honest business or professional life under present conditions. She offers to deposit $1,000 in a Chicago bank, which will be paid to the first business or professional man who can conclusively prove that he has carried on his work for a month without lying.

Teacher Refuses Tribute to Santa Claus

1910

By Samuel Parker of Chicago

During the recent holiday season a teacher in one of the Chicago public schools was subjected to not a little criticism for refusing to pay tribute to the Santa Claus myth, declaring it to be wrong morally to teach a child a falsehood or to tell the child anything as a truth which it would discover to be false later on.

Instead of being a target for thoughtless ridicule that teacher should command the respect of every teacher and parent who conscientiously regards the moral training of children. The holiest thing this side of heaven is the faith of a little child and he who carelessly or purposely abuses it perpetrates a wrong from which the abused child seldom fully recovers. If parents and friends would sidetrack the heathen myth and bestow their endearing gifts in their own names the dear children would be just as happy and escape the shock of falsehood and deception at the hands of those who ought to love them too well to expose them to such danger.


Romance of the Future

"Do you see that cloud? It was behind one just like that that I first kissed you." — Town and Country.

Truthful Children

1900

Children are naturally truthful. Nature does not lie. Let nothing be done to alter this happy disposition. Cultivate in them the love of truth, candor, and the confession of error.

It is lamentable to think what fearful falsehoods are uttered to deter children, to keep them quiet, or to make them obedient. Threats of being taken by old men, and black men, and other like terrors, are resorted to by ignorant and foolish servants to frighten them, and make them lie still in bed. It is ascertained that death, fits, idiocy, or insanity have been the consequences of such inhumanity.

But, setting aside the probable chance of such calamities, there are other certain results. If the child discovers the falsehoods practiced upon him, he becomes boldly indifferent to the threats, is more disobedient and willful than ever, disbelieves all that is said to him, and, finding no respect for truth in others, has no regard for it himself.

Firmness in adhering to promises, or any particular line of discipline in relation to children, is of first importance.


Japan Consumes Much Rice

Japan is the largest consumer of rice in the world, the average being 300 pounds a person a year. The Americans use but four pounds per capita. Belgium uses more tobacco in proportion, than any other country, about 110 ounces per capita yearly, while Italy uses only twenty-two ounces.

Neatness More Desirable Than Beauty

1908

Writer Makes Good Argument In Favor of Neatness

We all long for beauty, but there is within the grasp of all women something even more desirable than beauty — namely, exquisite neatness.

The writer has descanted on the desirability of neatness more than once, but it is something that will bear to be talked about more than once, or twice, or even a dozen times. "Faith," says Pat, when reproved for lying, "Oi have such a respect for Truth, Oi wud not be dhragging her out on every occashun." The writer differs in this respect from Pat. She has such a respect for neatness that she would be dragging her out on every occasion.

A man who had traveled much and seen many women in many countries, said the other day, "I prefer neatness to beauty. Beauty does not last, while the woman of 80 can still be charmingly neat." By neatness he meant more than simple tidiness. It included style and care and taste and the indefinable art of putting on one's clothes properly.

It is a faculty, alas, that Canadian women do not possess to any extent, says a writer in the Montreal Herald. They doubtless inherit the lack of it from their English ancestors, who are noticeably untidy. The mass of Englishwoman do not seem to know the meaning of the word. Their skirts and belts always separate at the back. Their hair is never beautifully coiffed like the Frenchwoman's, their whole aspect is frowsy to an extreme. Of course, this does not apply to all Englishwomen. There are exceptions to every rule.

On the other hand, the Americans are neat, and hence smart, for it is impossible to be smart without perfect neatness. They have a trim, trig way of wearing their clothes that gives a style to the cheapest ready-made. If you cannot be beautiful you can at least be charmingly neat. And neatness has an attractiveness that mere beauty lacks.

Words of Wise Men

1921

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

A little commendation goes a long way.

Ambition to merit praise fortifies our virtue.

He who does what he can has done what he ought.

The strength of will is the test of a young man's possibilities.

Truth is a mighty instrument, whatsoever hand may wield it.

All the best men have been best because they possessed "ideals."

The thought that conquers the world not contemplative but active.

Some doubts are as generous and passionate as the very noblest conditions.

Every noble life leaves the fiber of it interwoven with the work of the world.

To strive with difficulties and to conquer them is the highest human triumph.

Proverbs More Read Than Followed

1874

Proverbs in general are more read than followed. We hear often of the expression "the more the merrier." Now go and ask a couple of doting lovers, if they believe in that sort of thing. They would undoubtedly think that two was company, and three was a crowd.

One thing is certain it is hard, very hard to crowd that idea into the heads of some that is or that was to be mother-in-laws. When I sparked Mariah McGoozleum, her dear mamma always helped to make up the crowd. But for that I might have had the gall, if she would have had me. I can't for the life of me, see why some mammas so far forget themselves, as to forget that they were once girls, and once considered three was a crowd.

The old saying is that "an honest man's word is as good as his bond," but that's "too thin" (Shakespeare again) now-a-days. It might have been so at the time of the flood, when the world had a good washing, but it won't wash now.



Truth and Character

Truth lies in character. Christ did not simply speak truth; He was truth ; true through and through, for truth is a thing not of words but of life and being. None but a spirit can be true.



Training Children

It is apparent to a parent that a great many children get on the wrong track because the switch is misplaced.

Words of Wisdom – Look For Happiness in Useful Work

1878

It is but poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk.

If what is said be not to the purpose a single word is already too much.

As nothing truly valuable can be obtained without industry, so there can be no persevering industry without a deep sense of the value of time.

The most common error of men and women is that of looking for happiness somewhere outside of useful work. It has never yet been found when thus sought, and never will be while the world stands; and the sooner the truth is learned, the better for everyone. If you doubt the proposition, go around among your friends and acquaintances and select those who have the most enjoyment through life. Are they idlers and pleasure-seekers, or are the earnest workers? We know what your answer will be. Of the miserable human beings it has been our fortune or misfortune to know, those were the most wretched who had retired from useful employment in order to enjoy themselves.

Truth will never die; the stars will grow dim, the sun will pale his glory, but truth will be ever young. Integrity, uprightness, honesty, love, goodness, these are all imperishable. No grave can ever entomb these immortal principles. They have been in prison, but they have been freer than before; those who enshrined them in their hearts have been burned at the stake, but out of their ashes other witnesses have arisen. No sea can drown, no storm can wreck, no abyss can swallow up the everlasting truth. You cannot kill goodness and integrity and righteousness; the way that is consistent with these must be a way everlasting.

Curious Forms of Taking Oaths Around the World

1903

Customs Followed by Chinese, Hindus, Persians, and Other Peoples

The bill to repeal the law providing for extra judicial oaths in all civil courts calls attention to the variety of oaths that might be brought into practice in a court of world-wide cosmopolitanism, says the Milwaukee Sentinel.

The section of the law which it is sought to repeal has been on the statute book for many years, but has rarely been invoked by either of the parties to an action. It's existence has, however, sometimes been prejudiced to the impartial administration of justice.

Chinese witnesses must be sworn in several ways if they are to be bound to tell the truth. In some cases the witness breaks a plate and assents to the imprecation that his soul may be shattered in the same way if he strays from the paths of veracity.

With a large section of the Chinese the formula is for the person administering the oath to light a match or candle and. blowing it out, tell the witness that thus will his soul be extinguished if he does not speak the truth, to which he assents by giving a short nod.

Some tribes living on the Thibetan tableland can only be sworn in court by cutting off the head of a live gamecock. The Hindoo law says:

"Let a judge swear a Brahman by his veracity, a soldier by his horses, his elephants, his grain or his money, and a souder by all his crimes."

Quakers, in all civil cases, are allowed to give their evidence in affirmation, as also are the Moravians and Separatists.

A Galla of Abyssinia sits down over a pit covered with a hide, imprecating that he may fall into a pit if he break his word.

A Brazilian savage, to confirm his statement, raises his hand over his head and thrusts it into his hair or touches the point of his weapons.

Among the Aracans, an Asiatic tribe, the witness swearing to speak the truth takes in his hand a musket, a sword, a spear, a tiger's tusk, a crocodile's tooth or a stone celt. The hill tribes of India swear by a tiger's skin and the Ostraks by a bear's head.

The sacred oath in Persia is "by the holy grave," that is, the tomb of Shah Besade, who is buried in Cashmere.

Members of the Kirk of Scotland are sworn by lifting the hand while the book is laid open before them; Jews are sworn on the Pentateuch with their hats on; Mohammedans by placing the right hand flat on the Koran and the left on the forehead, and then bringing down the forehead to the book, and finally gazing a while at the book. The highest oath of the man who dwells by the Ganges, in India, is taken on the water of that river.