Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1877 — The Tillage Truth-Teller. [ARTICLE]

The Tillage Truth-Teller.

It is worth while now and then to have what is called the truth told you about yourself. There are times when such truth-telling is of great and immediate service. But I have noticed that persons who plume themselves upon speaking the truth to their neighbors are persons who really have no special devotion to truth, but who have,on the other hand, a passion for making people uncomfortable. They do not love their neighbors ; they hate them, or are indifferent to them. With them 80-called truth-telling is merely a form of self-indulgence. How would it do, the next time the village truth-teller comes around, for you to tell the truth to him ? “ Kind friend, I thank thee for telling me that my daughter’s manners are rude, and that my unol«, the parson, should be epokea to about hie method of public

prayer, and that my Sunday-best-go- tomeeting stove-pipe hat is two seasons behind the times; but let me reciprocate thy kindness by informing thee that thou art a selfish old gossip, without enough brains to perceive the whole truth abont any situation, but only a silly half-truth, or a miserable distorted truth, which, from the best of motives, I advise thee to keep to thyself.”— Scribner for July.