WHY WOMEN LIE MORE THAN MEN

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1927, Page 4

WHY WOMEN LIE MORE THAN MEN

(Iky TDK lIOX. .MRS. FITZROY STEWART in the “ Dailv Mail ”.)

A witty writer said of women tluu there were two kinds—the plain and the coloured. And the same may he said of lies. All the difference in the world exists between these two. Some people indulge in one kind only, while others affect both. Sometimes we tell a harmless lie in self-defence, or to help friends, or to save their feelings. A steady voice and a cheerful smile have often to he used as a safeguard. I like the small hoy’s definition of this fault: " l.ies are a very present help in time of trouble.’’ Not long ago a legal liglcl declared that women are more untruthful than men. Tin's is rather a sweeping assertion.

Wives must often lie. For their husbands’ sake they may have to say what is not true. This, to make him happy; to soothe his self-love; to sc icon the faults of others; and often to make the best of a had business.

Wilt’ll it <nmes to :i question of love, a lifetime of happiness sometimes Ininas mi a lie. A Japanese proverb says that “ It is better In lie a little than to lie unhappy much.” Women are forced to tell more lies than men ; they have to make many sacrifices. Sacrifices must, however, lie made to appear as {flail surrenders. An absolutely truthful person is a laity. Leigh Hunt said: ‘‘Lying is the commonest and most conventional of all the vices.” That it is an inborn weakness may lie seen by the tendency to lying which is shown b v the hestnatured children. The fibs of childhood are often the result of a too vivid imagination. Women’s untruths differ from those of men not so much in number as in kind. Women tel! more fibs about their dress and their .social position, or as to the virtues or the reverse of their husband and children. Men are more prone to lie about their presence of mind in danger, or their achievements in sport, in the city, in diplomacy, or in Parliament. White lies are not a serious fault ; but it is better to be straight and to appreciate Chaucer’s dictum: “Truth is the hiest thing that man may kepe.”