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Shannon News, 22 June 1923, Page 4

Why must 1 girls exaggerate? asks a writer in the “Woman's Magazine." ’ Take, par example, Theodora.- She is . a friend of mine, and-1 hate to criticise her; but honesty compels me to say that you have to winnow down her assertions till not one quarter of their original exuberance remains. Only by so doing can you get somewhere near the truth. Janette is another example. She bicycled to see me the other day, and the shy sun of 1923 peeped coyly at her. She rode quietly, and- the ‘distance was a short mile. ‘ Her ' verdict on the excursion would have suited a frenzied scaling—without a halt—of the Dent du Midi. The refrain was, "I am dying —absolutely dying!' ' Such damsels are prone to speak of an ordinary breeze as “a positive cyclone," and to describe the .rich fiance of a friend as "literally kicking in money—a million a week, my dear, at least!" Now, none of these "fact embellishers" are consciously dishonest. Bella, whom I know pretty intimately, is a meticulous truth-teller—quite Washingtonian in her dislike of the whitest lie. This, however, did not prevent her from declaring in my presence that all her front' teeth were decaying, when I ’happened to know that a microscopic suspicion of caries was the extent of the damage. In all the professions absolute exactitude is demanded, if the, ambitious girl would go far. The ( business girl, too, should particularly beware of florid statements. To tell her employer that "a hundred people have called in his absence,'-? or that one of them was "green with rage at finding him out" is not. the way to keep a situation. It strains the confidence to breaking-point. Perhaps the warning most likely to be heeded is this. Men —the right kind of men—detest exaggeration. Sometimes, ,it is true, they draw the fair exaggerator out, but only to see to what heights of verbal folly she will soar.