Young John D. Rockefeller, two weeks ago, taught his Bible class all about veracity, and why it was better that everybody should always keep a plentiful supply on hand.  Some of the letters I have received suggest that I ought to attend his class and learn, too.  Why, I know Mr. Rockefeller, and he is a good fellow.  He is competent in many ways to teach a Bible class, but when it comes to veracity he is only thirty-five years old.  I’m seventy years old.  I have been familiar with veracity twice as long as he.

And the story about George Washington and his little hatchet has also been suggested to me in these letters—­in a fugitive way, as if I needed some of George Washington and his hatchet in my constitution.  Why, dear me, they overlook the real point in that story.  The point is not the one that is usually suggested, and you can readily see that.

The point is not that George said to his father, “Yes, father, I cut down the cheery-tree; I can’t tell a lie,” but that the little boy—­only seven years old—­should have his sagacity developed under such circumstances.  He was a boy wise beyond his years.  His conduct then was a prophecy of later years.  Yes, I think he was the most remarkable man the country ever produced-up to my time, anyway.

Now then, little George realized that circumstantial evidence was against him.  He knew that his father would know from the size of the chips that no full-grown hatchet cut that tree down, and that no man would have haggled it so.  He knew that his father would send around the plantation and inquire for a small boy with a hatchet, and he had the wisdom to come out and confess it.  Now, the idea that his father was overjoyed when he told little George that he would rather have him cut down, a thousand cheery-trees than tell a lie is all nonsense.  What did he really mean?  Why, that he was absolutely astonished that he had a son who had the chance to tell a lie and didn’t.

I admire old George—­if that was his name—­for his discernment.  He knew when he said that his son couldn’t tell a lie that he was stretching it a good deal.  He wouldn’t have to go to John D. Rockefeller’s Bible class to find that out.  The way the old George Washington story goes down it doesn’t do anybody any good.  It only discourages people who can tell a lie.

WELCOME HOME

          Addressat the dinner in his honor at the lotos club,
          November 10, 1900

In August, 1895, just before sailing for Australia, Mr. Clemens issued the following statement: 

“It has been reported that I sacrificed, for the benefit of the creditors, the property of the publishing firm whose financial backer I was, and that I am now lecturing for my own benefit.

“This is an error.  I intend the lectures, as well as the property, for the creditors.  The law recognizes no mortgage on a man’s brains, and a merchant who has given up all he has may take advantage of the laws of insolvency and may start free again for himself.  But I am not a business man, and honor is a harder master than the law.  It cannot compromise for less than one hundred cents on a dollar, and its debts are never outlawed.