[Ads-l] more lies and statistics

[Stephen Goranson]

[https://outlook.office365.com/owa/service.svc/s/GetPersonaPhoto?email=goranson%40duke.edu&UA=0&size=HR96x96&sc=1430048497129]
I recently found another early (1891) use, attributed to Mark Twain (who, you may recall, later attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli; but the phrase evolved from an earlier one on three types of unreliable court witnesses--after Disraeli's death). But I guess the letter writer (McCullough) heard or read a version used by C. W. Dilke less than a month before, with similar wording.
"Sir Charles Dilke [1843-1911] was saying the other day that false statements might be arranged according to their degree under three heads, fibs, lies, and statistics." The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, Monday, October 19, 1891.
The newly-found one:

"Mark Twain classifies falsehood under three heads: 1, the fib; 2, the lie; 3, statistics." British Medical Journal, Nov. 7, 1981, p. 1020 [GB] Allen McCullough, Public Vaccinator, Tarporley [Cheshire?], Nantwich Union.

https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=%22Twain+classifies+falsehood+under+three+heads%22&tbs=,cdr:1,cd_min:Jan+1_2+1888,cd_max:Dec+31_2+1969&num=10&gws_rd=ssl
or
http://tinyurl.com/ponhsdc

I still guess Dilke is the "statesman" who first used it. The following attributes it to Dilke:
Dr E[lgin] R[alston] L[ovell] Gould (1860-1915) wrote in "The Temperance Problem: Past and Future', The Forum, 1894 November, p. 339 et seq., towards the end of the article (last paragraph but three): 'Sir Charles Dilke in one sense was right when he said, "There are three degrees of untruth,-a fib, a lie, and statistics." ' Also, many other early users knew Dilke.

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/


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