Show SHARPER THAN THE SWORD Slander may have Its apologists but it has no defenders I may have Its origin in a word or a wInk or a nod or a leer From such a amaH beginning a pestilence may spread Invading many homes and sing many hearts Slander is the weapon of the coward the poisoned arrow of the savage fred from ambush I is tie revenge that jealousy takes malice carries ljc weapon that petty the slungshot of the social highwayman highway-man the threat of blackmailers of high or low degree I Aif rnuendo a base Insinuation against the character of some man frequently repeated and industriously I frequent repeate contagion cIrculated travels lke a finding Iodsent In the hearts of those wllo prefer to thInk evil of their fellowmen fellow-men And there are such people in this world But the basest creature of all who len le-n ambush along the may walks of life Is i the one who deliberately tells a lie for the express purpose of irJurlng I a felowcitzen who acknowledges that he has engaged in circulating I who admits that it is a slander but who j refuscs to right th wrong This Is the part of a craven but it I isnt necessary to go into the slums to find men who play such parts One I who poses as an uptight moral religious I re-ligious obedient longfaced straight laced Christian may appear il such a role I is not out of the region of Impossibilities entirely Some men > ssibities entrely never Seel1 to think It any harm to stab a fellow being il the back with the stiletto of slander There are men who would shrink from breaking Into a mans house for plunder They would assume an aIr of righteous Indignation If accused or highway robbery ret these acts do the victim little Injury compared with the crime of the slanderer I is not the dagger of the assassin it is not the pistol of the hIghway robber rob-ber It Is not the poison Qf the murderer I Is not the torch of the Incendiary that does the geatest the most irreparable Irre-parable injury No Us slander Whose edge Is harper than the word whos tongue I Outcnoms all the ors of Nile ivhso breath I Bides on the posting winds and doth belle I All corners of the world kings queens and states I Maids matrons nay the sec t of thee the-e This viperous slander enter I There ray be some justification for I circulating the truth even i I is de roator to the person of whom it iS I told But confessed falsehoods born of envy and nourished on malice repeated I for the sole purpose of injuring a fellow citizen are crimes for the Dunishment of which the laws are wholly inadequate I inade-quate The slanderer and the anonymous anonY-mous lettervriter go hand In hand like I brother They are the twIn relics of I ancestral depravity |