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Show Drawing Ly Homer Davenport; Article by Christian F. Reisner, I Noted Orator and Writer "s?' I Copyright, 1011, by C. J. Afar for Publishers' Pres3. ' ' v"' '' ;r ' MOTHER was literally murdered mur-dered by. gossip the other day. Humors of the escapades of a son were added to until it was reported he was in jail. The Plad never came near prison ! ed tongues prodded the mother believed the rumor. It was ould carry, a broken heart. ' The son was to attend the funeral. s escaped the policeman. They V- That is too bad. They are inals. 'Hers ought to be imprisoned, hearts with fire. They bespaf ith ghoulish delight, ui's in every hamlet and city, nder is splashed with impunity. Ss it. Good invites it. And, so-called decent paople employ ' channel the sewage. It is the ssips and devil-worshiping slan-rt, slan-rt, who drew the powerful pic-f, pic-f, knows life, is human. He carries good eves, ts accurately. 's almost a photograph. !,c marked trails. It shows the s on the gossip's face. It is a cannot be dodged. Character e-eyes, reshapes the face,-flows It cannot long be. concealed, escape detection long. Be not ,vf mark and avoid the gussiper Only other carrion hunters flock' with them. The pecking nose which enjoys stench, and the bent claws, which seize the decaying thing to cany home, even appear on human bodies. The clasped hand of delight at salacious gossip is very marked. Let us study the cartoon together. It is worth while. It may drive some to a moral surgeon for cure at any cost, It is not fictional. It is true to nowadays life. Measure yourself your-self with it. The hats are askew. The figures are unkempt. un-kempt. The poise is ungraceful. They are too busy with the affairs of others to keep themselves them-selves tidy. Their houses smell like they talk. The windows win-dows are dirty. The cooking utensils are burned from neglecting them while overhearing overhear-ing a neighbor's conversation to twist and peddle ped-dle it. They cook sodden dishes, over-greasy and indigestible. Their pictures arc gaudy and the furniture arranged with barny or cluttered-up cluttered-up effect. Their vocation spoils all delicacy of taste. They know no more about human art than a heartless butcher does concerning the sensitiveness of a higlrclass surgeon. They are satiated with disgusting tales and so become accustomed to evil surroundings. They do not sit squarely on the chair (even the rocker is not enjoyed). They never feel security. They might miss a juicy morsel of gossip. They might be tricked by a so-called friend. They peer out of the window to pervert; per-vert; a friendly neighborhood cheer-chat, into vile meanings. They misinterpret gladly at; first, and then because they cannot, help it. Their whole being is as uncomfortable as an escaped jail-bird cognizant of being trailed by a detective. They sit on needles. They are held together by raw nerves. They shiver with indescribable dread. They are sour because from their very condition everything turns sour that they take in. They predict direfully. They see only terrors. They never know the sweet peacefulness of a calm security, which enjoys a chair, a wholesome visit or a good book. ' Notice the comradeship. There is none. As well expect oil and water to coalesce. They are only interested in each other as long as the tales hold out. They know no confidences con-fidences aro possible. One who brings a talc will carry one about you. The husband's portrait is the expected sort. It is the low forehead, the carnal mouth and the sclf-willess face. The group is close together, but yet far apart. Gossip makes heart fellowship impossible. The scandal-monger is as scant; of friends as an owl is of felloAvship from cither birds or beasts. The faces ought to be scarecrows to keep folk from their field. Two are hatchet like and edged to pry in. They chop open closets to find skeletons. They push in indelicately to force open closed lips so that heartaches may be betrayed. Tlje rocking-chair woman is too lazy to dig around. She sits and listens and hatches out a low explanation or provides a sinister motive, tier head, neck and lips will Turn out evil coloring col-oring as the saloon does the red-nosed loafer. There is with it all no happiness in the face. They simply fill up on gossip like a grasshop-, per feeds, nevev full and only leaving ruin behind. be-hind. The faces are repugnant, aggravating,- irritating, irri-tating, almost inhuman. Yet they are the product of gossip as demons de-mons are of darkness. '.,. .But such things never fatten. , They take in nothing really nourishing. This rocking-chair rocking-chair creature is artificially fleshcned like the beer-bloated fat man. Gossip shrivels instead of develops. It dries up the heart as pessimism does the brain, or a drought does tho corn field. Size is not made with exercise and food. Paul was short of stature, stuttered and was likely sickly. Napoleon and Grant did not tower. Darwin could only work ten minutes at a time because of ill health. Big-headed folk are sometimes brutal because be-cause they lack heart size. Humans must love if they grow, as flowers must have sunshine. Gossips poison love. It makes its servant ugly with hate. It burns out all the vitals of red manhood and womanhood, and makes room- for evil spirits to dwell. The idle gossiper, the slayer of- character by sly inuendo, by leering 'exaggeration, is abhorred ab-horred by all decent people'. "It is not virtuous women who are ready to repeat suspicion of their sisters," says Mine, de Ivrudcner. A terrible arraignment, but is it not true, at least to a measurable extent? Equally true is the declaration of Madame de Maintenon that, "Evil report, like the Italian Ital-ian stiletto, is an assassin's weapon worthy only of the bravo." Really the evil gossip is as much worse than the Jissassin as the slaying of character is worse than tho murder of the body. In the olden days society took cognizance of this class of pest, and the ducking stool found worthy employment. Is it certain that civilization made real progress when this crime of wicked gossip was stricken from the code? I very much doubt it. Tale-bearers are as bad as tale-makers. Even children reeognize this, and with the young there is hardly a more contemptuous epithet than "tell-tale." Listen to J. G. Holland's characterization of gossip and realize the truth. "Gossip," he says, "is always a personal confession either t malice or imbecility, and the young should not only shun it, but by the most thorough culture relieve themselves from all temptation to in- jH dulge in it. It is a low, frivolous and, too often, a dirty business. jH "There are country neighborhoods in which it rages like a pest." The same thing might be said with equal truth of city neighborhoods. jH "Churches are split. in pieces by it," con- IH tinues the writer. "'Neighbors are made ene- jH mies by it for life. In many persons it degen- (jH crates into a chronic disease, which is practi- jl cally incurable. Let the young cure it while ll they may," ll The habit of gossip is no different from any ll other habit. It grows with indulgence, be- Hl comes settled, until the person upon whom it is ) fixed is a nuisance and a menace to all with whom he comes in contact. The ancients had a saying, "Speak nothing but good of the dead." It is much more important to speak notlr JM ing but good of tho living behind their backs. The gossip is a coAvard. Respect is due ono VM who comes out in the open with criticism or do-nunciatiou, do-nunciatiou, even though it bo unwarranted. But for the backbiter, the teller of tales in out-of-lho-way corners, right-minded people can feel only contempt and abhorrence. Avoid gossip and the gossiper as the sleep-ing sleep-ing sickness of Africa or the Orieutal plague. It cats in a more deadly way than cancer. It. aids hell and robs heaven. It breaks homes, crushes hearts, shatters churches, bin- IH ders God and helps Satan. jH iM |
