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Show II 1 J I , I jFSs - EDITED V MARION HARLANDS I 1 f" " A CHAT ON GOSSIP. - I . . : It . iH -H i ; flAVE recently heard a chat,, on tfl I tho group who discussed It, and their B ! f I the group who discussed, and their '9 1 ' comments and opinions interested fl ,; me. The first speaker led off vigor's vigor-'s ' ously. fl j "I believe there is something of the ! carrion crow in each of us," she aid with Ian Intonation of disgust " Wc all like to hear a bit of unsavory news about some one, and the more important he or she is, the greater our interest. A friend of mine stopped me on my way here o tell me a pltce of scandal ahe had learned about a public man and when cht talked M ' of It she gave me tho impression or some jfl , one who had Just had somtfhjng good to H '. eat. She fairly smacked her lips over it." Jafl " Well, weren't you Interested to hear !k ; It?" queried another. i : "That's the worst of it: I was I rever Mr ! thought of putting In a protest against M-t the story until h had heard all there was M) to tell It makes me ashamed of myielf." M ; . ' Probably you would have listened M ' I just as intently if It had been a good re- m ', ; port." suggested some one soothingly. fl : "It wouldn't have been as interesting B i if it had been pleasant," put in another M incisively. And at the cxclama'inns of M i protest she went on. M ' " Suppose I come in and tell you how M ( ' happily our dear friend, Mrs. John Smith, M lives with her husband; how thoy arc M '. most congenial and have the same friends H and go everywhere together. By tho time H . . I had talked about it for five minutes M ! you would be swallowing yawns. But If H ; 1 had a tale of how Mr. Smith comes homo H - drunk Saturday nights and chases his H poor wife out Into the snow, or beats her H ! with his walking stick, you would all be H : crazy with excitcmont and want to know H ; everything thai happened and almost H forced mo to make up details if I didn't H W have any that were spicy enough." B M " That's true," remaked the first H m speaker. " The everyday matter of fact, I agreeable happenings don't have many H . thrills about them." H " Who was that Frenchman who said H there was something pleasant to ua in H ( lenrning of tho misfortunes of our H friends?" asked some one else. H ' "It was a nasty, cynical thing, I don't H V care who said It," commented another. fl " All the same, there's a degree of truth ' i In It. Wc may not like to hear of other fl , people" . bad luck, but we want to know M : all about It." S ; , " Do you suppose we could put a stop to fl r gossip by refusing to listen to it?" won- f" dered the gentlest nieinbe. of the party. fl I "You would make yourself unpopular fl i ; if ycu tried it," was the retort. " When fl k any one has a fresh, juicy morsel of scan-B scan-B dal or gossip to retail she feels badly treated If you refuse to listen to it, No, we- 'm n-ra' a'l v,'c cim do l0 reform so- jH I clety In this lespect is to abstain from tolling such talcs ourselves " fl Then tiic conversation drifted to other matters and In a little while I came away. H But I have thought about the talk ever M IP .'v'-'vC'i ,vYvydiaBBBBBBBBK?i:t? alnce and in connection with it recalled something I heard a lad say to his mother one day some time ago. She had been telllnc him some unpleasant news she had heard about a well known person with whom they were both slightly acquainted and the boy had fidgeted while he listened. lis-tened. When she stopped he broke out Impetuously: " Mother, I hope you won't be angry with me, but I can't bear to have you say such things as that. They don't sound like my mother. I suppose I'm an Idiot, but you arq so splendid and (Ine In all iorts of ways, and I lovo you such a lot and somehow it's not like my ideal of you that you should ropeat shady gossip. I don't mean to be Impertinent or anything any-thing of the kind, but a fellow puts his mother on a sort of pedestal and he can't stand it to have her climb down and tell the stories other women might tell without with-out making him wince. I scroogo all up Ipsidc when you do it," I honored tho mother tho more that she did not reprove the lad, but took his remarks re-marks in the spirit In which they were ovidentlj uttered. No woman lives, to my belief, who doesn't enjoy being exalted ex-alted on a pedestal by those she loves, and perhaps that fact enabled the mother to accept the rebuke without offense. I have never forgotten the incident, and it linked Itself naturally with the talk I have just reported, and both have beon the occasion for some reflections on which I would like the opinion of the Cor-nerltes. Cor-nerltes. The first one is. why do we gossip? There are two or three divisions of thi3 question and as many answers to it. It is a perfectly natural impulse which leads us to wish to be ontortaining to our friends, and to achieve this wc talk to them of the affairs in which we believe they will be Interested. When wc have higher objects in common, when wc caro for the same subjects along the lines of the intellect, of philanthropy, of work of any sort, our conversation turns" to these. If wc have few topics on which to meet, we dwell upon those which will hold our thoughts, and, unfortunately, these usually usu-ally have to do with the business of our fellow man and woman Sill ivitJjv IjkHhS r ll 1 k msPl'L k '"iM m WW 4BBBV& JrM If - I mil BHP9 j TSa PtL.gi g M II Km (ft EBmBMBB"gM-).V?jiV3BiggJ3BBBr vf il t 0 J KM II u 'I a v7 niivTSflHl (iH m bHl?I tDPCCRIHHHBi' "h1if'0'Jhv"fr W n I jffKI I Fill I Si i flWmMmmMl 1 a01 IS MX ' C ZfP5J t K -TOTEUU ME A PIS-CF OF v -m nJmSlk liSKSrflT 5-canou she" had I saj' unrortunately, and yot there would bo nothing amiss in our liking to speak of; our friends and acquaintances If It were not for the melancholy truth pronounced by ono of the partlcs to the discussion with which I began this tall:, that the pleasant gossip is rarely as exciting ex-citing as that which has a touch of the scandalous about It The taste for the unusual and thrilling ' seems to be inborn Most of us iccollect . the incident of the small boy who did not core to have his mother tell hlni r story aLout a good boy unless she would give h.m the tales of two bad boy&afterwars. The nation may be happy which has no h'Story, and so may the individual, but L(th are llkcb lo be also dull there a no zest in the account of the cvflryday. monotonous. happenings; we wanC somu-'thing somu-'thing out of the common If wo arc to bo amused or entertained. I do not mean to say that all interesting occurrences arc of necessity unrlcasant. Wc have hot and cold shivers r-vcr tnc if lation of deeds of heroism and of courage, cour-age, our hearts beat and our ecsflllat ntorles of self-sacrifice, of duty performed in the face of danger, of bravery under suffering and sorrow. But these ere likely like-ly to be more or Jers impersonal They .lack tho edge that Is on the histories of arventurcs of those wc know familiarly or even by reputation. Tbe-re is no cause fur astonishment that wc have a, certa'n enjoyment In telling lo our friends tho anecdotes whose repetition will give us a momentary importance, and It Is not marvelous mar-velous If a person of a vivid Imaglnaticn sometimes yield3to tho temptation of adorning and amplifying the original narrative nar-rative and adding picturesque touches to n.ako It more convincing or more absorbing. absorb-ing. I 'hesitate to give as an answer to the query as to why we gossip a satisfaction Jo retailing unsavory incidents about friends or strangers. I know there ar bcandal mongers who Invent slanders rooner than have their bag of gossjp empty or Insipidly supplied, but I nn . loath to believe that tho number of su:h story tellers is largo enough 'o make them an item to be reckoned with in'dc-o'ding in'dc-o'ding why wc gossip I think the ia-sons ia-sons I iravc already stated, and others of tfc same kind, arc explanation sufficient for the state of gossip which cxIj'.s, e. po cially when -you add to these the idleness of mind or of hands which leads people to talk because they have nothing better or more profitable to do. Another reflection which was the outcome out-come of the conversation on gossip is found in the last question I reported. Could -we put a stop to gossip by refusing IH to listen to It? IH This is a point on which I would like H tho opinion of tho Corncrltcs? Not a IH woman of you but has her judgment on n the subject. W'hat would be your expert- l ence among your friends- if you refused to IH listen to unpleasant gossip that was H brought to you? IH I do not mean that you should rebuff H the talebearer unkindly. Possibly she H would havo no malice la her thoughts H when she came to you with an account of KVMVJ the unhappy marriage relations of so and H so, of the extravagance of Mrs. Blank or H the tondency to dissipation of Mr. Blank, H or a lament upon tho manner in which l this or that neighbor's children were al- H lowed to run wild, or a tale of the care- H kssness of a certain younj; girl in her H demeanor towards young men. If you IH snubbed her sharply, or even Tcad her H a lecture on the evils of gossip, she might H , closo her lips to you, but she would carry H her story somewhere else, where it would H havo a more hospitable reception. H Nevertheless, no matter how gentry you H refused to listen to her report, even if you H tried to point out to her with supreme ffH tact that it would he kinder to those in- lH volved to keep quiet the details of their misdoings, I am afraid that you would VMH only wound her, make her feel you un- IH sympathetic and perhaps self-righteous. IH and have no real effect in checking her H disposition to talk about her neighbors H There is no doubt that no one wishes to VAH be corrected when she is in possession of H an interesting talc. She comes to you for H sympathy, for wonder, for comment; not H for rectification or rebuke, no matter how IH kindly this is administered. H So the conclusion to which I have been HVH forced,, after all my deliberations, is that H wo cannot hope to do much more than H follow the example set of old by the M dwellers In Jerusalem, when each man kept the street clean In front of his own M door. If we would set ourselves stead- M lastly not to gossip, to repeat no tales we H hear that are not those of kindness, never H to carry unpleasant comments from one H person to another, never to spread un- sa.vory reports, we would do much to- H wards checking gossip and. introducing a H reign of kindly speech. H " I always listen politely when some one H brings me a piece of gossip," said a friend l to mo when I was telling her of my per- H plexlty on this matter. " I don't snub fl the' teller, but let her talk herself out. M Then I remark that It is unfortunate such IH stories should get about, that I regret M the circumstances of which she has told j and I change the subject, gently but de- IH cidedly. If she tries to adhere to it, I IH say that I know so little of the affair that IH I don't feel in a position to discuss it, and l talk of something else. The plan gen- H erally works! H What do you think of It? And what do IH you do in like conditions? H |
