Mt. Pleasant Pyramid | 1915-08-06 | Page 7 | Slander

Slander. Slander, sir! You do not know what you are disdaining. I have seen the most respectable persons almost overwhelmed over-whelmed by it. . . . At first a light sound, skimming the earth like a. swallow before the storm, very softly soft-ly (pianissimo) it murmurs and purrs a-jd sows in its course poisoned arrows. ar-rows. It Is on somebody's mouth, and softly, softly (piano, piano), it glides slyly into your ear. The evil Is done It Is born, it creeps, it walks; and with growing power (rinforzando) it goes from mouth to mouth diabolically. diabolical-ly. Then, all of a sudden, I can't tell you how, you see slander straighten up, hiss, swell and grow tall before your very eyes. It springs, stretches . ttit wings, whirls, envelops, seizes, carries car-ries off; it flashes lightning, it thunders thun-ders and becomes a hue and cry, a public crescendo, a universal chorus of hatred and proscription. Who, indeed, in-deed, could stop it! Beaumarchais.