Show GOSSIP B by 7 THOMAS H 0 AR ARKLE CLARK RK aas dean D of f men me U university ir sity of illinois women were sitting across ti THREE the aisle from me in a railway coach talking their voices were pitched high their enthusiasm was evident it was impossible not to hear what they were saying they were not educated women and the things thing they were saying baying were not pleasant things they were disca discussing S sing their friends in fact and their acquaintances ridiculing them laughing loudly at their frailties repenting repeating unsavory and unkind things that rumor had brought to their ears their talk was full of 1 I understand and 1 I lieve have heard and you know they say of she said to me and 1 I told her bee and you must not repeat it to a soul their stories were turgid with specific details to make more evident their truthfulness and reality I 1 presume they recounted with meticulous accuracy the time anyplace and place and abc acc accompanying circumstances of the most trivial bits of scandal let me see who was it told me I 1 was wag it mrs brown T no I 1 think it her it was mrs jones we were standing at the corner of the street and I 1 think it was wednesday I 1 remember now it was tuesday it was of course not germane to the facts presented who it was or when but the accuracy of the details helped to make the facts incontrovertible they discussed the most private affairs of people they tore to pieces and besmirched every reputation they touched and they did it all with an appearance of personal propriety that was maddening so far as I 1 could make out they did not say a kind word about any one and they talked about nothing that was really elevating or any of their business it Is interesting that a gossip never has anything to say about things or principles ills his only topic of conversation ver gation Is people and the things ha h says about them are usually destructive gossiping Is not confined to women men are quite commonly addicted to lt it it Is not confined to men and women of the class I 1 have been describing even in an intellectual community it Is common and the wider experience of the educated and their keenness of intellect and their greater ability to utter sharp and cutting things to ridicule everything that Is good and holy make them all the more dangerous the older the person the more damage he can do by peddling vicious foolish gossip the character of an individual may be ruined and Is being ruined every day by these scandal mongers bongers mon gers it Is a wise custom it if you cannot say good about a person to say nothing Z 1114 western newspaper |