The southerner., 1852-07-17
G0M:lMUNIeAT?sI0NS. lM :
FOR TIE SoUTuERNER.
Village Gossip.

Perhaps there is no place where the char
acters of every man, woman, and child, are
more closely subjected to the most careful
scrutiny, than in country VII
lage. 1t is here that every one acquires to
a certain extent an individuality, and Judg-
ing from appearances, it is considered that
every man, and more particularly every Wo- !
man, should know quite as much, ana, II
possible, little more of their neighbors' bu- F,
siness than they do of their own. With all
the familiarity of those having authority they
pitch into the domestic economy Of their
naiehbors' household-take careful inven-
tory of his furniture, his clothes, his SER
wants, and his children (ifhe isso unfortunate
as to be fortunate benedict, )-constitute
themselves the spiritual guardians OF his
morals, charge themselves with close in
spection of his business tranSactionS-keep
an accurate account Of his outgoings and his
incomings; they know where he goes, and
what he does, and what he says; and if every
thing is not gluged, and measured, and gov
erned according to their own ,ucid ideas Of
right and wrong, they forthwith deem it a
duty which they owe to themselves and their
fellow gossips, to publish it on every house
top. Nothing escapes their argus eyes,
nothing is too important for their inspection,
nothing too minute AMI trivial for their con
sideration; and they are certain to perceive
and quite likely to magnify and pervert
whatever IS amiss in their ncighbor, while
clad in the panoply of their own self-love,
they sit down in the comfortable assurance
that Their own regulations are invulnera5le.
They think that their own eyes are infallihlc,
that they glisten with lustre which detrac-
ton cannot dim, that they afford them evi-
dence which no testimony however strong
can contradlct-while the eyes of their friend
over the way are dimmed, his judgment
warped, his character rotten, and his reputa-
ton nothing. Instead of adopting for their
guidance the good old max kim, '.know thy
self, they assume as chief study, "knew
thy neiyh5or.
Now DO not pretend to say that this kind
| Of espionage is not as it should he. 1t may, for
aught know, result from our very organiza-
tions-it may be with the rurest and most
charitable motives, that old ladies (excuse
the adjective} discuss at their benevolent So
cieties and other gatherings, and over their
young hys0n, the characters Of all the young
people, male and female, who inhabit the
village in which they live. What though
there is no fire in their minds, no vigor in
their limbs; what though all the freshness,
and buoyancy, and hilarity of youth, and
health, and hope, are burnt down to their
! bier-tme was when the blood Rowed freely
and swiftly in their veins and led them to
commit indlscretions unknown to their ripper
years, and hence perhaps they are better
calculated from their own experience to ap-
prcciate and excuse the youthful follies of
those who come after them.
If some highly respectable matron has but
the shadow of the shade of a suspicion, that
some young man or some young woman is
not just what young man or young wo-
man should be, it may De all right for her to
so from threshold to threshold, repeating a
story based upon her by no means creditable
or tangible hypothesis, ekcd out by her scan
dal-loving imagination. What if she is mis-
taken in her suspicious? She may be right,
and she deems it proper, at all events, that
society should be put upon its guard in rela-
ton to the viper which it may be nourishine
in it's bosom. fit should come out that she
is mistaken in her suspicious, society is not
responsible; it is only one victim sacrificed,
and If perchance with hopes crushed and spi
Flts broken he shrinks from the gaze of men,
the wreck OF what he might have been, there
are others OF fairer promise ready to take his
place. The innocent gossip does not charge
herself with the wrong; for having become
ehe seif-consttuted conserOator Of the morals
OF all the young people within the by no
means limited sphere of her tongue. she
deems herself discharging solemn duty
which she owes to society, in divuleinr to
the public i'll private manner the opinion of
those about her.
Oh, Woman! Woman! embodiment of all
that IS gentle, and winning, and beautiful:
why Is 1t that thou hast no tear of sympathy,
no hand to succor, no wish to sa-e those of
thy own sex who have proved rather unfor-
tunate than criminal? Alas! the rich know
nothing OF the struggles of the poor. They
nave never encountered that sternest of all
conhicts-the struggle between aproud spir-
1t and an empty purse.
L say it may be right for benevolent sewing
associations, tea parties, and other s.omniuns
gat"crums," composed of gossips, to rake up
or invent stale scandal to make the charac-
ter of their neighbors unlovely. It may be
right for well-meaning but weak headed Cos
sips to peddle it from door to door ENLARGED
and improved by their own emphatic excla-
nations and lucid opinions, but the penal
Jaw calls it Islander, and the .Ahigher law
'acs-d't'ng Private gossip is the parent of
ubllc opinion. 1t is the source whence