San Andreas independent., 1857-03-21
Scandal and Tale-Bearers.

their Shiny and fostering influence, save
us from the scandal-monger or tale-bear
er If there is one human or rather,
tahuman being, who is meaner or more
contemplate, who will stoop to lower de-
vices, or be guilty of smaller tricks than
the scandalizer, we have not yet seen him.
Oily and insinuating, he wriggles his way
into the society Of the domestic circle and
his approach breeds a moral leprosy. From
friend to friend, from father to son, from
husband to wife, from sister to brother,
this busy tattler glides, with Shiny track,
infusing his fostering poison-destroying
friendship-ruining domestic peace-crea-
ting misery among all with whom he asso-
ciates. He, however, is friend to every
one he pours his oily words into your list
ening ear, and goes to your bitterest enemy
to feed his malice with recital of your
story, told to him in confidence With
whispering eagerness he tells you of some
imaginary wrong, and flies to your neighbor
to speak Of your indignation, and to In
flame his passions. No place is sacred
from his presence; he oozes his way into
and lntrudes upon your privacy, to empty
his budget of lies, and breed fresh mis-
chief out of that which he has Just created;
he glides out to crawl in at some other door
to pick up fresh load of scandal, again
to empty it in like manner. He carries
large bundle, which grows larger and still
larger with age, and yet fattens on it
His mind is SO very low, his heart so very
corrupt his feelings so very debased, that
Satan himself might well be ashamed of
him. He does the devils work, and earns
the DEVILS reward. He is anywhere and
everywhere, at all times, and upon all oc-
casions. He pulls you by the coat-sleeves
in the street, to inform you that he sus-
poets BIS integrity, and suggests that you
had better not confde in him. He rends
the veil that surrounds the family circle,
with ruthless hand. He will insinuate
to you that Mrs. A. or Mrs B. is too vo-
latile-goes to parties, balls, de-, too much
dresses too fashionably, and does not at
tend to the wants of her husband or chill
dren he will say thousand things to you,
with no ostensible meaning, but still cum
ningly calculated to leave an unfavorable
impression on your mind. He will 90 to
your wife, shrug his shoulders, look pity
ingly at her, and say perhaps, that it is
very strange where you spend so many
evenings away from your home; intimate
that there are such and such places, situa-
ted so and so. Of course, he does mean
to imply that you are ever to be found in
them but how unfortunate it would be il
it mere SOL Thus he goes on, creating
jjealousies and heart -burnings, heaping Goals
upon the fire, and tanning the flame with
his pestilential breath The stories are
circulated, and become common property
and here is to be found one reason for the
applications for divorces, so common in our
midst Thus families are broken up and
each case affords nine days subject for
fashionable horror, when the victim, or
victims, are forgotten, and the scandal
monger glides along, very respectable
member of society. This particular class
is, however, thank Heaven, few in number
1t consists of the bitter, malignant, or dis
appointed members of society, who give
way to their bad feelings, and seek to
wreak their vengeance on the world; those
who make ale-bearing daily practice,
and designedly use their power of dissimu-
lation to promote dissension 1t was of
one Of this class that Byron said, speaking
of her death:
Down to the dust, where as thou rollst away
Zen worms shall perish on thy poisonous clay"
But then we have our small-fry scandal
izers-good, easy going people, who wouldn't
injure any one for the world, but can't
help indulging in quiet bit of gossip over
a cup of tea, or a cosy fire. They believe
themselves to be full of human kindness
really, and don't intend to create jealousy
OF hard feeling, but still it gives spice to
their little supper to tell some story about
some neighbor, which gets bigger as it grows
older, and, like the SNOWFALL, keeps increas
ing in size as it is rolled over and over by
the glib tongue These really mean to be
very good people; and if they would only
refect-if they could but appreciate what
one exaggerated tale sometimes leads to-
how hearts may be torn by it-ties severed
minds jaundiced and embittered- if
they would think before they speak, they
would conclude that {. in the multitude of
words there shall not want sin; but he that
refraineth his lips is most wise" For
this latter class there is hope, because the
wrong they do is unintentional for the
former there is none, because they act with
their eyes open, and use dissimulation to
further their horrible purposes.
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