Litchfield enquirer., 1861-11-14
For the Enquirer. SHORT SERMONS. BY LAYMAN.-No. FouR.
ON GOSSIPS.

My UNREGENERATE SHEEP = I confess I ap proach my subject to-day with unfeigned soem nity and misgivings. Your miserable preache may we'll stand upon the threshold of the syna gogue, and pause and shudder and sigh. H, peeks in at the door, and ascends the pulpi stairs, and gazes over upon lis congregation and the subject opens and widens and grows up on him. Here you are, my brethren and sisters
 of all shades and shadows and ages and sexe and colors and stripes and conditions and class es-all of you unregenerate, some more some less so, none of you fautless, most of you care less, all of you open to remark, and oh! /! wha targets you are, what food, what drink, what raiment, for the creeping, crawling, sharp-eyed longnosed, quick-eared, swift -limbed animal mer call Gossips, and women Spies!
 My dear hearers pity you from the bottom of my boots, condole with you, commserate you singe for you, scorch for you, scowl for you, but do l not singe, scorch and scowl in vain? What can do to relieve you and ale. vlate your pains? Nothing, unless mayhap may point out the devils which infest and tor ment you, that you may know and despise them as your preacher docs all the vile species from to lizard.
 And first, my sheep, let us enquire, have you any of these he-wolves and she-wolves among you? Alas, and alas :! even this my congrega tion, this my fold, is none too free of them. 1 The species, as I have said, is divided into both sexes. The male, or the Spy, stands about the corners of the streets, or hangs about the butchers, the barber's, the bakers, or the can dle-stick-maker's shop, hands in his pockets, eyes open, mouth ditto, tongue wagging. Then he travels for the store, and perched upon the counter, or squatting by the stove, and surround ed by lot of congenial species, out of pocket and out of brains, he retails all the senselcss cackle of the day, and tells tales, and retails the tales he has heard about mon and women whose affairs he has sped into and whose business he knows much better than his own Or he takes pains to be on the watch to see what he can see on the corners, or in the stores, or reek ing into windows and runs off with his information, and tattles it to his credulous and suspicious neigh bor to make mischief and stir up TOW, in which he takes delight, and which affords him new food for scandal
 But if he does nothing more than peddle idle t!ttle-tattle his character spy, the meanest, most loathsome species of man, next perhaps to a traitor, will protect him, and though cover ed with the ecorn and contempt and obloquy of all good men, he yet shall be safe in his utter vileness from public punishment. But, my hearers, he often goes step further than this, (and it is but step,) and descends to actual vl- ificaton and islander of his fellow-mortals, men and women.
 And it is mistake, my beloved, and serious one, that it is only the weaker vessels that hold this putrid water in them. I have known a mans tongue viler, more swollen, and teeming with slander, than any womans ever heard of I know of man who does not hesitate to re- peat scandals and lies in the heart of his family the scorn and contempt of all respectable men among whom he crowds his way, and which would amply justify legal investigation and punishment before the Courts which as a last were he not too contemptible to notice, did not his vile tongue bring pity rather than indigna- ton, down upon his weak, unbalanced and de- fenceless head. l see such an one now fin my minds eye,) over in yonder pew who looks at me with malignant eyes, not unconscious of whom speak and yet who will go away from this sanctuary, and visit all say on others backs Poor, miserable mortal -how soon shall you be brought to an account before Greater than I ! How mean, and depraved, and vile shall you ap- pear then How I pity you, far beyond even the sympathy l have for those whom you slan- der and vilify in this world of sin! Is there anytAing, my beloved, ia the world. that we should pity, while we despise, more than this miserable, sneaking spy and scandal-monger, who fits his brief life of malgnity here and then is snuffed out into outer darkness forever and ever
 have left myself but little space to speak of the female-species of the animal men call Cos sips, and I feel I could do but scanty justice to the tribe and to your expectations this morning particularly as see half of my male audience are nodding perhaps in acquiescence to what have just been saying,-and hence Imust reserve part of what I have to say on this subject, to some future occasion.
 But my agitated female-I have rod in pickle for you, which shall not wither by soaking yet awhile. Your preacher has his eye upon you he knows your goings abroad and your stayings at home-he sees you peeping out at the win dows of your houses-he hears your cackline over your tea-pots and in the ''select circles where you knit. socks for the soldiers abroad anG Nessusshirts for those at home-he learns how you make winter garments for your own sex ane then stitch them and embroider them and SOW them through and through with all the scanda and gossip of all the towns about, and faster ane sharper than the needle you wield between you , fingers, wags the tongue you can't hold between your teeth.
 An! foolish virgins and wives and widows do you forget that none are so apt to be pick ed to pieces as yourselves by your own ?-doyo not know that the very company you keep make your own regulations more brittle and precari } ous ?-did you ever happen to think when steam : ing your friends thus over your tea-caddy tha one day the door of public opinion may be locke