Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1861-02-14
For Slanderers and Mischief-makers

We do not purpose to write a lecture for any
all others, may, possibly, be cursed with a fail
proportion of slanderers, mischief max ers and tat
tiers we will devote few lines to the benefit o.
those whom they may concern.
This detestabe species of the genus homo famil
iarize themselves with the private affairs of every
person, and every family they know the exact
state of one neighbor's feelings toward anothcrj
they understand everybody's faults, and no little
blunder or msdemeanor ever escapes their vgi
liant watchfuluess. They are confined to no par
ticular class of society-they operate in all. We
find them among the "upper ten'' and slower mil
lion--in the church and out of it. They are peo-
pie who have no heart and but little brains-who
have no higher ambition than to be informed OF
other peoples business and to peddle the scandal
over town.
The poet, Pollock. said of slander:
s1was Sander filed her mouth with lying words
Slander, the foulest whelp Of sin; the man
In whom this spirit entered was undone,
His tongue was set ON fire of hell his heart
Was black as death; his legs were faint with haste
To propagate the lie his soul had formed;
His pillow was the peace of families
Destroyed, the sigh of innocence reproached,
Broken friendships and the strife of brotherhoods:
Yet did he spare his sleep, and hear the clock
Number the midnight watches on his bed.
Devising mischief more; and early rose,
And made most hcllish meals of good mems names
From door to door you might have seen him speed
Or placed amidst group of gaping fools,
And whispering in their ears, with his foul lips.
Peace fled the neighborhood in which he made
His haunts; and like moral pestence,
Before his breath the healthy shoots and blooms
OF social joy, and happiness, decayed
Fools only in his company were seen,
And those forsaken of God, and to themselves
Given up: the prudent stunned him and his house,
AS one who had deadly moral pestilence.
Thus sang the bard, and all Of us know that
there is quite as much truth as poetry in this de
scription of the most foul vice that was ever in
dulgcd in by men or devils. The sanderer is "the
fouest whelp of SIM" and should be Stunned and
loathedby every honest member of society. He
should be hissed and thrust out Of all respectable
company, and his very name should be made a
roproach; indeed it should only be uttered as we
would utter any foul word when it became abso-
lutely necessary to warn others to escape from
such pest and pague.spot upon society.
Slander is not only foul, degrading, soudam-
ming sin, but it is crime. 1t is made q crime by
laws, and a crime, too, of great magnitude -
This is right. 1t is true that SANDER is not pun.
ished by the gallows, but it should come nert in
the order of offenses to the crime Of murder. And
rs general rule the murderer is more to be respect
ed than the sanderer. And why7 Because we
hold our good names and hard earned regulations
dearer than our lives. And murder is often COM
mitted under strong provocation and in the heat
of passion. But it is not so with slander. !,
proceeds from the most debased, corrupt and de-
PRAYED heart, and is the work of cool calculation
1t comes from a heart degraded to the lowest
depths None ever sank lower in the cesspool ol
pollution. 1t is the outgrowth of the very worst
of the more common sins. Malice is the dark
damning sin that begets SANDER.
The thief, the robJer, and even the murderer
may have some nobility of soul left, but there is
little room for anything noble or loveable in the
head or heart of the foul mouthed slanderer The
man or the woman who will strive to inure an.
other by fabricating sander comes the nearest
to our ideal of total depravity of any member OF
fallen humanity with whom we have yet come in
contact
And he is not the only sIanderer who inpents
the dark, wilfu lie, that was forged only to injure
the innocent. He who aids in circulating the false
hood is equally sanderous and responsible too. So
it is held in our courts of justice, and for good
and sufficient reason. 1t is the oft repetition of
the lie which does the harm. This gives currency
and probability to tn" evil report. Those gener-
ally who incent foul, sanderous reports are poor,
miserable irresponsible creatures, whose tongues,
where they are known, are really no SANDER
There is no way of seeking redress of such poor,
degraded creatures. But when those who would
pass for something in society take up these SLAM
dcrous lies and repeat them as truths, they be-
come responsible for all the evil. We have no
right to repeat lie to the disadvantage of the in.
nocent. "Whoso readeth, let him (or her. under
stand"