Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1871-12-31
4 Lesson in Friendship.

There are few people who have en-.
tirely escaped the venom of SANDER
GUS tongues, however worthy the
lives they have led or however con-
scious they may be of having de-
served well Of the community /; but
our sympathies are foolishly ex-
pended when lavished upon those
who are continually hearing all the
silly stories told about them.
AS general truth, we have all
the friendship and all the love We
deserve /; for we can not honestly
possess either of these unless we
win them. Look at the people who
are most fretted by ISLANDERS. Are
they not very poor in true friends,
and are they not very generally
prone 10 the very vice they SO loud
ly deprecate in others ? The proof
that they lack dignity is in the fact
that they are easily approached by
any one bearing idle reports. The
proof that they lack true friends is
that they hear the ISLANDERS that are
rife about them. Why, if A. comes
to you, and says, for example, ''B
tells me that he thinks you are
eaten up with vanity" does this not
show at once that B spoke because
he found in A a ready listener Z? 1t
would seem that the simplest per-
son might know SO much as this of
human nature. People seldom car
nv their wares where there is no
market for them-never where they
are thrust back in their teeth.
We may, indeed, lay this down
as an unerring rule: Your true
friend does not hear the i'll things
that others say of you; and IT by
chance he has heard them, he never
repeats them to you. If you are a
person addicted to spreading scan
dals, you do not go to the mother
and tell her those you hear of her
at least, if she is a woman
of any culture or dignity. Neither
would you go to the loyal husband
and repeat what you had heard
derogatory to his wife's honor.
Some estimable people, seeing
the sad effects of slandering, pro-
pose to discountenance all gossip
of whatever kind. But this is a
short-sighted proposition. ITO set
a saw is not necessarily to file its
teeth all down." and to have con-.
harmless it is not neces-
sary to confne it entirely to imper-
sonal matters, nor to reduce the
treatment of every personal question
to the dead level of inocuous COM
There should be gen
erous latitude accorded to all gen
eral conversation. This is natural
and proper. The best way, then,
is to speak of your absent friends
and neighbors as though by some
they could hear oil your
words. If you are then accused OF
saying this or that unkind thing,
though you may not remember all
that you did say, you have the er-
cr,tcis in your own
heart, and may confidently deny
that you said anything slanderous,
because that would be contrary to
the spirit you know had actuated
you.
The truth is, there is too little
human calculation in the world
Why, puppies and kittens are not
unfrequently loved more loyalty and
than the creature we say is
made in the image of God. Love
should be assiduously cultivated all
through the life of the young, as
should friendship also. one OF the
1ivinest forms of love. See how
we exalt friendship in poetry and
How our hearts thrill with
admiration when we read in his
tory of the illustrious few who have
been willing to sacrifice everything,
even life itself, upon the altar OF
!