The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1877-07-12
What People Say OF Us.

i"'Vi aplc spccch Oh people as To shap
our course with view to the securing o
appreciation, without regard to the dc
mands of right and justice, we fall int,
grave error, and it would be well for u
to break free at once, and act accordin.
to the dictates OfOur own best judgment
and let public opinion "slide."
The world is always ready to judg,
everybody in season, and out t.of season
with reason, and without reason.
Tongues will wag, whether there il
anything worth wagging for or not
TO live in constant fear of what peopl,
may say Of us, is like living under tn,
threatening sword of Damocles.
And it is fact that everybody is more
or less influenced by this regard foI
"what will be said"
Not long ago we heard a distinguished
literary man say that the Christian re-
ligion was not so powerful force for
securing good behavior, as was public
opinion. Nine-tenths of the people, he
asserted, were kept within the bounds
of decency not so much by their relig-
ious convictions of duty, as by the fear
of what would be said of them.
This is somewhat sweeping asser-
ton, no doubt: but still, nobody will
deny that public opinion is a mighty
engine i'm the world for controlling in
diyidual conduct.
Every day of our life we are assured
of it. People buy and sell, and eat and
drink, and wear clothes, and stay at home
and go abroad, with reference to it.
We call on Mrs. A., and Mrs. A.
tells us that she is having her parlors
refurnished. Not that the furniture
was worn out, but was old-fashioned
and people would think they were get
ting entirely behind the times, if they
did not fix up a little.
We call on Mrs. B., and Mrs. B. is
going to the beach. 1t is a dreadful
bore to go, she assures us, but everybody
else is going, and people would be sure
to talk if she and B. do not take little
vacation.
We call on Mr.. c., and ask him to
leave off giving wine-suppers and cham
pagne-parties and he tell us he doesn't
care for such entertainments, he is Just
as temperate as we are, but everybody
has wine at parties, and people would
talk if he did not.
So we might go on for quires of paper,
and bring up pinstances where people are
influenced to do what their consciences
condemn, from the fear of what will be
said.
There are some persons, in every
community, whose life business it is to
go about and tell everybody what every
body else says about them.
just as soon as one of these human
vermin hears anything said derogatory
to you, she will give you a call, and,
after a few preliminaries, will open
something like this:
"Oh, Mrs. Brown, heard something
yesterday which made me so indignant
I'd tell it to you, if it wasn't for hurt
ing your feelings. | do so hate to hurt
your feelings But, there you needn't
care; of course it's nothing but scandal;
though, on the whole, I'd better not
tell it,"
And then she sighs, and speaks of the
weather, and, of course, you insist on
her telling you; and, after a host of ex-
cuses, she informs you that Mrs. p. said
that she heard. over to the corner, that
you and Brown quarreled like cats and
dogs, and that you thought of getting
divorced from him, and going home to
your mothers.
Then you become indignant, and say
something hard about Mrs. P, and your
disinterested (?) friend treasures it up,
and tells it to Mrs. p. the first oppOr-
tunity.
Now, whenever anybody comes to us
with the remark 81 heard something
about yOu," or 500 you know what
they are saying about you ?" we put on
our dignity, and reply to them:
"We never listen to idle stories of
what people say of us-and we consider
no person our friend who comes to us
with such tales"
1t shuts fhe mouth of the cOnfOunded
old gossip, and after that she gives us
wide berth.
In the matter of what people say of
us, we would dare to do right, in spite
of "they say"
If we act according to our best judg-
ment of what is just and psoper, we can
afford to leave the result-and whatever
people say of us can matter but little
when the final accounts are made up
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