Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1886-07-02
AROuI GOSSIPS.
Persons Who Are Really Not as Bad ~
They Seem to BE.


There has been great deal of
thoughtless criticism of them thought
less, and, therefore, unjust. The es-
sential idea of gossiping is the telling
of small things. There is nothing o
very bad about that in itself consid-
cred. Oratory is the fine telling of
large things. All men applaud that.
But small things need to be told also,
to make the sum of human intelligence
complete. Indeed, they are often the
determinate things. The little wheels
play INTO the big ones and make them
60 round. They are stupid phi
losophers who reckon only the big
deeds and the big speeches. The lit
tie every-days make the great crisis.
A great speech is only the noble con-
densation of a lot of small talk
Gossiping of itself, then, has no
bad character. Dickens is great
gossip, but his details of talk seem to
be appreciated. and to have some
value. Telling things may be a very
good thing. All depends on how it is
done. We would make progress very
slowly if the doings of yesterday were
not told as a guide for the doings of
to-day. And what a desperately dull
affair this life would get to be if only
stilted events and great occasions were
discoursed about. What strutting Don
Quixotes we would be reduced to, and
what huge joke life would become.
Small talk is to fine speech very much
what the pinch of salt is to the Joint
of mutton-it gives it flavor.
Let us, then, be discriminating, so
shall we be just. For there are Cos
sips-and gossips. For instance, there
are garrulous gossips. Their small
talk has no specific character. They
do not pick out any particular line of
things to talk about. They have no
purpose in their talking. They are
simply channels. The ears tell it to the
tongue, and the tongue to the neighbor-
hood. They talk because they are shall
low, fill up very easily, and so run
over. Like Tennyson's Brook, they
just run on and on forever. Whether
their talk shall be bane or a blessing
depends altogether on their surround
iDgs. If they hear and see pleasant
things, they will fill listening ears with
things of that sort They do not color
things; they do not vitriolize them.
They are like sandy soil that does not
tnge the summer brook They are
sort of daily paper without edi-
torial comment. They publish their
small world just as it lies around them.
What is the use of blaming that kind
of gossipsP This world was not made
to be kept under bushel. Blame
facts, events, things, but not the
tongue that gives them publicity. Pub
licity waits on every thing. The gossip
only hurries the inevitable process.
But there are less lovely kinds of
gossip. There is the venomous gossip.
lie is not content to tell things He
must inject into them an evil meaning.
He is sort of talking cutie fish. His
words darken every thing around him
His own spleen goes into the simplest
event or fact, and instantly its color is
changed. harmless chat between a
pair of schoolgirls takes on Guy
Fawks air. Old housewives talk across
the garden fence becomes redolent Of
treasons. Nothing simply happens.
Commonest events have some hidden
and dangerous meaning. One such
gossip can touch off whole neighbor-
hood and throw it into fits of most vio-
lent explosion. When the explosions
come and bits of character are living
around in every direction, disjecta
9nena6rd, then the venomous gossip is
happy. He works for results, is not
content till he sees them. The bigger
the wreck the greater his contentment
1T gives him new subject for talk He
can gossip about the fragments.
Then there is the insinuating gossip.
Things are not merely told. Neither
are they falsified. They are given with
slight twist 1t may not be in word
Perhaps only an accent, gesture, a
look. Pantomime supplements speech
and slightly changes its direction. The
fact is exaggerated. A trifie becomes
important The insignificant attains
to some significance. The idle word
gets to have intelligence. Small talk
gets larger. The way of saying thing
often masks the thing. Thus the insn-
uating gossip makes good story, and
his or her veracity can not be i'm
peached. Was not the truth toldP
What if shrug of the shoulder did
give it twist
The reader has doubtless met with
still other varieties. This society has
many points of attack. The best pro-
lection is noble pursuit. 1t is difficult
to gossip about Mount Blanc. An
idle life of eating and drinking and be-
ing merry affords ample scope for silly,
OF sly, or sinister speech. But life
driven earnestly forward along lines of
useful activity offers little advantage to
that microscopic spirit of gossip which
must have small things to engage its
attention. The man or woman who
has no time to listen to gossip is pretty
secure against being the subject of it.
Interior.