Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1892-03-24
Concerning Scandal.

Concerning Scandal.
The Meas and Courier, OF Saturday,
says the Greenville Nee,s contains an
account of a personal difficulty in Sum-
ter county growing from the circulation
/ Of a local scandal. Only a few days be-
fore a man was killed at Florence because
he had resented the spreading of scan
dalous stories against mis- daughter.
There appears to be an epidemic of It.
In nearly every town and city in the
country there is an evil undercurrent OF
alleged news which does not go into the
newspapers and is passed from mouth to
mouth, each story becoming bigger,
blacker and uglier as it goes.
If these things were printed or pro-
claimed upon the street corners it would
be better, in some respects. Usually the
victims and chief sufferers from scandal
are the last to hear of it. Persons have
often gone months with a deadly and
constantly thickening atmosphere Of sus-
picion and false accusation about them,
unconscious of their danger and loss,
unable to defend themselves because left
IN ignorance.
We are becoming entirely too loose In
| these matters in the South. 1t used to
be different. Social rules were strict and
| the man who told a scandalous story of
another man was expected to do it openly
and publicly and to make it good or take
the consequences; while any man who
mentioned a decent woman's name ex-
cept in the most respectful manner was
Immediately regarded as a blackguard.
1t is to be hoped, however, that people
are to be influenced by something nobler
than the fear of the shot gun or 1awhide.
1t would be a good scheme if all of
us. regardless of denominations, would
observe the season of lent in abstinence
in the matter of gossip concerning the
affairs and affecting the characters OF
other people. Perhaps after forty days
of rigid practice in keeping u mouths
shut. when we can say no good of people,
| closing our ears against evil and using
some effort, when occasion offers, to
destroy scandal instead of giving it the
strength of our endorsements, we might
contrive to go through the year in the
same praiseworthy course of life.
The old story books tell us of knights
who performed prodigies OF valor and
endurance in rescuing ladies fair from
the keeping of dragons and the unwel-
come affection of giants. We have
thought sometimes that these might
have been originally intended not as
narratives of facts or random romances,
but as allegories applicable to every age
and illustrative OF honorable and
knightly labor ready to the hands OF
every honorable and knightly man, even
in this day of practical life ard undeco-
rated prose. Certainly there could be no
worse OF more dangerous dragon than
SANDER. 1t turks and poisons and strikes
everywhere. is ambushed behind smiling,
far faces. at every turn and crossing.
The old dragons were said to have breath
50 loa.hsome that all the air around them
was tainted with death, and in our time
very beautiful mouths are sometimes as
deadly in their ~exbalaticns of whispers.
1t is a dragon with ali the most dan
gerouS qualities of the myths. 1t can
make itself invisible or Change its shape.
can make a coil of death about its VIC
tim While preventing resistance, can fol-
low IRON one side of the world to the
other. over sea or land. It's course can
not be tracked or discovered, nor can it
be hidden from or escaped. 1t can be
killed and no man or woman a do
higher. nobler or better work than kill
ing it. Plain. hard truth. honest common
sense. the charity that thinketh no evil
ard the clear light of day are the means
3ywhich it car nearly always be killed.
If ears are closed against it and lips
refuse to whisper and shoulders refuse to
sfrug and eyes 10 look at it, 1t cannot
travel far. Four times in five stern and
honest protest or prompt, straishtfor-
ward. frank enquiry will scotch it.
1t has blighted innocent lives, has
driven ipnnmerahlo r%.n"nle to deSI-
used mere heartaches, more
undeserved suffering, more tears and
woe and DESPERATION than any other one
thing. If the good women and chivalric
men OF every community will enlist in a
crusade against it, usirg some or all OF
the methods above suggested, the moral
atmosphere will be purified and this
world will be very much better and safer,
more Wholesome and more comfortable
than it is.