The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1893-08-12
"THEY SAY"
How to Strangle tho Tendency to Scandal
izing or Slandering Gossip.

How to Strangle tho Tendency to Scandal
izing or Slandering Gossip.
Perhaps people will never reach so
lofty pitch while on this earth that
they will not be interested in other
people and their affairs; and surely
such altitude and isolation are not to
be wished for any one But a good
thing may be abused; and like almost
everything else in life, this interest in
people may be carried so far that it
ceases to be interest and becomes curl
osity-curiosity which presently de-
velops morbid side and relates bit
of gossip, no matter of what complex
ion, for the excitement that it brings,
until at last the jaded nerves, needing
spur and whip, answer best to the
touch of something sinister, and the
darker and more questionable the Cos
sip the more eagerly it is listened to
and repeated. 1t is only an illustra-
tion OF the development of an appetite
or any trait by nutrition and growth.
If, the first time that one was con-
scious the interest was no longer pure
ly and entirely individual, but had be-
come the interest in story as drama,
one stopped then and there, and said to
ones self, mo more of this refused to
hear the name spoken again or the
affair alluded to, and occupied ones
mind with other things entirely, one
would probably succeed in starving out
the impulse to gossip before it should
attain unwholesome propositions It
is sometimes difficult to draw
the line justly between right
eous interest and the enjoyment
of gossip; but a great help here
is found in refusing to repeat word
of it, and in demanding authority for
every statement heard, the mere
trouble of which is deterrent influ-
ence; the acceptance of nothing except
at first hand; the denial of any infer
enco whatever, of anything beyond the
first particular facts, that is, such as
that the minister has the Group or that
Mary Grey is to be married on Thurs
day, things not to be contradicted and
not allowing conjecture or deduction.
Such bald statement does not lend
countenance to any suppositions re-
garding the Group or how it cam,
about, or to any remark regarding
the length of Mary Grey's engagement
and the reasons why. To say that Mrs.
Brown has new dress as the mention
of a patent fact may be all right, but
to wonder how she afforded it and to
express the wonder are certainly all
wrong. If you follow this plan, gos-
sips will not bring you gossip long
you are not a hot-bed where it flour
ishes-and you are better and happier
if they do not
We are in the habit of thinking a
sword-thrust, blow in the face, bar
barous thing. But is it, after all, so
barbarous as a stab in the back in the
dark? And was there ever slander ut
tered that was not stab in the back?
For slander always deals blow, and
never deals it in the face; if it
did, it would be open assault,
sometimes possibly fair fight; since
when any statement is uttered to the
face it becomes accusation, and ceases
to throw responsibility upon the mon
strous "theg say" shouldering blame
on the rest of the world, breaking the
hearts of individuals, running families
and upsetting the peace of communi-
ties.
1t is a base and low bred nature that
condescends to gossip in either its
scandalizing or it's slandering form,
for, aside from it's cruelty and vulgar
ity, it is cowardly and mean.
"Who steals my purse steals trash; It's some
thing, nothing:
Twas mine, tbs his, and has been slave to
thousands
But he that flches from me my good name,
Robs me OF that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed"
And it goes without saying that it is a
contemplate spirit which is willing to
put itself on par with a thief, the
thing in all humanity which most re-
sembles vermin. The meanness of such
a spirit, too, is equaled only by it's cru
city. The shrike that tears it's little
bird to pieces is gentle in comparison,
for the shrike only obeys his nature. II
you say the human being also but
obeys his nature, it is to be remem bered
that such is not his real nature, that
he made it by nourishing and develop
ing it, that there was a time when he
could have hindered acquiring it
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