St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-02-02

Everyone with the least experience
in the world knows the baneiul in
Auence OF SANDER, and there are few
people SO wicked that they would
deliberately set out TO ruin the repu-
tation of acquaintance or friend
Yet good natured, careless people
very often produce just the same
effect as though they had been play
mg the part of Sir Benz Back
bite with malice aforethought.
Sheridan in THE School for Scan
dali satirizes the scandal-mongers
with great felicity. Some OF his
characters are venomOus, some Of
them merely idle gossips, but they
play into each Others hands, and
one is quite as bad as another in
everything except motive. To the
thinking person who attends the
play there is a great moral lesson
conveyed by the comedy. The group
OF scandal-mongers is deteStable, yet
they are only exaggerated types Of
men and women who condemn them
and laugh heartily at the wit OF the
satlrist who puts them on the stage.
The lesson they teach is that it is a
duty to guard ones tongue, and
especially to avoid gossip The man
with quick wit is under special
temptation to score with ncpigram
some acquaintance or friend. He
makes smart remark, which in it.
sell might do no harm, but it is i'm
medlately taken up BY a gossip and
repeated with variations, until all
the wit IS lost and only the venom
remains, His careless words, born
very often OF vanity and having no
III purpose behind them, are turned
10 evil and rankle in the heart OF the
victim until, perhaps they bring
about his ruin. tits not sufficient
excuse that there was no intent to
do any injury. That may lessen the
degree Of the offtuse but does not
WIPE II out entirely.
In the physical world we are told
that there is never any loss Of ener-
gy; 1t may be transformed or disap-
pear from view, but it is never lost
Analogy, and indeed experience,
should teach us that there is never
any loss of thought ia the world
mat our words, though idle and
seemingly soon forgotten, never
perish. 1t is at least true that SLAM
derouS sayings are eagerly repeated
rom mouth to mouth, and very
often survive the recollection of their
author, The thought should give us
pause and make us wary of speech.
1t would be a dull world, no doubt,
II everybody, being impressed with
tins idea, should become in meas
ure SpcechleSs for fear of giving Of
tense. But there is no need to carry
the reform to such an extreme III or
der to gain the benefits of more con
Slderate conversation. The fact of
the matter is that much of the ordin-
airy conversation of society is car
rcd on without thought it isgossip,
pure and simple, and it is in the eff
tort to add little spice to it that
the mischief is done, 1t is a relative
Iy easy matter, however, for cult
waited people to talk freely, wittily
and wisely about other subjects than
the faults and foibles of their person
al friends. Literature, science, the
events of the day, furnish them with
an abundance of subjects about
which they can talk freely without
RISK OF doing harm. They have only
TO guard against giving the CONVEX
satIon a personal turn, to escape al
together the evils ofgossip, SANDER
Gus or otherwise. Sometimes the
acts Of men have to be discussed;
sometimes it is necessary to pene-
'rate their motives, but any such es-
says should be made with serious
thought, not flippantly. Consider
ate people will always avoid gossip
II they can, and certainly never en-
gage in it. If they cannot escape
rom hearing it, they can at least
guard against repeating it, and so
resist the temptation to become an
accessory after the fact Baltimore
san.