The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1894-01-13
THE MALICIOUS AND CRUEL HABIT
OF GOSSIPING.

"Good-morrow, gentle gossip" used
to be the greeting in the days OF the
divine William. But in those days gos-
sip had a different significance. 1t
meant "God-sibb" or Goods neighbor."
But the meaning is changed nowadays,
and the kindly gossip of language is
replaced by the dirty, mean scandal
monger of today. A nasty word is plant
ed, and it brings forth a fruit of thorns
and thistles that cause misunderstand-
ings and heartaches. Loyalty seems out
Of fashion. A man may love a womon
h%onorably and devotedly; hear her
spoken of the lightest way: feel his
cheek grow white and his heart beat
violently, and yet never dare say a
word, for his defense of her would hurt
her more than his silence.
People always chattered-they did
that in the ark but nowadays it isn't
just chatter, it is malice. Somebody is
a woman, alone in the world, and she
gains for herself a friend-a man friend
who advises her, who is considerate of
her, and who only asks in return that
he may see her and talk to her for a lit
tie while; and that they may have pleas
ant, innocent hours together. And what
does the world say? 1t shrugs lite should
ers, it lifts its eyebrows, it laughs scott
ingly and says, Perhaps" And the
woman soon gets a bar sinister across
her escutcheon, and the sponge of in
nocence and honor cannot blot it out.
DANGEROUS TONGUES.
Somebody is a man who made a prom
Use to his mothar that he would look
after some little orphans, and he keeps
his word. Being a man and being gem
erous. he makes them comfortable and
happy, and the gossips sit off afar and
giggle, and look knowingly at each
other, and after a while one of the i'm
prudent will say something to the man,
something intended to be funny, and
the man will look dazed and wondering,
and then he will 90 off by himself and
think, whats the use of trying to do
right when you are always misunder-
stood?" And when those orphan babies
are men and women there will be some
old gossip ready to wink and make
nasty suggestions about their birth.
1t is hard to put it down, this tale of
the foul-mouthed. Ii | had my way l
would have everybody who said or even
limited low and vulgar things about
their neighbors made to stand in a pub
lie square with their hands tied togeth-
err, bearing on their breasts the letter
S, which stood for "Scandal-monger,"
in bright blue, and then have their
mouths washed out with vitrol. Don't
you agree with me? And then what
would you do with that awful weapon of
the scandal-monger? For he does't con-
fine himself to his tongue. l mean the
anonymous letter. A thief in the night
is honorable besides the anonymous
letter-writer. Against the first you can
use muscle, you can raise your voice,
you can make some sort of a fight
against the last you can do nothing.
The fact that you are a woman forces
you to keep still before this dignity
against which there is no redress, and
SO woman or man, you have to suffer,
like somebody with a hidden cancer,
until, thank God, by the laws of COM
pensation there Gomez some loving act
that will cause you to forget the suffer-
ing.
What is the matter with men aud
women that they can't do the nice, the
kindly thing one toward the other ?
My friend, it is quite as easy, and in
addition, it would make everything 90
SO much smoother. Sometimes | think
that, in the various sorts OF hell that
have been described, that one will be
the most awful which is intended for the
scandal-monger, the beast in human