The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-07-11

o the back yard they have great avid /
ty. On the day when there Is a new
in the newspapers they have
when there are four or five columns Of
delightful private letters published in
a divorce Ease b stays at home n
and reads and reads. No time
for her Bible that day, but toward
night, perhaps, she may find time TO
out a little while and see whether
there are nay new developments.
MASCULINE WHISPERERS.
The work OF masculine whisperers is
chiefly seen in the embarrassment OF
business. Now, I suppose, there are
hundreds of men here who at some
have been in business trouble. I
will undertake to say that in nine
cases out of ten it was the result Of
some whispereTs work. The w~hiSperer
uttered some suspicion in regard TO
your credit. You sold your horse and
carriage because you had no use Tor
them, and the whisperer said: Sold
his horse and carriage because he had
to sell them The fact that he sold his
horse and carriage shows he Is going
down in business"
One Of your friends gets embarrassed
and you are a little involved with him.
The w%hisperer says: II wonder if he
oil Id1I d1lACl GIN SAAc
think he is going down. 1 think he will
have to give up" You borrow money
out of a bank and a director whispers
outside about it, and after awhile the
suspicion gets fairly started n it
leaps from n whfsperer's lips to an
other whisperer's lips until all the peo-
pie o W want their money and
want it right away and the business
circles come around you like a pack Of
wolves, and though O had assets four
times more than were necessary to
meet your liabilities, crash went ev-
erything! W~hisperers! Oh, how much
business men have suffered!
Sometimes in the circles of clergy
men we discuss why it is that a great
many merchants do not go to church.
I will tell you why they do o go to
church. By the time Saturday night
comes they are worn out with the an
oyanc of business life. They have
had enough of meanness practiced upon
them to set their whole sys-
tenn a-twdtich.
THE MEANEST TALEBEARER.
1 think among the worst of the whis-
perers are those who gather up all
the harsh things that have been said
about you and bring them to yOu-all
the things said against you, or against
your family, or against your style OF
business. They gather them all up n
they bring them to you, they bring
them to you i'm the very worst shape,
they bring them to you without n of
the e~Xtenuating circumstances, n
after they have made your feelings all
raw, very raw, they take this brine,
his turpentine, this aqua FORTS, and
rub it in with a coarse towel and rub
1t in until it sink to the bone. They
make you the pincushiOn in which they
thrust all the sharp things they
~ n xn oxynn hoor1 ohA,I xror "Novxy
don't bring me into a scrape. Now,
don't tell anybody I told you. Let it be
between you and me. Don't involve
me in it at ALL" They aggravate you
to the point if profanity, and then they
wonder you cannot sing psalm tunes!
They turn you on a spit before a hot
fire and wonder why you are not alb
sorbed in gratitude to them because
they turn you on a spit. Peddlers of
might shade. Peddlers of Canada this
tie. Peddlers of nux vomica. Sometimes
they get you in a corner where yOu
cannOt very we'll escape without being
rude, and then they tell you all Dol
all about the other one, and they talk,
talk, talk, talk, talk. After awhile they
go away leaving the place looking like
a barnyard after the foxes and the
weasels have been around; here a
wing, and there a claw, and yonder an
eye, and there a o How they do
make the feathers fly!
Rather than the defamation of good
names, lit seems to me it would be al
most as honorable and useful if you
just too a box of matches in your
pocket and a razor in your hand and
go through the streets n see how
many houses you can burn down and
how many thrOats you can cut. That
is not a much worse business. The de-
StructiOn of a mans name is worse
than the destruction of his life. A
woman came in confessional to a priest
and told him that she had been SLAM
dering her neighbors. The priest prom
Used her absolution on condition of her
performing "a penance. He gave her
a thistle top and said, You can take
that thistle and scatter the seeds all
owe the field" She went and did so
and came back. Now" said h priest,
gather up all those Seeds She said,
Il can't" "Ah!" he said, Il know you
can't! Neither a you gather up the
evil words you spoke about your neigh
bors." All good men and all good wo-
men have sometimes had detractors
after them. John Wesley's wife whis-
England, kept on whispering about
that good man-as good a man as ever
kept on whispering until
the %connubfal relation was dissolved.
EVEN JESUS ASSAILED.
Jesus Christ had these whisperers
after Him, and they charged Him with
drinking too much and keeping bad
company. "A wine bibber and the
friend of publicans and sinners" You
take the best man that yer lived and
put a detective on his track for ten
years, watching where he zoe n
when he comes, and with a determine
ton to misconstrue everything, and to
determination of destroying him, at the
think he goes here for a bad purpose
and there for a bad purpose, with that
end of the ten ear he will be held
d~espicable in the sight of a great many
people.
If it is an outrageous thing to despoil
a mans character how much worse is
it to damage d womanS reputation?
Yet that evil grows from century to
century, and it Us all done by whisper
ers. A suspicion is started. The next
w~hisperer who gets hold of it states
the suspicion as a proved fact, and
many a good woman, as honorable as
your wife or your mother, has been
whispered out of all kindly associa-
tons and whispered INTO the grave.