Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-07-03
don't tell anybody I told you. Let it be

| to the point of profanity, and then they
wonder you cannot sing psalm tunesi
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
night shade. Peddlers of Canada this
tie Peddlers of nuX vomica. Sometimes
they get you in a corner where you
cannot very well escape without being
rude, and then they tell you all about
this one, and all about that one, and
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 claw, and yonder an
eye, and there a crop. How they do
make the feathers fly!
Rather than the defamation of good
names, it seems to me it would be al
most as honorable and useful if you
just took a box of matches in your
pocket and a razor in your hand and
go through the streets and see how
many houses you can burn down and
how many threats you can cut. That
is not much worse business. The de-
structiOn of a mans name is worse
than the destruction of his life. A
woman came in confessional to priest
and told him that she had been SIAN
dering her neighbors. The priest prom
Used her absolution on condition Of her
performing a penance. He gave her
a thistle top and said, 3'You can take
that thistle and scatter the seeds all
over the field" She went and did so
and came back. ''Now," said the priest,
gather up all those Seeds" She said,
81 can't" "Ahw he said, 81 know you
can't! Neither can 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-
pered about him, whispered all over
England, kept on whispering about
that good man-as good man as ever
Iived-and kept on whispering until
the connubial relation was dissolved
Even Jesus AssaiIed.
Jesus Christ had these whisperers
after him, and they charged him with
drinking too much and keeping bad
company. ga wine bibber and the
take the best man that ever lived and
put a detective on his track for ten
years, watching where he goes and
when he comes, and with determina
ton to misconstrue everything, and to |
think he goes here for a bad purpose |
and there for a bad purpose, with that |
of destroying him, at the |
end of the ten years he will be held |
despicable in the sight of great many |
people
If it is an outrageous thing to despoil
a mans character how much worse is
it to damage woman's reputation?
Yet that evil grows from century to
century, and it is all done by whisper
ers. A suspicion isstarted. The next
whisperer who gets hold Of it states
the suspicion as a proved fact, ana
many a good woman, as honorable as
your wife or your mother, has been
whispered out of all kindly associa-
lions and whispered into the grave.
Some people say there is no hell, but if
there be no hell for such despoiler of
character 1t is high time that
some philanthropist built one. But
there is such a place established, and
what a time they will have when all
the whisperers get down there together
things! Everlasting carni-
val of mud. Were it not for the I'M
surroundings, you might
suppose they would be glad to get
there. In that region where they are
Ill bad what opportunities for exploita-
ton by these whisperers! On earth to
1espoil their neighbors sometimes they
had to lie about them, but down there
they can say the worst things possible
about their neighbors and tell the
truth. Jubilee of whisperers. Grand
gala day Of backbiters. Semiheaven Of
scandal mongers stopping their gable
about their diabolical neighbors only
ong enough to go up to the iron gate
md ask some newcomer from the
earth, what is the last gossip in the
.ity on earth where we used to liver
Now, how are we to war against this
nfquity which curses every community
IN earth? First by refusing to listen
% or believe a whisper. Every court
If the land has for law, and all de-
cent communities have for q law, that
you must hold people innocent until
hey are proved guilty. There is only
me person worse than the whisperer,
Ind that is the man or woman who lis
ems without protest. The trouble is
7ou hold the sack while they fill it.
Che receiver OF stolen goods Is just as
'ad as the thief. An ancient writer de-
lares that a slanderer and a man who
eceives the SANDER ought both to be
one by the tongue and the
'ther by the ear. And I agree with
lin.
Don't Retail SANDER.
When you hear something bad about
7our neighbors do not go all over and
lsk about it, whether it is true. and
catter it and spread 1t. You might as