The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-07-29

set on fire of this hellish spirit will
keep whole neighborhood a-boil. 1t
does not require any very great brain.
The chief requisition is that the wom-
an have small family or no family at
all, because if she have large family
then she would have to stay at home
and look after them. 1t is very impor-
tant that she be single or have no chill
! dren at all, and then she can attend to
all the secrets of the neighborhood all
the time. A woman with large fam
lily makes very poor whisperer.
1t is astonishing how these whisper
ers gather up everything. They know
everything that happens. There are tel
ephone and telegraph wires reaching
from thci ears to all the houses in the
neighborhood.. They have no taste for
healthy news, but for the scraps and
| peelings thrown out of the scullery into
the back yard they have great avidity.
On the day when there is a new scandal
in the newspapers they have no time to
go abroad. On the day when there are
four or five columns of delightful pri-
vatc letters published in a divorce case
she stays at home and reads and reads
and reads. No time for her Bible that
day, but toward night, perhaps, she
may find time to run out little while
and see whether there are any new de-
velopments.
Satan does not have to keep a very
sharp lookout for his evil dominion in
that neighborhood. He has let out to
her the whole contract. She gets hus-
bands and wives into quarrel and
brothers and sisters into antagonism,
and she disgusts the pastor with the
flock and the flock with the pastor, and
F.; she makes neighbors who before were
kindly disposed toward each other over
suspicious and critical, so when one of
! the neighbors passes by in carriage
they hiss through their teeth and say:
"Ah, we could all keep carriages if we
never paid our debts!"
When two or three whisperers get to-
gether they stir caldron of trouble,
which makes me think of the three
witches of Macbeth" dancing around
a boiling caldron in dark cave:
Double. double, toll and trouble,
| Fire burn and caldron bubble,
Fillet of a fenny snake
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe Of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue Of dog.
Adder's fork and blind worms sting.
Lizards leg and owlet's wing
| For charm of powerful trouble.
Like hell both boil and bubble
| Double, double, boil and trouble,
Fire burn and caldron bubble
| Scale Of dragon, tooth of wolf,
| Witches mummy, nav and gulf
OF the ravin'd salt sea shark;
Make the Cruel thick and stark;
Add thereto tigers chaudron
For the ingredients of our caldron.
Double, double, toll and trouble,
Fire burn and caldrop bubble;
Cool 1t with a babboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good
would only change Shakespeare in
! this, that where he puts the word
witch" | should put the word "whis-
perez" All, what caldron! Did you
ever get a taste of it? have more re-
spect for the poor waif of the street
that goes down under the gaslight with
no home and no God-for she deceives
no one as to what she is-than | have
for these hags of respectable society
who cover up their tiger claws with
fine shawl and bolt the hell of their
heart with diamond breastpin.
| Tho ,yor1, IF ,,ooeo,,I;pa ;e,o,o,, &.
| chiefly seen in the embarrassment of
business. Now, suppose there are
| hundreds of men here who at some time
have been in business trouble. / win
undertake to say that in nine cases out
of ten it was the result of some whisper
er's work. The whisperer uttered some
suspicion in regard to your credit. You
sold your horse and carriage because
you had no use for them, and the whis-
perer said sold his horse and car
rage because he had to sell them. The
fact that he sold his horse and carriage
shows hs is going down in business"
One of your friends gets embarrassed,
and you are little involved with him.
The whisperer says: II wonder if he
can stand under all this pressure?
think he is going down. think he will
have to give up" You borrow money
out of bank, and the director whispers
outside about it, and after awhile the
suspicion gets fairly started, and it
leaps from one whisperer's lips to an
other whispcrer's lips until all the peo-
] pie you owe want their money and want
it right away, and the business circles
come around you like pack of wolves,
and. though you had assets four times
! more than were necessary to meet your
liabilities, crash went everything.
| Whisperers! Oh, how much business
men have suffered
Sometimes in the circles of clergy
men we discuss why it is that great
many merchants do not go to church.
l will tell you why they do not go to
church. By the time Saturday night
comes they are worn out with the an
noyances of business life. They have
had enough meanness practiced upon
them to set their whole nervous system
! a-twitch.
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
| thipne S,id nr,;,St Vol, anoipSf