The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-08-10
der an eye, and there crop. How they
do make the feathers fy!

do make the feathers fly!
Rather than the defamtion of good
names it seems to me it would be almost
as honorable and useful if you just took
box of matches in your pocket and
razor in your hand and go through the
streets and see how many houses you
can burn down and how many throats
you can cut. That is not much worse
business. The destruction of a mans
his life. A woman came in confessional
to priest aud told him that she had
been slandering her neighbors. The
priest promised her absolution on con-
dition of her performing penance. He
gave her thistle top and said: You
can take that thistle and scatter the
seeds all over the field" She went and
did SO anu came back. "Now," said the
priest, ''gather up all those Seeds" She
said: 81 can't" "Ah," he said, II know
you can't. Neither can you gather up
the evil words you spoke about your
neighbors." All good men and all good
women 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 a man as ever
lived-and kept on whispering until the
connubial relation was dissolved.
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 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 bad purpose
and there for bad purpose, with that
determination of destroying him, at the
end of the ten years he will be held de-
spicable in the sight of great many
people
If it is an outrageous thing to despoil
mans character, how much worse is it
to damagera a woman's reputation? Yet
that evil grows from century to CEN
tury, and it is all done by whispers. A
suspicion is started. The next whis-
perer who gets hold of it states the sus-
picion as proven fact, and many a good
woman, as honorable as your wife or
your mother, has been whispered out of
all kindly associations, and whispered
into the grave. Some people say there
is no hell, but if there be no hell for such
despoiler of womanly character it is
high time that some philantkropist
build one! But there is such a place es-
tablished, and what a time they will
have when all the whisperers get down
there together rehearsing things!
Everlasting carnival of mud. Were IL
not for the uncomfortable surroundings
you might suppose they would be glad
to get there. In that region where they
are all bad what opportunities for ex-
ploitation by these whisperers. On
earth, to despoil their neighbors some
times 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 whisper
ers. Semiheaven of scandal mongers
stopping their gable about their dia-
bolical neighbors only long enough to
go up to the iron gate and ask some new
conner from the earth: "What is the
last gossip in the city on earth where we
used to live?''
Now, how are we to war against this
iniquity which curses every community
on earth? First, by refusing to listen
to or believe whisper. Every court OF
the land has for q law and all decent
communities have for law that you
must hold people innocent until they
are proved guilty. There is only one
person worse than the whisperer, and
| that is the man or woman who listens
without protest. The trouble is, you
hold the sack while they fill it. The re-
ceiver of the stolen goods is just al
had as the thief.
When YOU hear something bad about
your neighbors, do not go all over and
ask about it, whether it is true, anc
scatter it and spread it. You might as
well 90 to smallpox hospital and take
a patient and carry him all through the
community, asking people if they really
thought it a case of smallpox. Thai
would be very bad for the patient ant
for all the neighbors. Do not retail Sian
ders and whisperings. Do not MAKE
yourself the inspector of warts, and th'
supervisor of carbuncles, and the com
missioner for street cutters, and th'
holder of stakes for dog fight. Can i
be that you, an immortal man: tha
YOU. an immortal woman, can find n,
better business than to become gut
ter inspector?
| Beside that, at your family table al
low no detraction. Teach your children
to speak well of others. Show them tn
difference between a bee and wasp
the one gathering honey, the othe
thrusting sting. I read of a famil,
where they kept what they called 81
Slander Book" and when any slander
GUS words were uttered in the hous
about anybody or detraction uttered
was all put down in this book. TIL
book was kept carefully. For the frs
few weeks there were great man