Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-07-20
rcopyright, Louis K!opsch, 1881

OF Society-An Arraignment Of Liars.
Copyright. Louis K!opsch. 1881
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In this discourse
DR.. Talmage vigorously arraigns one OF
the great evils that have cursed the world
and urges generous Interpretation of the
character of others; text, Romans L., 29,
Full Of envy, murder, debate, deceit, ma.
lignity; whisperers."
Paul was here calling the long roll of the
worlds villuiny, and he puts in the midst
OF this roll those persons known in all cities
and communities and places as whisperers.
They are so called because they generally
speak under voice and in confidential
way, their hand to the side OF their mouth
acting as funnel to keep the precious in
formation from wandering into the wrong
ear. They speak softly not because they
have lack Of lung force or because they are
overpowered with the spirit OF gentleness,
but because they want to escape the conse-
quences Of defamation. If no one hears
but the person whispered unto, and the Of
fender be arraigned, he can deny the whole
thing, for whisperers are always first-clas
liars!
Some people whisper because they are
hoarse from cold or because they wish to
convey some useful information without
disturbing others, but the creatures photo
sraphed by the apostle in my text give
muff1ed utterance from sinister and de-
praved motive, and sometimes you can
only hear the sibilant sound as the letter
esq drops from the tongue into the listen
ing ear, the brief hisslof the serpent as it
projects its venom.
Whisperers are masculine and feminine,
with tendency to majority on the side OF
those who are called "the lords of
creation" Whisperers are heard at every
window of bank cashier and are heard in
all counting rooms as well as in sewing
societies and at meetings of asylum difec-
fo ha
foes Of society, responsible for miseries in
mum erable; they are the scavengers Of the
world, driving their cart through every
community, and to-day 1 holdu for your
holy anathema and eXecration these
whisperers.
From the frequency with which Paul
speaks OF them under different titles con-
clude that he must have suffered some-
what from them. His personal presence
was very defective. and that made him,
perhaps, the target of their ridicule. And,
besides that, he was bachelor, persisting
in his-celibacy down into the sixties, in
deed all the way through, and. some hav-
ing failed in their connubial designs upon
him, the little missionary was put under
the raking fire of these whisperers. He
was no doubt a rare morsel for their scan
dalization, and he cannot keep his
patience any longer, and he lays hold of
these miscreants or the tongue and gives
them very hard setting down in my text
among the scoundrelly and the murderous.
envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity;
whisperers.'
The law Of libel makes quick and stout
grip of open SANDER. II l should in
plain way, calling you by name, charge
you with fraud or theft or murder or un-
cleanness, tomorrow morning might have
perem ptory documents served on me, and
I would have to pay in dollars and cents
for the damage l had done your character.
D..k A. l. L.
are so small that they escape the fine tooth
comb OF the law. They go on, and they &c
on, escaping the judges and the juries and
the penitentiaries. The district attorney
cannot find them, the sheriff cannot find
them, the grand jury cannot fnd them.
Shut them of from one route of perfdy and
they start on another. You cannot by the
force of moral sentiment persuade them to
desist. You might rs well read the Ten
Commandments to flock of crows, Tex
pecting them to retreat under the force of
moral sentiment. They are to be found
everywhere, these whisperers. I think
their paradise is q country village OF about
1000 or 2OOO people, where everybody
knows everybody. But they also are to be
found in large quantities in all our cities.
They have prying disposition. They
look into tho basement windows at the
tables of their neighbors and can tell just
what they have morning and night to eat.
other people can see with door wide
open. They can hear convers alton on the
opposite side of the room. Indeed, the
world to them is a whispering gallery.
Some morning wife descends into the
street, her eyes damp with tears, and that
Is stimulus to the tattler and is enough
to set up business for three or four
weeks 81 guess that husband and wife
don't live happily together. l wonder II he
hasn't been abusing her? It's outrageous.
He ought to be disciplined. He ought to
be brought up before the church. I'll go
right over to my neighbors and I'll let
them know about this matter" She
rushes in all out OF breath to neighbor's
house and says: "Oh, Mrs. Allear, have
you heard the dreadful news? Why, our
neigbbor, poor thing, came down off the
steps in flood of tears. That brute OF
husband has been abusing her. Well. it's
just as expected. saw him the other
afternoon very smiling and very gracious
to some one who smiled back, and I
thought would just go up to him and tell
him he had be ter go home and look after
his wife and family, who probably at that
very time were upstairs crying their eyes
out. Oh, Mrs. Allear, do have your hus-
band go over aud put an end to this
trouble. It's simply outrageous that our
neighborhood should be disturbed in this
way. It's awful"
The fact is that one man or woman set
Oh IRE Oh tn1S neiiiSn spirit VIII keep
whole neighborhood a-boil. 1t does not
require any very great brain. The chief
requisition is that the woman have n 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 important that she be single or have
no children at all, and then she can attend
to all the secrets Of the neighborhood all
the time. A woman with a large family
makes very poor whisperer.
1t is astonishing how these whisperers
gather up everything. They know every
thing that happens. There ara telephone
nnd telegraph wires reaching from their
ears to all the houses in the neighborbood.
Thev have no taste for healthy news, but
for the scraps and peeling thrown out of
scullery into the back yard they have great
avidity. On the day when there is IL 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-
vate letters published in q 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 q little while and see whether
there are any new developments.
Satan does not have to keep a very sharp
lookout for his evil dominion in that