Connecticut western news., 1899-07-06

If it Is an outrageous thing to despoi a mans character, how much worse is
 1t to damage a woman's reputation
 Yet that evil grows from century tt
 century, and it Is all done by whisper
 CTS. A suspicion is started. The nex'
 whisperer who gets hold of 1t states
 the suspicion as proved fact, and
 many a good woman, as honorable as
 your wife or your mother, has been
 whispered out of all kindly associa
 tions 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 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 l rehearsing things! Everlasting earni- | val of mud. Were 1t not for the un-
 comfortable surroundings, you might | suppose they would be glad to get | there In that region where they are all bad what opportunities for expioita-
 ton by these whlsperers! On earth to | despoil 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 gabble | about their diabolical neighbors only long enough to go up to the Iron gate | and ask some newcomer from the | earth, What Is the last gossip in the | city on earth where we used to livew Now, how are we to war against this iniquity which curses every community on earth? First by refusing to listen to or believe a whisper. Every court of the land has for a law, and all de cent 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 lis- tens without protest The trouble Is you hold the sack while they fill It. The receiver of stolen goods is just as bad as the thief. An ancient writer de clares that a slanderer and q man who receives the islander ought both to be hanged-the one by the tongue and the other by the ear. And 1 agree with him.
 Don't Retail slander.
 When you hear something bad about
 your neighbors do not go all over and ask about 1t, whether 1t Is true, and scatter 1t and spread 1t. You might as
 well go to a smallpox hospital and take . patient and carry him all through the community asking people if they really thought 1t Is a case of smallpox. That would be very bad for the patient and for all the neighbors. Do not retail islanders and whisperings. Do not make yourself the inspector of warts, and the supervisor of carbuncles, and the commissioner for street gutters, and the holder of stakes for a, dogfght. Can 1t be that you, an immortal man, that you, an immortal woman, can find no better business than to become a gutter inspector?
 Besides that, at your family table al- low no detraction. Teach your children to speak well of others. Show them the difference between a bee and a wasp the one gathering honey, the other thrusttng a sting. I read of a family where they kept what they called "A Hlapder Book, :" and when any slander- ous words were uttered in the house about anybody, or detractfon uttered, 1t was all put down in this book. The book was kept carefully. For the first few weeks there were a great many en- tries, but after a while there were no entries at all Distraction stopped in that household. It would be a good thing to have a islander book in all households.
 Are any of you given to this habit of whispering about others? Let me per suade you to desist- Mount Taurus was a great place for eagles, and cranes would fly along that way, and they would cackle so loud that the eagles would know of their coming and they would bounce upon them and de stroy them. It is said that the old cranes found this out, and before they ways have a stone in their mouth so they could not cackle, and then they would fly in perfect safety. Oh, my friends, be as wise as the old cranes and avoid the folly of the young cranes! Do not cackle.
 If there are people here who are whispered about, if there are people here who are slandered, if there are people here who are abused in any cir cle of life, let me say for your encour- agement that these whisperers soon run out. They may do little damage for awhile, but after awhile their de- traction becomes a eulogy, and people understand them just as we'll as though some one ehalked all over their over. coat or their shawl these words: Here goes a whisperer. Room for the leper. Room" You go ahead and do your duty, and God will take care of your reputation. How dare you distrust him? You have committed to him your souls. Can you not trust him with your reputation? Get down on your knees before God and settle the whole matter there. That man whom God takes care of is we'll sheltered.
 Proper Use of the Tongue.
 Let me charge you, my friends, to make right and holy use of the tongue. It is loose at one end and can swing either way, but 1t is fastened at the other end to the floor of your mouth, and that makes you responsible for the way 1t wags. Xanthus, the phileso- pher, told his servant that on the mor- row he was going to have some friends to dine and told him to get the best thing he could find in the market. The philosopher and his guests sat down the next day at the table. They had nothing but tongue-four or five courses of tongue-tongue cooked In 1 this way and tongue cooked in that | way, and the philosopher lost his pa tience and said to his servant, Didn't | tell you to get the best thing in the | marketT He said: 'I did get the best | thing in the market. Isn't the tongue the organ of sociality, the organ of | eloquence. the organ of kindness, the | organ of worshipY