The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-02-07

on q piece OF pu6rl0 meat. Inoy nave
developed a keen scent for the foul
matter upon which they feed.
There are pillows wet by sobs; there
are noble hearts broken in the silence
whence comes no cry Of protest; there
are gentle, sensitive natures scared
and warped; there are old.time friends
separated and walking their lonely
ways with hope dead and memory but
a pang; there are cruel misunderstand-
ings that make all life look dark-these
are but a few of the SORROWS that come
from the crimes of the tongue.
A man or a woman may lead a life of
honesty and purity, battling bravely
for all they hold dearest, so firm and
sure of the rightness of their life that
they think for a instant of the
diabolic ingenuity that makes evil and
evil report where naught but good real
~ exists. A few words lightly spoken
by the tongue of Islander, a significant
expression Of the eye, a cruel shrug OF
the shoulders, with a pursuing of the
the lips-and then, friendly hands
grow cold, the accustomed smile is dis
placed by a sneer, and one stands alone
and aloof with a dazed feeling of won
der at the vague, intangible something
that has caused it all.
For this craze for scandal sensational
newspapers of to-day are largely re-
sponsibIe. Each newspaper is not one
tongue, but G thousand or a million
tongues, telling the same foul story to
as many pairs Of listening ears. The
vultures Of sensationalism scent the
carcass Of immor ality afar off. From
the uttermost parts of the earth they
collect the sin, disgrace and folly Of
humanity, and show them bare to the
world. They do not even require
facts, for morbid memories and fer,
tile lmaginRtions make even the worst
Of the worlds happenings seem tame
when compared with their monstrCs-
titles of invention. These stories, and
the discussions they excite, develop in
readers a cheap, shreWd power Of dis
tortion Of the acts Of all around them.
If a rich man gives a donation to
some charity, they say: He is doing
it to get his name talked about-to
help his business" If he gives it
anonymously, they say: On, it's
some millionaire who is clever enough
to know that %refraining from giving
his name will pique curiosity, he will
see that the public is informed later"
If he does not give to charity they
say: "Oh, he's stingy with his money,
of course, like the rest of the million
aires" To the vile tongue of gossip
and SANDER Virtue is ever deemed but
a mask, noble ideals but a pretense,
generosity a bride.
The man who stands above his fel
lows must expect to be the target for
the envious arrows Of their i%nferiority.
It is part of the price he must pay for
his advance. One of the most detes-
table characters in all literature is Iago.
Envious Of the promotion of Cassie
above his head, he hated Othello. He
was one of those low natures that be
come absorbed in sustaining his dig
nifty, just as Spain to day talks of
preserving her honor, forgetting
that it has 80 long been dead that even
embalming could not preserve it. Day
by day Iago dropped his poison; day
by day did subtle resentment and
studied vengeance distIll the poison Of
distrust and suspicion into more pow
erful doses. With a mind wonderfully
concentrated by the blackness of his
purpose, he wove a network of circum-
stantial evidence around the pure
hearted Desdemona, and then muir
dered her v%icariously, by the hand of
OshelIo. Her very simplicity, conf
dence, innocence and artlessness made
Desdemona the easier mark for Iago.
Iago still lives in the the hearts of
thousands, who have all his deepica.
BILE without his cleverness.
The constant dropping Of their lying
works of malice AMI envy have in too
many instances at last worn away the
noble populations of their superiors.
To sustain ourselves in our own has
ty judgments we sometimes say, as we
listen, and accept without investiga
tion, the words of these modern Iagoes:
"Well where there is so much smoke,
there must be some fire" Yes, but
the fire may be only the fire of malice,
the incendiary firing of the reputation
Of another by the lighted torch of en-
w. thrown into the innocent facts OF a