The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-08-10

says: "Oh. Mrs. Allear, have you heard
the dreadful news? Why, our neigh
Dor, poor thing, came down off the
steps in food of tears. That brute
of husband has been abusing her.
Well, it's just as l expected. 1 saw
him the other afternoon very smiling
and very gracious to some one who
smiles back, and thought then would
just go up to him and tell him he had
better 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 and 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 on fire of this hellish spirit will
keep a 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 their 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 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 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 a quarrel and
brothers and sisters into antagonism,
and she disgusts the pastor with the
flock and the flock with the pastor, and
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!"
The work of masculine whisperers is
chiefly seen in the embarrassment of
business. Now, I suppose there are
hundreds of men here who at some time
have been in business trouble. 1 will
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
riage because he had to sell them. The
fact that he sold his horse and carriage
shows he 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. I think he will
have to give up" You borrow money
l.out of a bank, and the directo or whispers
outside about it, and after awhile tht
suspicion gets fairly started, and il
leaps from one whisperer's lips to an
other whisperer'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 time!
more than were necessary to meet youl
. liabilities, crash went everything
Whisperers! Oh, how much business
men have suffered!
. think among the worst of the whis
, perers are those who gather up all tn
, harsh things that have been said abou
i you and bring them to you-an thu
, things said against you, or agains
{ your family, or against your style o
business. They gather them all up, ant
, they bring them to you; they brinl
them to you in the very worst shape
. they bring them to you without any o
. the extenuating circumstances, an,
I after they have made your feelings al
raw, very raw, they take this brine, thi
) |turpentine, this aqua fortis, and rub
|, | in with coarse towel, and rub it in un
j til it sinks to the bone. They make yo'
the pincushion in which they thrust al
: the sharp things they have ever hear
E about you. .Now, don't bring me int
| the scrape. Now, don't tell anybody
t told YOU. Let it be between you am
a me. Don't. involve me in it at all.
4 They aggravate you to the point cf pre-
: family, and then they wonder You can
!. not sing psalm tunes! They turn yo
: on a spit before n hot fire and wonde
t why you are not absorbed in gratitud
to them because they turn you on spit
n Peddlers of night shade! Peddlers o