Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-08-11
SAVANNAH TENNESSEE, Friday AUGUST II, 1885,

Canada thistle! Peddlers of nuX yom-
| lea! Sometimes they get you in a cor
ner where you cannot very well escape
without being rude, and then they tell
you all about this one, and all about
that one, and all about the other one,
and they talk, talk, talk, talk, talk talk,
After awhile they SO away, leaving the
place looking like barnyard after the
foxes and the weasels have been around;
here wing, and there a claw, and yon-
der an eye, and there crop. How they
do make the feathers flyl
Rather than the defamtion of good
names it seems TO me it would be almost
as honorable and useful if you just took
n box of matches in your pocket and a
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 a much worse
business. The destruction of a mans
name is worse than the destruction OF
his life. A woman came in confessional
to priest and told him that she had
been slandering her neighbors. The
priest promised her absoution on con-
dition of her performing penance. lie
gave her thistle top and said: You
can take that thistle and scatter the
seeds all over the field She went and
did so and came back. "Now," said the
priest, gather up all those seeds" She
said: 81 can't" "Ah," he said, 81 know
you can't. Neither can you gather VI
the evil words you spoke about your
neighbors." All good men and all good
women have sometimes had detrac;ors
after them. John Wesley's wife whis
pered about him, whispered all over
England, kept on whispering about
that good man--as good 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 ano
! DuI ~ uClNClhC VII NiaNh iOi w
years, watching where he goes ant
when he comes and with a determine
ton to misconstrue everything and tC
think he goes here for bad purpose
and there for bad purpose, with thai
determination of destroying him, at the
end of the ten years he will be held de
spicable in the sight of a great many
people
If it is an outrageous thing to despoi
mans character, how much worse is il
to damage a woman's reputation? Yet
that evil grows from century to cen
fury, and it is all done by whispers.
suspicion is started. The next wills
perer who gets hold of it states the sus
picion as proven fact, and many good
woman, as honorable as your wife OIL
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
a despoiler of womanly character it is
high time that some philanthropist
build one! But there is such place es
tablished, and what time they vii
have when all the whisperers get dowr
there together rehearsing things
Everlasting carnival of mud. Were i
not for the uncomfortable surrounding:
you might suppose they would be glac
to get there. In that region where they
are all bad what opportunities for ex
ploitation by these whisperers. Or
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 neighbor'
and tell the truth. Jubilee of whisper
ers. Semiheaven of scandal monger:
stopping their gable about their dia
bolical neighbors only long enough tc
20 up to the iron gate and ask some new
conner from the earth; what is thu
last gossip in the city on earth where W.
used to live?"
Now, how are we to war against this
iniquity which curses every community
on earth? First, by refusing to lister
to or believe a whisper. Every court OF
the land has for law and all deem
communities have for Il law that you
must hold people innocent until they
are proved guilty. There is only ont
person worse than the whisperer, ant
that is the man or woman who listens
without protest. The trouble is, you
hold the sack while they fill il. The re
ceiver of the stolen goods is just al
bad as the thief. An ancient writer de
clares that slanderer and man who
receives the Islander ought both to bt
hanged-the one by the tongue and the
other by the ear-and ] agree will
him.
When you hear something bad abou
YOUR neighbors, do not go all over ant
ask about it, whether ii is true, ant
scatter il and spread il. You might as
well go to smallpox hospital and take
a patient and carry him all through The
community, asking people If they really
thought it case of smallpox. Thai
would be very bad for the patient ant
for all the neighbors. Do not retail Sian
| utIS uuu NHlSPSilISS' ~ NV h"h'
yourself the inspector of warts, and thu
supervisor of carbuncles, and the com
missioner for street cutters, and thu
holder of stakes for dog fight. Can i
be that you, an immortal man; tha
you, an immortal woman, can find NJ
better business than to become a 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 othel
thrustng sting. ! read of family
where they kept what they called "A
SANDER Book" and when any SANDER
Gus words were uttered in the hous,
about anybody or detraction uttered Il
was all put down in this book. The
| book was kent carefully For the frs