The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-04-22


and they all enjoy a grand cannibalic fea:
over the dead or dying reputation OF thelr
helpless victim.
Il once heard an eloquent orator narrate
that once a woman came to her priest. to
confess that she had been slandering her
neighbors. What must she do? The priest
gave her a thistletop and said. Now: take
that thistle and scatter the seeas an n @Hns
as he had bid her. Now he said to her on
her return, go out again and gather the
seed that YOU have scattered, she SAID.
Il can't do 1t. the winds have blown them
here and there and many are hidden ana
planted already. How can l gather them!
All. my daughter said the priest, no more
can you take back the evil words you have
spoken against your neishbor.'
The evil that men do lives after them:
The good is oft inferred with their bones.
nal as Il rule in intention. but careless.
But. In many instances carelessness is
virtually cruelty and crime. Carelessness
In a surgeon may mean manslaughter; IN a
General. massacre; in q Judge. the ship
wreck of 4 human life. The great catas-
trophies of history We're not deliberate VII
lainies. The slaughter of the Light Brigade
was not bloody murder. Nay. but some
body Numbered The worst harm is done
when meaning none. The sheer spoken In
Jest is repeated in earnest. The slnr said
Your tone is kindly: you smile with good
humor and felicity. You hedge your asser-
tions around with doubts, and hearsays and
cautions, and they are repeated without
any doubts or hearsays or reservations,
without your smile or ~good-nature, as alb
solute truths. And you are responsible for
all the hideous consequences. To smoke a
cigar is trivial. but, in Il powder magazine.
1t Will perhaps cure you of that habit. \
chance word grows and grows into a
shameful report that is Kissed from lip to
lip and travels around the circle until 1t
strikes its victim. breaks Il heart, and
wrecks a home. Every listener. every re-
peater. Is responsible for the heart-break
The School for Scandal sparkles with
wit. incisive epigram. lightning flashes of
insight. And it lives OF the boards be-
cause all the worlds a stage and in this
school the players desire no vacation, for
their studies are never completed. And
they do not even know that they are play
ers
that l am addressing. 1t Is your neighbor.
You hope she will lay it to heart. It is
quite impressive-this innocence Of the
A old authority said wisely regarding
these worthless. to quote again. that both
the slande;er and the listener should be
by the ear. I fear that II this penalty were
enforced. there would be a great many
mutilated tongues and lacerated ears.
THE consequences. however. are not ap-
portioned often SO justly and %dttingly. The
more subtle and pitiable results fall often
quite near home. Imagine a household
WY Sueh LII LAIN llLuS entry INTO the
sensitive ear and mind Of children? Your
children. whom you educate and influence
most when you are least aware Of 1t. are
mors. passed from NOUN to mouth? Can
we then expect the little ones to be better
tnan such parents? How can the sweet in
Will and generous sentiment be proof against
such miserable influences? Spare the little
ones at least. and perchance from this re-
ity.
And I would finally plead on plain, prac-
teal grounds with offenders of this ilk. I
more than they wish to reveal. they are
exposing more than they dream of. They
are exposing themselves; 1t is a true in
by their Judgment of others. We make
known the thinker with the thought. the
critic with the criticism. We mix ourselves
Win our paint. our song, our opinions. We
are s~ketchfng unconsciously our own por-
traits as We outline our neighbours char
aeter In words. II we impugn his motives.
us because our own are questionable. II
we doubt his sincerity, our own hypocrisy
INFORMS us and betrays itself. A quiet. sem
sible observer by silent attention can pierce
to the core Of his fellows without their ever
by even a word deliberately sketching their
w personality. The moral qualities of
these human reptiles. he that runs may
malice or mere wanton delight. in calumny.
are exposed. Their SANDERS are BOOM
erangs: Their powder Is not smokeless.
AeN atC ulSSAoSSa dhO lldOC
HELPLESS by their very recoil.
The mask is thus torn on from a bad
heart: And. let me add, from al empty
Gus gossip both spring largely from poverty
Of resources. You may measure the Hitter
acy Of men, says Herbert Spencer, by their
their chronic drivel about persons instead
Of principles. thoughts, ideas, the sub
stantial and serious questions for inelli-
Both these instances, the verses from
Proverbs strikingly illustrate: First. In
the multitude Of words, there wanteth not
sin; second, He that uttereth SANDER is
Have these. pititful creatures never re-
joiced. suffered, triumphed: have they not
n nsauf bafden eyer fsr a si sSHs nr,ze runners ars shf ~
the great race whose dust oft hides the
goal? Have they not laughed and wept
and seen their midnight fretted with golden
learned the tragi-comedy Of the ages, and
beheld the motley panorama Of modern life.
with its whirligig Of fortune, the storm Of
war. the skylark-song of poetry, the full
noon of science. the P~hoenix-birth of new
religion. the fermentation of the nations
within strange new leayen? Has this mighty
pealed to them so little that language. the
daughter Of the gods. has become to them
a kitchen,wench; that speech. the mirror
Of the soul. has become to them a cracked
and filthy fragment: that words, the vehicle
and coinage Of wisdom and immortal
thought. nave become for them, but the
vile counterfeits of malice. spleen and
shame!
in ancient Winchester lies the recum-
bent statue Of a woman from whose mouth
is growing a rose. because. so runs the
beautiful story. from her lips came never
a word of malice toward any human being.
And so the rose Of silence became the rose
of beauty and honor; and the fragrance Of
her virtues lives in carven stone.
THE quality Of mercy shines therein. the
sacredness of silence, the divineness of
human charity. living when the heart Is
dust. speaking when lips are frozen, i'm
mortal as the God of love, the Lord OF
l:fe."