The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-09-27
\ VIEWS OF
Y A WOMAN

| The fad Is growing for making cpl
grams and framing codes. A writer
who cannot write in epigrams Is as use
less as one who cannot get up a his
torical novel in the space Of six weeks
TO make an epigram, you take a pro
verb and turn it wrong side before OF
upside down, or make it say something
directly the opposite of what 1t wa:
meant to say--the more impudently the
better-arfd there is your epigram!
The code idea is different. 1 dom
know whether Elbert Hubbard is partly
responsible or not, in his "Credo." o.
course there were others who framed
creeds and codes long before Mr.. Hub.
| bard discovered East Aurora and the
Philistine, but not everyone made ar
edition de luxe of the fad to adorn the
| sanctums of would-be literary ladies
| and men who have a spoke loose ir
| their theology. A credo with red and
black illuminated lettering, On paper
which is a twin brother to that fur
nished by the butcher with the meat
gives a certain distinction to any code
or creed.
There is one woman in this town who
divulged little code the other day
which appealed to me as being worth
illuminating. 1t has never occurred to
her that it should even be written out,
not to mention framing. Indeed it is
highly probable that she is unaware
she possesses code at all. 1t is as
short and simple as the annals Of the
poor. and runs something like this:
"Never Repeat Gossip"
Now this sounds familiar and you
may think you have heard it before and
perhaps you have, but somehow she
seems to apply 1t differently than others
apply the same idea. You know there
are those who make a great pretenson
of disliking to hear piece of gossip
and who impress you as being extreme
ly rigid in their views on this matter,
yet their attitude scarcely affects the
spreading of scandal for they are often
heard repeating something with the
predatory statement: II never hear
9nything. for my friends all know how
Objectionable gossip is to me, but I just
happened to have this told me-"
But my lady of the code listens plac-
idly to what you may have to say and
Is apparently interested. She wears no
froWn of disapproval and sits in judg-
ment on none of her garrulous friends.
They always see in her sympathetic
companion and they seldom recognize
a peculiar trait in her composition. But
let them try to find out something
which someone else has told her and
then the difference is evident. BY no
possibility will she be induced to repeat
a bit of gossip about anyone. She Is
probably the receptacle of more conf
dences than are other women, and she
certainly hears scandal and scraps of
gossip that are floating in the air, but
no one can say that she has ever been
caught repeating what is detrimental to
anybody. Whether the gossip is true
or false, it finds grave in her ears and
never passes her lips. II have made it
matter of principle" she says simply,
Ito refrain from repeating what l hear
In the way of scandal or gossip. 1t is
an easy habit to form, and while it
probably has no perceptible effect in
the world, it satisfies my own sense Of
duty"
Why is 1t that most of us like to be
the first to tell a piece OF news? 1t
matters not whether the news may be
good or bad; whether it is an announce
ment that there are to be no more
strikes forever and the day after, or
whether it is to the effect that the Thir-
teenth regiment has been altogether ex-
terminated by the peaceable citizens of
this valley, just to prove the oft-made
assertion that there was no earthly
need of calling out the troops; whether
it is the information that our dearest
friends husband has been beating his
mother-in-law or that our dearest foe
the first to tell it.
The desire to be the first to tell news
should have strong interest for the
psychologist. 1t develops very early.
An illustration may be cited i'm the
young person of four, who declared that
there We're "more than thousand cats
in our back yard" finally, under pres
sure, reducing the number to "our cat
and another cat, anyway" The fad
dists on child study, which is now the
chief end of educators, say that this Is
an evidence of the primitive desire of
the child to be The center of attraction:
to be important enough to gain hear
lilS. MoSt OF us never get over this
primitive stage of development. The
small boy who had been stung to des-
peration by the usurpation of the CEN
ter of the stage by rival who had just
lost cousin by death, possessed this
instinct to marked degree. The
happening to pass at that
time gave him the idea. He's going
to our house." the boy stated with
child-like equanimity. Then it was
that he gained the full attention of the
small audience made up of several
urchins.
who is it?" they asked, breathlessly
Il guess a cousin amt much, when
a boys mother is dead" he replied in
truly contemptuous accents, and while
the results of disseminating this start
ling bit of information We're disastrous
in the end. he achieved the ambition of
his heart and was temporarily the star
performer, the merely cousin-bereft
receding into the dim back
ground.
Sometimes we grow up with this
childhood trait tempered with moder-
alton that stops short of killing off our
relatives for the sake of being the chief
IL Ia Ii