Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-09-19
THE YIPER,S HISS


or to give vent to his fostering
spleen. Occasionally such a person
finds an equally deprayed accom-
plice who seizes the communication
with ayidity and starts the gossip
that it contains, protecting himself
behind the folds of the anonymous
letter he has received, believing he
is immune from punishment or GEN.
sure since he is not the author and
only the purveyor of the putrid stuff
the missive contains. Each of these
characters resemble very strongly
the depraved. mule that chewed up
the tag which located him. More
often, happily for the welfare of
society, such letters are sent to or
fall into the hands of honest people
who righteously spurn the debased
method adopted, destroying them
without further thought, or else Civ
ing them to the innocent one sought
10 be injured. We have never been
or pessimistic tendencies sufficient to
believe that even half the world is
bad. On the contrary, in our own
little world we have had enough
experience to show us that only a
very small portion of that world
is bad. The good and honest
man does not fear the Vaccinations
OF the vicious, nor is he for a
moment swerved from his course by
the shafts that villiany directs at him
or at his neighbors. No honest and
pure man stops for moment to
weigh words of anonymous character.
His soul revolts at the despicable
method adopted and, if anything.
opposite direction by such unfair
conduct.
we are moved to make these COM
ments by the fact that occasionally
IN the past have come obscene and
villianous libels to this Office. or 70
some acquaintance, in the form of
anonymous letters. In the recent
past writer of more than unusual
spleen and depraved vocabulary
evidently man who has gotten
some benighted woman to write for
MIMI has been busying himself in
writing to people of this county
seeking to drag down a lady with
ms vicious slum parlance and con.
Meeting in dishonorable way with
hers the name of some gentleman
an some letters the names of four
gentlemen. Without the slightest y
foundation, as the community knows
TINS weakened soul-most plausibly
through Jealousy that has still less
grounds-has spent some months in !,
trying to poison the minds of LEADING 4
and upright citizens with as villain. 0
GUS libel as ever fell from the :
'ongue or pen of an unhung crimi- "
nal or scoundrel. We are TALKING f
PLAIN, but, like Sam Jones, our rule =
rs 10 shoot in the hole they're in. a
The critter may come out limpino RI
and say he wasn't there, but he is -
full of shot; and he most resembles f,
a hyena which finds amusement nv W
digging into graves. Finding that q
this ruse fails, and that the hest .,
people have spurned the attemnts fl
and rallied to the support of the o.
'nes sought to be injured the wilv a. -
monster Every applicable) turns to al
political enemies of certain men with st
the nope that the "do say" of anony- ~ ~
nous talk will be scattered. A little G.
more may thus be accomplished land tn
we cheerfully give the scoundrel this S a.
nformation) in this way.
Men who bear political malice ge
nay circulate such unfounded gossip, ", w
or careless that the circu- W.
ator is as amenable to the law as the in.
'nthor (for malicious libel REQUIRES Oh
'enitentlary and fne). The end be
ought will be achieved no further we
'eoased and malignant characters In
Will profess to believe SANDER: no int
theirs will. The former have no to
restige to maintain, no honor To mu
eiend; others are safe in letting a the the
e run itself to death. Life is too sta
~. r. car
mort Tor decent and busy people to out
o on lea hunt. Its hostility NAV TAX TAX
distinction, but its faycr is a tina
'igma to be avoided. Some one has ana ana
ttingly said that lie in politics is bus
he foundation stone on which to {
mild those wonderful character. Of
ladows that follow men in life, the ma
.naltv tbav ma, g. fan