The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1903-01-17
WHY SOME WOMEN INDULGE IN GOSSIP


women reaches its high water mark.
The gossips fall together and form
scandal mongers' society as naturally
as geese form flock. The beauties
of life IN the country and its possibil-
tiles for healthful exercise pass by
them. Their occupation is tattling,
their recreation character smirching.
They are usually sour old maids upon
whom no man has been brave enough
to take chance, and nervous, irasci-
bic women whose husbands are "too
rushed at the office to commute" /"
Upon these the excesses of gossip
have begun to tell. The lines Of
malice, envy and deceit mark the face
of the habitual gossip as surely as
Pated cheeks and bloodshot eyes
dicate the habitual drunkard. Yet
how infinitely superior is the latter,
who directly hurts only himself and
Who punctuates each downward step
With decent, graceful periods of re-
nDrSe
The motive which actuates the gos-
slpis nine-tenths jealousy. The wo-
mer who gossip in town are not they
who!e engagement tablets are kept
filed Not only are these women
too busy with their own to meddle
with the affairs of other people, but
popularity and adulation leave no
sting. They tend rather toward ami
ability and contented spirit. There
fore, aside from every consideration
of good Taste, the gossip brands her
self with tue stamp inferiority. She
proves that she feels that inferiority,
and she proves that it goes deeper
than face ano form. To find so much
of badness in others requires much of
badness in ones self. The good seek
and find some good in every one. A
woman who will take liberties with
the character of another should not
be trusted with her own. She is no
respecter of character. She knows
not its worth nor its cost, else she
would reverence it. Lacking that
reverence and respect, she will permit
her own to slip away when the first
good opportunity presents itself.
There are women who gossip from
thoughtlessness. They differ from
the malicious gossip only in the length
of their apprenticeship. They are ma
licious gossips in embryo. Thought
lessness is of itself a crime, the initial
step to every vice. Listening to gos-
sip is quite as bad as repeating it. 1t
constitutes tolerance and encourage
ment of vice. When the gossip ap-
proaches with sweet smile and in
quires, "Did So-and-So tell you of
the shocking way Miss So-and-So be-
haved att is simple enough to
say, mo, she did not; she knows I
never listen to those things"
It is a compliment of worth that
tl.e- -sseasiPs do not -eonfde in yot1--It-
is likewise comfort. The woman
who gossips to you will gossip about
you. We have probably all been in
that unhappy predicament where duty
called US hence, yet we remained till
the last guest of gathering had de-
parted, because it was not safe to
leave reputation in the hands of two
of them.
Women have small comprehension
for the virtue of charity. To most
of them it has something to do with
flannel petticoats and foreign mis-
sions. simultaneously they put to-
gether the petticoats and pull to
pieces the regulations of their dearest
friends.
"Faith, hope, charity" said St.
Paul, "but the greatest of these is
charity" St. Paul was wise in the
wisdow Of human nature and knew
the relative values of human virtues.
Faith it is that keeps US alive, and
hope it is that makes us glad to be
alive, but charity-that it is that
makes the whole world better for our
living. 1t is charity, in its loftiest,
and truest sense that makes woman
womanly. The woman who compre-
hends charity in that sense and ap-
plies it in her daily living strikes the
keynote to that virtue which is most
pleasing to God and man.