The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-22
WAGGING TONGUES.

Curiosity and Malice that Women Dis
 play in Small Towns is,Astonishing.
 have a rooted distaste for small twons-the great amount of gossip and malice for which the feminine ele~ ment is responsible. It does not seem as if life anywhere can be so marrow that a woman cannot find enough to occupy her time and thoughts and must needs noke her nose into the affairs of others. but there can be no other req son for the lively curiosity and the real malice women in small towns dis play.
 There is no kindness in repeating ill-natured remarks to the victims. What we do not know cannot hurt us. you understand, but we have to be pretty hard-natured to toss off, with out a prick of pain, the ill-natured re- marks to us by some well meaning, perhaps, but tactless, friend. 1 do not want to know that anybody bears me malice, and I am not grateful to the blunderer who conveys: me such know ledge, says a writer in the Philadcl- phia Bulletin.
 There are times when almost ap- prove the indifference of ones nearest neighbcre in large efties, the families that ignore one's very existence. At least. they give the impression of so doing. and that is something for which to be grateful. They are not Comfor- table neighbors to have in times of need, but after a few experiences with the other kind l am not sure that it counts much against the discomfort of | backriting and gossip. If the truth l were adhered to the affiiction would
 be less, but where did you ever see a scandal-monger with the least bit of veneration for real facts?
 We do not have sufficient time to l attend to our own affairs. We neglect our homes cur families. our church
 and social obligations, and are not
 properly kind to ourselves, But the
 oversights of our neighbors do not es-
 cape our keen eyes. A great many 1 women enjcy a bit p of gossip better
 than the latest book or the newspa- pers, and few can keep any such news 1 to themselves. I once traced a piece of scandal to it's souree and found tha
 to be a most harmless incident related by an old woman who happened to b an eyewitness. The story passed into
 the possession of 15. persons. and no
 only gained trifie from each, bu was so twisted at the time it was nail ed that the old lady denied having any thing to do with it.
 l [ fin
 plenty upon which to feed the imagi l naticn,\ She may not always be a
 fortunate as one woman I know, wh
 sharply censured the# conduct of an
 other whom she saw at place c
 amusement with a man whom she di
 not recogize as the husband. Befor
 the story had time to spread she dis
 covered the man to be a brother froi
 the West and was fair enough to sa so to those who knew of the inciden
 That and another episode In whic she figured as a principal entirel cured her of gossiping. She had married brother whose wife was UT reasonably jealous. During one
 her absences the woman took ht brother to the theatre on tickets whic reached her during one of his visit
 There was somebody to report to ti wife the fact that her husband Ina been enjoying himself in feminine st . ciety in public places during her al sence and the pair nearly landed the divorce court.
 There ought to be a law to stop slai
 der. am not so sure that it would IL = now respond to proper appeal. surely would reap a harvest of culpri - if 1t set out to stop the wagging tol gues in places where women congr t gate. A very small part of the waggir - is innocent and harmeess, for reput