The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1907-07-12

ping with blood OF some fellow beings
fair name and reputation, this sneak
ing creature tiptoes softly on and on,
ever stabbing when opportunity af.
fords, and never molcsted by the
strong arm of the law, never com.
planned against in the courts, never
blacltllsted by the world to any great
degree.
The world gets red in the face and
grabs It's gun when some ignorant
brute Of negro slips upon n helpless
girl or woman and makes her the vic.
tim OF his diabollcal beastliness. Yet
this same world, inconsistent It sure.
ly seems, will fold its hands and grin
a knowing grin when some even more
culpable because more intelligent
brute steals around in the dark and
commits a more grossly wicked crime
by besmlrching the fair name of help
less womankind-the fair name that
Is woman's most priceless possession.
Down with the thief" Down with
the counterfeiterl" Down with the
man who is cheating us in our money
matters!" shouts the conscientious
world bound to see the public morals
raised to the proper standard and
bound to protect the public from dis
honesty and pickpocket. Yet the
same old world sits with its legs
crossed, ears gaping wide, eagerness
beaming from the eyes and attitude,
to catch the slightest new tale of COS.
sip, accepting the false for the truth
and never once questioning the guar
antee, only to make all haste in re-
peating the yarn, grown a little with
age to be sure, to the next lover Of
mankind, ears equally open and brain
equally prepared for the scandal seed
to be sown.
Men in business hesitate to say that
which they do not know to be true,
realizing that unreliabillty means bust
ness destruction and the blacklist
Yet people who represent the intelli.
gence of community, supposed to
represent all that is high and lofty and
admirable in life, will be often among
the first to set the example for retail
ing the blacklist kinds of falsehood-.
the falsehoods that are based on riot
GUS imagination and which destroy the
good name Of innocent men and limo
cent women without cause.
Far better the scavenger who goes
about his garbage work and does it
honestly and without harming his fell
low man, than the human vulture who
swoops down into the sewers of life
seeking fragments OF spicy SANDER
with which to satisfy filthy appetite.
There is reason for gratitude in the
fact that not all the world is a scan
dalmonger. There Is reason for JOY
in the fact that there are men and
women, clean minded and clean lived,
charitable enough to always give the
benefit Of a doubt and wholesome
enough in soul to find so much pleas
ure in the good things of life, the joys
and the successes of men, the sunshine
and the songs of birds and the rip.
ping of waters, that the black and I'M
wholesome scandal yarns that are for
ever whipping up like whirlwind,
tossing down the street and dissipat-
ing themselves in the distance, are all
crowded out for lack of space.
Properly enough there are laws re-
stricting newspapers to the truth. Just
as properly there ought to be compul-
sion, from public sentiment If nothing
more, for people to speak nothing but
the truth.
Communities have characteristics
just as have individuals. In the small
town, communities get close together
in their lives. To make the life OF
any community ideal there should be
among other things, a righteous re
gard for the truth and a wholesome
contempt for the untruth, particularly
where a fellowbeings name is con
cerned.
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