Gilpin observer., 1910-04-07
A sLANDERoUs TONGUE.

Kansas papers are now telling the
story of a young school teacher of
the Holton neighborhood who was
made the target of the gossips.
She was teaching country school,
and boarding in one of the neigh
borhood houses, and for some reason
a busybody told a malic-
ious. story about her. AS usual. in
such cases, the yarn was passed
along, and acquired new trimmings
as it went, and soon assumed threat
ening proportions. And also as usual,
the young teacher was the only per-
son in the neighborhood who had
not heard the story. She was, there
fore, greatly surprised when the To-
cal school board demanded her
resignation. She had been doing her
duty theoretically and well, and she
could not understand why she should
be Inundated in this fashion. She de-
manded an explanation, and the mem
bers of the board told her Of the
stories in circulation, which stories
reflected upon her character. She
was not like flower that is waiting
for the rain. She got busy and traced
the story back to its origin, and had
several mouthy young men summon
ed before the school board, and they
were forced to admit that the story
started with them, and that there
was no shadow of foundation for it.
The teacher was completely vindi
Gated, and the board begged her to
take the school again. but she
wouldn't hear Of it, saying that no
money could induce her to remain in
a community of scandal mongers,
where grown men would pay serious
attention to attacks upon a woman's
reputation without investigating their
truth.
A great many hats are being taken
off to that young woman, and the
regret is general that she stopped
where she did; the gossips who did
her such brutal injury should have
received all the punishment that the
courts can inflict.
This is rather unusual case, but
the teacher was wrong in supposIs
that the people of that community
were more given to scandal than the
people Of other communities. Great
evil is being done in every town in
the United States, on every day of
the year by backbiters and peddlers
of stories. No town is so good as to
be immune from this evil. Let some
body start an ugly story in Emporia
at Z o'clock in the morning, and by
Z o'locok in the evening everybody
will know it. On the next day it may
be discovered that the story was
lie, and it's refutation will start upon
its slow, laborious rounds. 1t will
take the refutation about forty years
to catch up with the lie.
There Is nothing meaner or more
despicable in this world than gossip.
The tendency toward it is bred in
our bones. 1t is survival of the old
times when there were no news
papers or modern means Of communi-
cation, and news of all kinds was
conveyed by word of mouth. 1t was
then considered a religious duty to
spread such news as one became pos
sessed of. The performance of this
duty became a habit, and we have
not yet outgrown the habit. 1t Is easy
to believe that people in those old
days found more attentive audiences
for bad news than for good news.
Bad news is usually sensational,
while good news is the reverse.
About million years ago, more or
less, the wild dogs that infested this
earth used to sleep in the tall grass,
to be hidden from their enemies.
They turned around several times be-
fore lying down, to flatten the grass
into bed. And to this day the dog
turns around several times before
It lies down, although 1t doesn't
know why. 1t has not outgrown the
custom of its forefathers. 1t may
take million years, more or less, to
outgrow the news-bearing custom of
our ancestors, but there Is no law
against trying to hasten the day of
Every time yon find
telling story to the injury
If somebody else, take your tongue
'irmly between your teeth and hold
t there, or else think up something
he person you were going to malign,
md say that instead.-William Allen
Unite E,,,oovtc Ho,otto