The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1911-12-22
THE IDLE WAGGlNG OF
TONGUES.


Few people rcalizze the wickedness
Of idle reflections on the character of
others, or on their financial credit, I'M
iii they themselves become the victims.
Then their indignation is mighty and
furious.
But IL is just as bad for you to
handle lightly and pass on 10 your
neighbor a tale affecting the good name
or financial credit of an individual or
business concern as il is for some
body else TO blacken your reputation
or to spread stories affecting the credit
of the business concern with which
you are associated.
! Just think that over, and then think
III over again, and thereafter, when you
are tempted TO repeat a whispered
story about another, don't do it.
Men and women have been ruined,
and business houses have been wreck
ed by the circulation of baseless
stories affecting their virtue or inte-
gritty.
AS you Wish Your good name and
your business reputation left unspotted
by i'll repute. leave the good names
and the business regulations of your
neighbors untouched by idle tales
passed on by YOU merely to fill a few
moments conversation or to crafty
the vicious instinct to retail scandal.
The wretched thing about this sort
Of business is its cowardice The
victim has no possible chance to de-
fend himself. If the rumors affecting
his integrity come to his ears, he
must suffer in silence If he makes a
public statement of denial or explana-
ton, all he is likely to accomplish is to
give wider circulation to the fact that
people are talking about him, and It is
an unhappy human habit in such cases
TO presume that If there wasn't some
thing wrong he wouldn't have TO ex-
plain. That wickedly untrue saying
! that where there is smoke there must
be fire" is responsible for this me-
lancholy fact.
Where there is real smoke there
must be fire. it is true; but that does
not apply to the noxious fumes of gos-
sip, which originate spontaneously in
some eviMy disposed person, and pass
from him-or her-to others and then
to still others in an endless chain that
often entangfes its victim in a coil
from which there is no escape.
An evil report originates, perhaps,
in the jaundiced mind Of jealousy or
lrevenge. SorIofig as ii remains there
tells ten, the ten each tell ten more.
and presently thousands are mouth
ing II. Worse, what was a mere sus-
picion or covert insinuation in the be-
ginning by that time has developed in
to apparently solid statement of fact.
What was merely limited at in the be-
ginning is now openly charged, and
perhaps ten times as much or thou
sand times as much is boldly" doesn't
TT there, however; for there is nothing
bold about the idle passing on of
gossip. Tongues that wagged furious
ly In the absence of their victim fall
foolishly still when the victim appears.
Gossip is a thing of secrecy, that is,
from its victim, but from no others.
Analyze shrewdly the stories that
come to you touching on the good
name of another. Never pass one on
To somebody else until you are sure
that 1t is true, why pass 1t on? why
not sorrow for the misfortune of your
brother or sister and if you can't tell
him about 1t, keep it to yourself?
Safer, then, not TO repeat at all tales
that reflect on the good name or in
tegrity Of an individual or the credit