Gilpin observer., 1913-08-07
A sLANDEaous TONGUE


made the target of the gossips.
She was teaching a country school
and boarding in one of the .neighbor-
hood houses and for some reason un-
known, busybody told malicious
story about her. AS usual in such
cases, the yarn was passed along,
and acquired new trimmings as it
went, and soon assumed threatening
proportions. And, also as usual, the
young teacher was the only person
in the neighborhocd who had not
heard the story. She Was, therefore,
greatly surprised when the local
school board demanded her resigna-
ton. She had been doing her duty
energetically and we'll, 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 I'm circulation, which stories
reflected upon her character. She
was net the sort of woman who
withers like flower that is waiting
ed the story back to its origin. and
had several mouthy young men sum-
mcned 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 complete
ly vindicated, 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 community of scandal mongers,
where grown men would pay serious
attention to attacks upon a woman's S
reputation without investigating the
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 suppos.ng
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 If some
body started an ugly story at a. m,
by Z o'clock in the evening, every
body will know it. On the next day
it may be discovered that the story
was a lie, and it's refutation will then
start upon its 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 a 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
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 generally sensational, while
good news is the reverse.
About a million years ago, more or
less, the wild dogs that infested the
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 a bed. And to this day, the
dog turns around several times be-
fore lit lies down, although it doesn't
know why. 1t has not outgrown the
custom of its forefathers. 1t may
take a million years, more or less,
to outgrow the news-bearing Gus
tenn of our ancestors, but there is
no law against trying to hasten the
day of emancipation. Every time you
lind yourself telling story to the !
INJURY of somebody else take your
tongue firmly between your teeth and
hold IT there, or else think up some !
thing pleasant concerning the person
you were going to malign, and say
that instead. Allen White,
he famous Kansan editor and politi- /,
,al leader, in his paper, The Emporia
The fat woman gets all the prick