The mirror., 1914-04-09
A CRUEL TONGUE
BRINGS SORROW
Scandal Brewed by Unthinking
or Malicious Gcssipers I'm
doubtedly Responsible for
Much Unhappiness.

| WOrQS Ol Angel. VI uuhluuuOSSs Ol
envy, of harsh criticism, of malice,
of bitterness, lying and scandal.
Murder and theft are terrible
crimes, yet in any single year the
total pain, sorrow and suffering
they cause in a nation. is minute
when compared with the grief that
comes from the criminal tongue.
Place in one of the scale pans of
Justice the evils resulting from the
misdeeds of criminals, and in the
other the suffering and tears that
come from of respectability. and
you will start back in astonishment
as you see the scale you though the
heavier shoot high in the air.
Not many of us suffer at the
hands of thief or murderer, even in
directly. But from the cruel tongue
of an enemy, the careless tongue of
friend. who is immune? No one
can live 80 fair, so pure, so true as
to be past the reach of envy. The
crafty attacks against ones charac-
ter, the despicable intimations, SLAM
der, half-lies by which jealous medi-
ocrity seeks to ruin it's superiors,
are not unlike the parasites that
kill the heart and end the life of
mighty oak. So cowardly is the
manner, so stealthy the shooting of
the poisoned arrows. so trifing are
the acts seemingly. that one does
not guard against them.
Like Carrion Flies
By continual practice there is de-
veloped in these scandal
an ingenious, wonderful perversion
of mental vision by which every act
of others is interpreted from the
lowest possible motives. They be-
come like carrion flies that pass ov-
er garden of roses to feast on a
piece of putrid meat. They have
developed keen scent for the foul
matter upou which they iced.
An Anti-Scandal League has re-
Gently been formed in a European
city. The members promise to
combat in every way in their pow
er the prevalent system of talking
scandal, the terrible and unending
consequences of which are ines
Unable"
There are gentle, sensitive natures
scared and warped; there are noble
hearts hrnkan in the silence from
which comes no cry of protest; there
are pillows wet with sobs; there are
cruel Misunderstanding that make
all life look dark; there are old time
friends separated and walking their
lonely ways with hope dead and
memory but pang-these are but
few of the sorrows that come from
the criminal tongue.
Smiles Displaced by Sneers
A man may lead life of honesty.
fighting bravely for all that he holds
dear, so firm and sure of the right
ness of his life that he never thinks
of the diabolic ingenuity that makes
evil where nothing but good really
exists. A few words lightly spoken
by the slanderous tongue. a signifi-
cant expression of the eyes, cruel
shrug of the shoulders, with a purs-
ing of the lips and then friendly
hands grow cold, the accustomed
smile is displaced by a sneer. and
one stands aIoof and alone with a
dazed feeling of wonder at the vague
intangible something that caused it
all.
The vultures Of seDsationalism
and scandal scent the carcass of i'm
mortality from afar. From the ut
termost parts of the earth they col
lect the disgrace and folly of human
ity. and show them bare to the
world.
They do not require acts, for
morbid memories and active ina
ginat1ons make the worst of the
worlds happenings seem tame when
compared with their monstrous in
ventions.
These criminal tongues are of
those low natures that become alb
sorbed in sustaining their dignity
talking of preserving their honor
forgetting that it has been dead so
long that even emblaming could not
preserve it.
To sustain ourselves in our own
hasty judgments we sometimes say
as we listen, and believe without
investigation: Where there is
smoke, there must be fire." But
the fire may be only the fire of ma
lice, the incendiary firing of the
reputation of another by the ever
lighted torch Of envy. thrown into
the innocent facts of life of SUI
perjority.-The Monitor.
LIFE TERM FOR FIFTY CENTS.