The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1915-12-17
An Editorial For Women
(By Dorothy Dix

(By Dorothy Dix
"Killed by idle gossip" was the
verdict brought in by a coroner's
jury in an Illinois village the other
day, after investigating the suicide
of a beautiful young woman who
had shot herself.
1t is a pity that the jury could
not have gone a step farther and
indicted for murder all who had
banded round the false and malici-
Gus stories that had first slain the
young woman's reputation and then
slew her. Certainly every scandal
monger among them was accessory
before the crime of her death.
"Killed by idle gossip" How
often that epitaph might have been
written over a ruined life or a bro
ken heart, and how few of us can
hold up clean hands and swear our
selves free of blood outlines! We
may not have originated the black
story that blighted the career of a
fellow creature, but we listen to it.
We stood by and held the garments
of those who stoned the innocent.
Our attitude toward gossip is pass
ing strange. We all admit that the
good name is the most precious pos
session of a mar or woman, and that
to rob them of this is to make them
poor indeed: Yet we, who would
not take a penny from their purse,
have no hesitation in finching their
reputation from them. We, who
are punctiliously honest and would
scorn to pass on a dime whose value
we even suspected, pass on a scurri-
/ lous story without stopping an in
slant to investigate its truth.
We, who are tender-hearted and
could not bring ourselves to in1ict
the slightest PHYSICAL pain upon a
, human being, have a ghoulish de-
: light in tearing to pieces the char
acter of ever our friends, though
: there is no torture that the victim
! would not rather undergo.
f There is nothing sacred about idle
gossip. Nobody exempt. 1t is
rarely even Intentionally malicious
1t is just on evil, miasmatic wind
that comes from nowhere and blows
everywhere, poisoning all upor
whom it breaths.
A man and his wife live happily
together, trusting each other. Idle
gossip begins whispering over the
the teapots or through the haze o.
cigar smoke some vague suspicion
of husband or wife that grows int
IS a rumor, that spreads into a report
that crystalizes into a heinous charge
and a home is broken up by it.
= A boy does something wrong il
the folly youth. He repents, an,
r. is all the better and stronger TO
it. But go where he will, Idle gos
sip tells over the story with a thou
e sand i'm bellishments, and shuts ever
3. door of opportunity in his face.
lie A girl is silly and indiscreet
Nothing wrong with her, but idl
gossip blackens her name until i
g drives her into becoming the thin
it calls her. Why should we hur
- people with our tongues that W
;, would not injure with u hands
Why should we blacken their char
acters when we would scorn to throw
e mud on their clothes? Should W
who demand authority for every
thing else demand none for injuri
Gus stories concerning our neigh
bors?
Idle gossip does more harm tina,
ed anything else in the world, and i
ne the ladies who are so fond of reform
ing things really do want to start
reform that will do more for tn
happiness of the world than anythin
else, they will inaugurate an ant
k gossiping crusade. And they ca
III begin it in their OWE proper person
n for idle gossip, like charity, begin
lat home.