The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1915-06-17
FlBS AND FABLES.
A Former 0akla nd Resident Con-
tributes z Column of Truths.

of ''F'ibs and Fables" to the columns of
the Grafton Sentinel of last Friday:
1t has been some time since | have
contributed to your columns, but have
wNeen induced to erupt a BRAN storm by
yeason of many fibs and fables crculat-
ing about the city as thick as Germans
in Belgium. These fibs and fables be-
gin often innocentIy enough, but
through the evolu tionary process of
passing on from person to person, they
often gain in magnitude, like the rolling
ball of snow. until they eventually
evolve into injurious stories that can
be characterized by nothing less than
the short and ugly word.
Asked recently to comment on some
thing that was none of his concern,
Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison,
who. by the way, has it all over the
rest of the cabinet, with the possible
exception of Mr.. Lane, like chauuauqua
tent. replied:
when | was a boy my father once
pointed out gentlemen to me and
said: There goes a man who has made
a success attending to his own bust
ness.
Personally don't know of any one
who has made great success in attend
ing to the other fellows business, and
those who circulate false stories with
cut knowing of their truth or falsity,
are dangerous people. Why wouldn't
it be better, in the spirit of gentle
charity, to just say nothing at all if we
can't say something praiseworthy?
Why pray at church on Sunday and
then go round the rest Of the week with
viperous, scorpion tongue, as sharp as
butchers stilletto at a pig sticking,
spreading perfidious poison? No mat
ter how small the fib, by constant
repetition, it soon develops until it fl
nally looks as big as no-trumper hand
at whist. Did you ever hear a story
teller trying to lessen the Importance
of his narrative? Not on your life.
AZ always duuGU 10. EdCH repeater
puts on just few more trimmings.
These gossip jugglers usually know
the hand writing of every girl in seven
states end are greater menace to
connubial felicity than seven evenings
week spent at the club. They usually
have a polished, receding forehead that
fades away like a 81 bill in a poker
game and nose for gossip that fiutters
like rabbits when they scent some
new delectable morsel to discuss and
with which to disgust. They have a
GLENN, secretive manner and way of
arching the eyebrows whenever they
put over a strictly confidential story.
Then they pass the confidence on to
Jones, Brown, Smith and the rest of the
neighborhood in like manner. They are
vivid, lurid word-painters and can take
the most innocent occurrence and dis
tort the facts in a manner that in the
weaving of their yarn, would Jolt fond
mother into Mysteries. They have an
enlargement of imagination that would
make Edgar Allen Poe, Rider Hag-
gard. Jules Verne or Conan DOYLE
green-eyed with jealousy, and a bump
Of curiosity that would make Pixies
Peak look like mole-hill They usually
have flap-jack like protruding ears that
wiggle with sense of supreme salts
faction whenever they listen to a prI-
vate conversation from which they
gather innocent, harmless facts which
they jostle into yarn resembling the
truth just as much as a scrambled egg
resembles giraffe, and they remind
enc very much of the one-eyed fellow
of the story book. They know all the
favorite diseases of the people of the
community and have small, bead-like
eyes like a-well, lets not defame the
small animal by the comparison. They
are self-appointed keepers of the public
morals and have as much kindness of
spirit as Mexican avenger when he
sees blood on the moon: and as much
morality and conjunction of conscience
as bad bunch of pirates Narrowing a
captive on desert island.
"Who steals my purse steals trash"
wrote the great bard, "but he who
robs me of my good name takes that
which he cannot repay" "A lie kills
the self-respect of the liar, ;" says Con-
fucius, the great Chinese philosopher,
and Israel Zangwill, the Incompatible
Jewish author says: "a lie is a libel
against the character of the liar"
We all know 7. RS opinion of the
Guardianship. and Ebert Hubbard
wrote: "a falsehood huckster is one
who would spread poison to kill inno-
cent puppies. p"
Seems to me these spreaders of false
tales would have as much chance of
entering the pearlv gates as the camel
that leaped through the eve of needle
h straw stack and broke his back on
~ bale of hay
What terrible waste of time is that
time taken In injurious gossip And
what futile task is that of character
i