The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-01-30


ing quite so malignant In its power tc
destroy it, to blast everything II
touches, as rumor. the baseless COS.
sip of idle or malicious people.
Sometimes the least breath of sus.
picion will seriously injure a mans
credit which it has taken a lifetime
to build up. 1t has often made havoc
Of a woman's reputation.
One of the cruelest things that a
human being a do is to peddle Cos
sip, to pass along Islander, or even a
true story which tends to iniure an
other, or to put him in an unfavor-
able light. 1t is fatally easy to say
things which will cause lifelong
wounds, and many people are so
careless with their tongues!
Only a short time ago a woman in
Brooklyn was driven to suicide by
the gossip of her neighbors. They
told her that her husband was pay
ing attention to other women; and
although he assured her that he was
doing nothing of the kind the gossips
succeeded in making her so jealous
that she poisoned herself.
l know people who would never
forgive themselves for striking an
other with their hands, but who do
no hesitate to stab an absent person
in the back with an unkind, unchar-
table, cruel remark, or to spread a
bit of SANDER which may have disas-
trous effects on the victim.
Some years ago this headline ap-
peared in a New York daily: "Geor-
gia Cayvan Dies on a Sanatorium
Cot! Falsehood Ended Her Career"
Miss Cayvan was an actress. She
began her career by reading selec-
tons from Shakespeare to customers
in her mothers candy store" in
Bath, Me. Later she graduated from
the School of Oratory in the Boston
university and attracted the atten-
ton of Daniel Frohman. who brought
her to New York. In a short time she
became a star, and one of the most
popular actresses in New York city.
Her beauty, brilliancy, ~vivacity and
remarkable talent made her such a
favorite that those envious of her
began to reflect upon her character.
A scandal was started which so preyed
upon Miss Cayvan's sensitive mind
that she fell into melancholy and
never returned to the stage. Al
though it was proved that the actress
was in Europe at the time of the
scandal in this country with which
her name was falsely connected, and
Notwithstanding the fact hat her char
acter received a sweeping v~indication,
yet the wagging tongues continued
to peddle the scandalous gossip until
her melancholy developed into pare
sis, and finally put her beyond medi-
cal aid.
There are thousands of people in
the great failure army today who
might have been a success but for the
gossips. The unkind criticisms of
companions or n%eighbors, the scan
dals calculated by the thoughtless or
evilminded unnerved them. They
lost heart when even those they
thought were friends stabbed them
in the back and they gave up the
struggle.
We probably have all of us come
to points in our careers when it
would not have taken very much to
have discouraged us and turned US
the other way. Who can ever esti-
mate the number of failures, the life
wrecks, that have been caused by COS
sipers? How many people have
been driven to suicide by cruel SLAM
der? How many people have become
disheartened and have laid down their
burdens and given up the struggle
because their sensitive natures could
not stand the strain of misrepresenta-
ton?
There is no meaner, mor cowardly
or contemplate thing than to take ad-
vantage of another's absence to dis
cuss his shortcomings, and to peddle
idle gossip and Islander about him.
l believe the time will come when
the person who says unkind, cruel
things about another in his absence
will be ostracized as an enemy of
the race, will be despised as a traitor
to everything that constitutes real
friendship and true manliness or
womanliness. There is no more des-
picable habit than the gossip habit.
The people who indulge in it little
realize that they are exhibiting their
own defects; that they are showing
themselves up in the most ~unfavor-
able light possible. Everybody who
knows them knows that he may be
the mex victim.
~. r..zL Al o.