The Washington herald., 1921-05-30

the other women in her set talk
about her because she plays around
a bit with other men than her hus-
band, and she wants to know n
don't think that gossiping is one of
the seven deadly sins.
Not at all. Far from it. / think
that there is no other one force in
the world that makes so much for
righteousness, as gossiping. The old
tabby cats who sit rocking on hotef
versndas, and who lie in perpetual
ambush behind their starched win
dow curtains at home, and see ev-
erything that goes on and tell it.
may not look like guardian angels
of the public morals. but they are.
They say" keeps more people
walking the straight and narrow
way than all the Ten Command
ments. For the thing that we dread
most, and fear most, is our neigh
boris opinion. The thought OF form
ing the subject of discussion and
having our little weaknesses vivi-
sected at the sewing circle. or the
tea party, or the club, is something
that turns our very bones to water.
1t is the knowledge that she will
be gossiped about that makes many
fiighty young girl watch her step.
1t is the certainty that Mrs. Jones
across the street, and Mrs. Smith
next door. will foregather and dis
cuss the way she neglects her baby
to go automobiling with a man who
doesn't look like her husband, that
prevents many a silly young wife
from indulging in a stolen bit of
romance now and then.
1t Is the knowledge that the
neighbors keep tab on the hour he
comes home, that makes many a
man punch the domestic time clock
promptly. It's the fear Of what his
business friends will say, that keeps
many a man from taking his pretty
stenographer out to lunch.
1t is easy to drug conscience into
a state of coma. It's no trick at all
to invent excuses to ourselves for
whatever we want to do. and to
justify ourselves to ourselves by
saying that where no harm is in
tended, none is done. But nobody
has ever found any way to head on
gossip.
1t has a thousand eyes that never
close in sleep. and a perpetuaf-mo-
ton tongue that never stops wag-
ging. Nor is it concerned with our
motives. 1t only takes heed of our
acts, and il puts its own construc-
ton on them.
"A girl may be really pure as ice
and chaste as snow, but IL she per-
mits familiarities from men, and has
a loud. bold manner, she will be
talked about in a manner that would
raise the hair on her head IL she
heard what was said about her. A
married woman may be virtuous as
Caesars wife, but she cannot escape
calumny IL she engages in firtations
with young men. A business man
may really be feeding the hungry
when he takes chorus girls out to
supper, and he may actually be see
ing out-of-town customers until 2
o'clock in the morning, but his
friends, who take note of his risings
up and sittings down, smile with
their tongues in their cheeks when
his name leads all the rest at a CAB.
fest.
Everybody knows this, and they
know that there is no more a way
of escaping gossip than there is of
evading death and taxes. They
likewise know that there is no way
that you can fight back at gossip;
or disprove it, or explain yourself
to it. because it Is intangible.
They say" is like a deadly mi
asma that rises up from the very
earth, and slays it's victim with a
slow and in sidious poison. And the
nj 10 Sc.
Once let it touch a person. and he
or she can never be entirely whole
and clean again. r..
OF course. there are plenty Of
cases where gossip works terrible
harm Undoubtedly, wrong interpre-
tations are put on innocent deeds,
and scandalmongers blacken char
acters beyond justification. There
are plenty of women who do things
that seem wicked that are merely
indiscreet. and there are thousands
of men who are more fools than vii
lains. but even with these unfortu-
nate sacrifices to slanderous tongues
gossip still does more good than
harm. because it makes all but
idiots give a thought to their con-
duet and avoid even the appearance
of evil. And to so live as to fur
nish no food for slander is a pretty
safe chart to steer by.
1t Is the custom to castigate the
gossiper. and to hold up as a model
the three monkeys with their hands
before their eyes, and their ears, anu
their mouths, who refused to see
any evil. or hear any evil, or to
speak any evil of their fellow crea-
lures.
But why should we expect the
general public to have more regard
for our regulations than we have
for them ourselves7 Why should we
expect other people to be more care
fu1 of our good names than we are?
Why should we demand that our
friends and neighbors should keep
silent about the weaknesses we
haunt in their faces?
III we do not want to be talked
about. We should not do things we
are ashamed to have. discussed. 1t
Is only when people are doing things
that are wrong. or that lean to- the