DEADLY TONGUES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 294, 25 September 1935, Page 3

DEADLY TONGUES

MODERN SCANDALMONGERS.

“DUCKING-STOOL” STILL NEEDED

They had some good ideas in tho bad old days—tho “ducking stool” for scolds and gossips was one, writes the Rev. H. G: Wilks in the Yorkshire “Weekly Post.” Should Dame Martha Broodmouth make misery in the village by her ceaseless babblings and undue interference in other folk’s business, they ducked her good and hard in the local pond.

To-day, the ducking stool has gone, but the gossips remain. Courts, rights of citizenship, array of counsels, judge, jury, verdict, damages; such is the passing pageant of the defence force against the venomed tongue in these our more gentle, and refined times. These civilised weapons are ineffectual compared with the simple, natural retort provided by the ducking stool. Public immersion, in the village pond Was something more than a ducking. It was a public act of censure done in the name of the local community which carried with it all the scorn and disdain of the neighbourhood. This was effective. But even in these gentle and .pacifist times, some villages in Britain have virile and effective methods of dealing with the poisoned-tongue. Banner “Tells the World.” I know a certain village (which shall be nameless) in which dwelt a gossip and scandal-monger of the worst type. No engagement between young folk would be announced but she avidly retailed the respective merits and demerits ofi bride-to-be and the groom of the future. More than that, she caused limitless misery among married folk by her idle and malicious tongue. Her own husband, a quiet little henpecked sort of fellow, seemed! powerless to control her dangerous gossiping. One fine morning tho village was amused to see a worded banner gently fluttering in the breeze between the chimney stacks oyer the home of this pestilent female. The legend ran: “Broadcast Cottage. Why tell the 8.8. C.? Tell Mrs . Bulletin issued every time the door opens, Truth, lies, fact, fiction, nothing refused. Note address.” That banner did a power of good. It drove the gossip out of tho village and tho song, “Annie doesn’t live here any more,” became the rage of tho local tap rooms. Two Species of the Evil. The gossip of a village seems writ more largely simply because the canvas is smaller. Evil tongues can make a hell on earth in tho densest populated area. I submit there are two kinds of gossip.—white and black. White gossip is usually idle comment —not particularly actuated by motives of malice or jealousy. We ought not to mind people saying a few idle -words about us, any more than the olcl church steeple minds the rooks cawing about it. Black gossip betrays malice, uncharitableness, and all the traits ot a venomous nature. Women are honest, men are not. The seasoned womangossip of the malicious type is invariably a disappointed woman suffering from an inferiority complex. The Male Gossip. Have you ever met tho man whose favourite word is “but ?” . I call him the “but” man. He is a most dangerous typo of male gossip, in the company of a few friends the name of an absent acquaintance crops up—maybe over dominoes and coffee or later in the saloon bar. The “but” man generally agrees that “Old Jones is an awfully nice chap, but This simple little prelude of discretion- makes all the ditference. In a very subtle mannei Mi “But-Alan” will convey an impression about the absent acquaintance which is definitely damaging. Ho belongs to that dangerous male gossip-gang which usually prefixes and suffixes personal remarks about absent fellow-creatures by the hypocritical mumbling of “not that I like saying anything wrong about anyone. . .” Quarles wrote a very wise thought when ho said, “Let tho greater part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what- thou helievest.”