THE CURE FOR GOSSIP.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8877, 2 January 1890, Page 7

THE CURE FOR GOSSIP.

‘What is the cure for gossip? Simply: culture. There Is a great deal of gossiptbat has no malignity in it. Good-natured people talk about their neighbours because they have nothing else to talk about. As we write, there comes to us the picture of a family of young ladies. We have seen them at home, we have met them'in galleries of art, we have caught glimpses of them going froma book store or library with a fresh volume in their hands. When we meet them they are full of what they have seen and read* They are brimming with questions. One topic of conversation is dropped only to .give place to another, in which they are interested. We have left them after a delightful hour, stimulated and refreshed; and daring the Whole hour not, a neighbour’s garment was, soiled by so much as a touch. They had aome'to talk aboht. They knew something, and wanted to know more. They could listen as well as they could talk. To speak freely of neighbour’s doings and belongings would have seemed an impertinence to them, and, of course, an impropriety. They had no temptation to gossip, because the doings of their neighbours formed a subject very much less interesting than those which grew out of their knowledge and their culture. ‘And this tells the whole story. The confirmed gossip is always either malicious or ignorant. The one variety needs a change of heart and the other a change of pasture. Gossip is always a personal confession, either of malice or imbecility, and the young should not only shun it, but by moat thorough culture relieve themselves from all temptation to indulge in it. It is a_ low, frivolous, and, too often, a dirty business. There are neighbourhoods in which it rages like a pest. Neighbours are made enemies by it for life. In many persona it degenerates into a chronic disease, which is practically incurable. Let the young cure It while they may.’ - Dr J. G, Holland.