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THE SEM l-WEEKLY SUMTER REPUBLICAN.
ESTABLISHED IN 1854, I
By CHAS. W. HANCOCK. (
VOL. 18.
The Sumter Republican.
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VVeely, One Year - - - - - 2.00
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TAYLOR’S
SMILING ROOM
IS HEADQUARTERS FOR
SOMETHIN GOOD
EAT AND D&mKl
The Best Cook in the city. Meals
Served at Short Notice !
Come One, Come All,
nov-lcf
.A.
Buena Vista High School
will open its spring term, January Bth 1883.
This announcement is made in the hope that
the patrons will take knowledge of the fact
that is highly important to eacli pupil to be
gin at tlie opening of the exercises.
A bill is now before the Legislature to fur
nish guns, and it is hoped this fact will still
add to the attractive features of the institu
tion. Calesthenics taught by a competant
teacher will afford a proper and graceful
exercise for the girls, while the military drill
will substantially furnish exercise for the
boys.
TERMS.
Preparatory Department 53 00
Intermediate, 2 50
Academic, 3 oo
Music, 3 00
Painting 100
These departments furnish an attiaction.
Drawing 2 50
Incidental fee lOcts. per month, 1 00
Payments required monthly.
decStf J. E. MATHIS, Principal.
THE CELEBRATED
SEXTUPLE
SPRING BED.
To breathe, eat and sleep well is the first
requirement of physical organization.
s. FLEISGHMAN’S
SEXTUPLE BED SPRING.
[Patented Aug. 22, 1882. L
Is the first and foremost to accomplish this
end, as it facilitates the first, accelerates
the second, and perfects the last of these
grand purposes. It is a “tiling of beauty and
a Coy forever.” Last with life,- perfect in
its adaptation forcomlort, being disconnect
ed in the center prevents sagging. Made by
S. M-I,ESTER, who will put them on, and
is from long experience able to guarantee
satisfaction.
AGENTS WANTED
to sell these Springs. Territory and Spring
outfit furnished and large commissions paid.
S. FLEISCHMAN,
Patentee and Manufacturer,
octll-6m Cotton Ave., Americus. Ga.
For Sale.
The Berrien County News
and Office outfit, including two presses; an
eight column Washington Hand Press, and
Gordon jobber, in good condition, is offered
for sale during the next thirty days. The
paper is in its eighth volume, and its circu
lation good. Address, “NEWS,”
dec2tf AJapaba, Ga.
FARMERS READ.
All who are indebted to me for Guano,
are earnestly requested to settle by Decem
ber 20th, after which time, I am ordered to
place all the notes in the hands of an Attor
ney for suit and collection, and the full face
of the note will be required. My orders
are imperative and I must obey.
decStd J. D. SCOTT.
BRICK. BRICK. BRICK.
I haveJTHREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY
THOUSAND good new brick, which I will
sell cheap. Apply at once,
deefilm K. E. COBB,
FOR SALE.
AN EXTENSION TOP, FOUR PASS
ENGER CARRIAGE, for sale at a bargain
Apply to T. S. GREENE,
sept3otf Opposite Prinoe Bro.’s Stables.
DARBYS
PROPHYLACTIC
FLUID.
A Household Article for Universal
Family Use.
For Scarlet and
I Eradicates ISSSUriE
ItALASIA. reSkSSS
nOHBBBnBaaS Pox, Measles, and
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the Sick should use it freely. Scarlet Fever has
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Fevcredand Sick Per- SMALL-POX
sons refreshed and and
Bed Sores prevent- PITTING of Small
ed by bathing with p ox PREVENTED
Darbys Fluid. . , . .
Impure Air made A member of my fam
harralcss and purified. y** Uikcn "nth
For Sore Throat it is-a Small-pox. I used the
sure cure Iula: tac patient was
Contagion destroyed, not delirious, was not
For SWed Fiet, P‘“ d - aad a £ out
Chilblains, Piles, the house apt. in throe
Chaflngs, etc. , we ? k ?- and ,! ath< =
Rheumatism cared. lad ll ’Vf Pakk-
Soft White Complex- INSIIN ' Philadelphia.
ions secured by its use.
Ship Fever prevented. H
To purify the Breath, §3 13
Cleanse the Tectli, Eg M
it can’t be surpassed. H , - §3
Catarrh relieved and Bj JrrOVGUtSCI. jfl
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Erysipelas cured. pBHBfIRBfIBRHB
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Dysentery cured. successfully in the treat-
Wounds healed rapidly. ment of Diphtheria.
Scurvy cured. A. Stollunwerck,
An Antidote for Animal Greensboro, Ala.
or Vegetable Poisons,
Stings, etc. Totter dried up.
I used the Fluid during Cholera prevented,
our present affliction with Ulcers purified and
Scarlet Fever with de- healed,
cided advantage. It is In cases of Death it
indispensable to the sick- should be used about
room.—Wm. F. Sand- the corpse —it will
ford, Eyrie Ala. unpleas-
The eminent. Phy
■ R/NorW TiWfl* I B,cianJ * MARION
H&caneigovern sims, m. and., New
H 9 York says: “I am
■ Cured 9 convinced Prof. Darbys
pg 1 9 Prophylactic Fluid is a
9e9£9HSE!S£B&E!b3 valuable disinfectant. ’ ’
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tonn.
I testify to the most excellent qualities of Prof.
Darbys Prophylactic Fluid. Asa disinfectant and
detergent it is both theoretically and practically
superior to any preparation with which I am ac
quainted.— N. T. Lukton, Prof. Chemistry.
Darbys Fluid is Recommended by
Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia-
Rev. Chas.F. Deems, D.D., Church of the
Strangers, N. Y.;
ios. LeContk,Columbia, Prof.,University,S.C.
lev. A. J. Rattle, Prof., Mercer University;
Kcv. Geo. t. Pierce, Bishop M. E. Church.
INDISPENSABLE TO EVERY HOME.
Perfectly harmless. Used internally or
externally for Man or Beast.
The Fluid has been thoroughly tested, and we
have abundant evidence that it has done everything
here claimed. For fuller information get of yout
Druggist a pamphlet or send to the proprietors,
J. H. ZEILIN & CO.,
Manufacturing Chemists, PHILADELPHIA.
TIITT’B
EXPECTOMT
Is composed Of Herbal and Mucilaginous prod
ucts, which permeate tlie substance of the
Lungs, expectorates the acrid matter
that collects in the Bronchial Tubes, and forms a
soothing coating, which relieves the ir
ritation that causes the cough. It cleanses
the lungs of all impurities, strengthens
them when enfee bled by disease, invigor
ates the circulation of the blood, and braces the
nervous system. Slight colds often end In
consumption. It is dangerous to neglect
-hem. Apply the remedy promptly. A
test of twenty years warrants the assertior that
noremedy lias ever been found that is ns
prompt in its effects as TiiTT’S EXPECTORANT.
A single dose raises the phlegm, subdues
inflammation, and its u°c speedily cures the most
obstinate cough. A pleasant cordial, chil
dren take it readily. I*'or Croup it is
invaluable and should bo in every family.
TUTT’S ‘
~fTlls
ACT D§RSOTKY^^¥HE ,J tjV^R^
Cures Chilli and Fever, Dyspepsia,
filch Headache, Bilious Colic,Constipa
tion, Rheumatism,Files, Palpitation o*
the Heart, Dizziness, Torpid Liver, and
Female Irregularities. If you do not “feel
very well,” a single pill stimulates the stomach,
restores the appetite, imparts vigor to the system.
A NOTED mm SAYS!
Dn. Tutt:— Dear Sirt For ten years I havo
been a martyr to Dyspepsia, Constipation and
I’ilcs. Last spring your pills were recommended
tome; I used them (but with little faith), lam
now a well man, havo good appetite, digestion
perfect, regular stools, pile3 gone, and I havo
gained forty pounds solid flesh. They are worth
their weight in gold.
REV. It. L. SIMPSON, Louisville, Ky .
jPfU. ce, !?r> Murray St., New York.
( Dlt. TIITT’S MANUAL of laeful\
FULL 021 application. /
HOSBITEI&
STOMACH A
Fitters
Ramember that stamina, vital energy, the
life principal or whatever you may choose
to call tho resistant power which battles
against the causes of disease and death, is
the grand safeguard of health. It is the
garrison of tlie human fortress, and when it
waxes weak, the true policy is to throw in
reinforcements. In other words, whensucli
an emergency occurs, commence a course of
Hostetter’s Ritters. For sale by Druggists
and Dealers, to whom apply for Ilosttetter’s
Almanacs for 1883.
Or. 0. r. HOLLOWAY,
DfiamsT,
americus. ... Georgia
Treats successfully all diseases of tho Den
tal organs. Fills teeth by the improved
method, and inserts artificial teeth on the
best material known to the profession.
igy OFFICE over Davenport and Son’s
Drug Store. marl it
TO RENT.
•TWO FINE PLANTATIONS, ALSO
MULES, CORN, FODDER, COTTON
SEED and TOOLS on the farms.
Apply at once io Mrs. E. BARLOW,
oct2Btf or JNO. WINDSOR.
INDEPENDENT IN POLITICS, AND DEVOTED TO NEWS, LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND GENERAL PROGRESS.
AMERICUS, GEORGIA; SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1882.
VOY.’YB.’Y.
MY CHII,D.
BY JOHN PIERFONT.
I cannot make him deadl
His fair sunshiny head
Is ever bounding round my study chair;
Yet when my eyes, now dim,
With tears, I turn to him
The vision vanishes—he is not there!
I walk my parlor floor,
And, through the open door,
I hear a footfall on the chamber stair;
In stepping toward the hall
To give the boy a call,
And then bethink me that—he is not there!
I thread the crowded street;
A satcheled lad I meet,
With tlie same beaming eyes and colored
hair;
And, as he’s running by,
Follow him with my eye,
Scarcely believing tUat—lie is not there!
I know his face is hid
Under the coffin lid;
Closed are his eyes; cold is his forehead fair;
My hand that marble felt;
O'er in prayer I knelt;
Yet my heart whispers that—he is not there!
I cannot make him deadl
When passing by the bed,
So long watched over with parental care;
My spirit and my eyo
Seek him imploringly,
Before the thought comes that—he is not
there!
When at the day’s calm close
Before wc seek repose,
I’m with his mother offering up our prayer;
Whatever I may he saying
I am in spirit praying,
For our hoy’s spirit, though—ho is not there!
Not there! Where then is he?
The form I used to see
Was hut the raiment that he used to wear,
Tlie grave that now doth press
Upon the cast-off dress
Is hut his wardrobe locked—he is not there!
He lives!—ln all the past
lie lives; nor to the last
Of seeing him again will I despair:
In dreams I see him now,
And on his angel brow
I see it written, “Thou shalt see me there!”
Yes, we all live to God!
Father, thy chastening rod
So help us Tiliue afflicted ones to hear,
That, in the spirit land,
Meeting at Thy right hand,
‘Twill be our heaven to find that—ho is there!
ft.
Read This Boys.
A gentleman advertised for a boy to
assist him in his office, and nearly fifty
applicants,presented themselves to him.
Out of the whole number he in a short
time selected one and dismissed the rest.
“I should like to know,” said a
friend, “on what grounds you selected
that boy, who had not a single recom
mendation?”
“You are mistaken,” said the gen
tleman; “he had a great many. He
wiped his feet when he came in, and
closed the door after him, showing that
he was careful. He gave up his seat
instantly to that lame old man, show
ing that he .vas kind and thoughtful.
He took off his cap when he came in,
and answered my questions promptly,
showing that he was polite and gentle
manly. He picked up the book which
1 had purposely laid upon the floor,
and placed it upon tho table, while all
the rest stepped over it or shoved it
aside; and he waited quietly for his
turn, instead of pushing and crowding,
showing that lie was honorable and
orderly. When I talked with him I
noticed that his clothes were carefully
brushed, his hair in nice order, and
when he wrote his name I noticed that
his finger-nails were clean, instead of
being tipped with jet, like that hand
some little fellow in the blue jacket.
Don’t you call those things letters of
recommendation? I do; and I would
give more for what 1 can tell about a
boy using my eyes ten minutes than all
the letters he can bring me.”
Regard for Wives* Feelings.
If your wife is sensitive, do not ig
nore the fact. Refrain from jesting
with her on a subject which there is
danger of wounding her feelings. Re
member that she treasures every word
you utter. Do not speak of some vir
tues in another man’s wife to remind
your own of a fault. Do not reproach
your wife with personal defects, for, if
she has sensibility, you inflict a wound
difficult to heal. Do not treat your
wife with inattention in company; it
touches her pride, and she will not res
pect you more, or love you better for it.
Do not upbraid your wife in the pres
ence of a third person; the sense of your
disregard for her feelings will prevent
her acknowledging her fault. Do not
entertain your wife by praising the
beauty ami accomplishments of other
women. If yon would have a pleasant
home and a cheerful wife, pass your
evenings under your own root'. Do not
be stern and silent in your own house
and remarkable for sociability else
where. Take your sunshine home with
you.
He Acknowledged tlie Soft Im
• peaclunent.
Rochester Post-Express.
“You musn’t touch the top of the
baby’s head,” said a mother to her lit
tle four-year old, “she has a soft spot
there that is very tender.”
The youngster gazed at it curiously
for a moment, and then said:
“Do all babies have soft spots on
their heads?”
“Yes.”
“Did papa have a soft spot on the
top of his head when he was a baby?”
“Yes,” replied the mother, with a
sigh, “and he has got it yet.’
And tlie.old man who had overheard
the conversation from an adjoining
room, sang out:
“Yes, indeed he has, my dear boy, or
he would be a single man to-day.”
TABERNACLE SERMONS.
BY REV. T. DeWITT TALJIAGE
WHISPERERS
Whisperers.— Romans i., 29.
Paul was here calling the long roll
of this world’s villainy, and he puts in
the midst of this roll those persons
known in all cities and in all commu
nities and in all places as whisperers.
They are so called because they general
ly speak under voice and in a confiden
tial way, their hand to the side of their
month acting as a funnel to keep the
precious information from wandering
into the wrong ear. They speak soft
ly, not because they have lack of lung
force, or because they are overpowered
with the spirit of gentleness, but be
cause they want to escape the conse
quences of defamation, for no one hears
but the person whispered unto, and it
the offender be arraigned he can deny
the whole thing, for whisperers are al
ways first-class liars! Some people
whisper because they are hoarse from a
cold, or because they wish to convey
some useful information without dis
turbing others; but the creature pho
tographed by tho Apostle in my test
give muffled utterance from sinister
and deprave motive, and sometimes
you can only hear the sibilant sound
as the letter “8” drops from the tongue
into the listening ear—the brief hiss
of the serpent as it projects its venom.
Whisperers a e masculine and feminine,
with a tendency to majority on the side
of those who are called “the lords of
creation.” Whisperers are heard at
every window of bank cashiers and are
heard in all counting-rooms, as well as
in sewing societies, and at meetings of
asylum directors and managers. They
are the worst foes of society; responsi
ble for miseries innumerable; they are
the scavengers of the world, driving
their cart through every community,
and to-day I hold up for your holy
anathema and execration these whis
perers. From the frequency with which
Paul speaks of them under different
titles, I conclude that he must have
suffered somewhat from them. His
personal presence was defective, and
that made him, perhaps, the target of
their ridicule. And besile that, he
was a bachelor, persisting in his celi
bacy down into the sixties—indeed, ail
the way through—and some having
failed in their connubial designs upon
him, the little missionary was put un
der the raking lire of these whisperers.
He was, no doubt, a rare morsel for
their scandalization, and he cannot keep
his patience any longer, and he lays
hold of these miscreants of the tongue
and gives them a very hard setting
down in my text among scoundrelly
and the murderous. “Envy, murder,
debate, deceit, malignity, whispers.”
The law of libel makes quick and stout
grip of open slander. If I should in a
plain way, calling yon by name, charge
you with fraud, or theft, or murder, or
uncleanness, to-morrow morning I
might have peremptory documents
served on me, and I would have to pay
in dollars and cents for the damage I
had done your character. But these
creatures spoken of in my text are so
small that they escape tlie fine tooth
comb of the law. They go on, and
they go on, escaping the judges and
the juries and penitentiaries. The dis
trict-attorney cannot find them, the
sheriff cannot find them. Shut them
off from one route of perfidity and start
on another. Ykiu cannot by the force
of moral sentiment persuade them to
desist. You might as well read the
Ten Commandments to a flock of crows,
expecting them to retreat under the
force of moral sentiment. They are to
be found everywhere, these whisperers.
I think their paradise is a country vill
age of about one or two thousand peo
ple, whete everybody knows everybody.
But they also are to he found in large
quantities in all our cities. They have
a prying disposition. They look into
the basement windows at the tables of
their neighbors, and can tell just what
they have morning and night to eat.
They can see as far through a keyhole
as other people can see with a door
wide open. They can hear couversa
tion on the opposite side of the room.
Indeed, the world to them is a whisper
ing gallery. They always put the
worst construction on everything.
Some morning a wife descends into the
street, her eyes damp with tears, and
that is a stimulus to the tattler and is
enough to set up a business for three
or four weeks. “1 guess that husband
and wife don’t live happily together.
I wonder if he hasn’t been abusing her?
It’s outrageous. He ought to be dis
ciplined. He ought to he brought up
before the church. I’ll go right over
to my neighbors and I’ll let them know
about this matter.” She rushes in all
out of breath to a neighbor’s house and
says: “O! Mrs. Allear, have you heard
the dreadful news? Why, our neigh
bor, poor thing, came down off the
steps in a flood of tears. That brute
of a husband has been abusing her.
Well, it’s just as I expected, I saw him
the other afternoon very smiling and
very gracious to someone, who smiled
hack, and I thought then I would jußt
go up to him and tell him he had bet
ter go home and look after his wife and
family, who probably at that very time
were up stairs crying their eyes out.
O! Mrs. Allear, do havo your husband
go over and put an end to this trouble.
It’s simply outrageous that our neigh
borhood should be disturbed in this
way. It’s awful.” The fact is that
one man or woman set on fire of this
hellish spirit will keep a whole neigh
borhood aboil. It does not require any
very great brain. The chief requisi
tion is that the woman have a Btnall
family or no family at all, because, if
she have a large family, then she would
have to stay at home and look after
them. It is very important that she be
single or have no children at all, and
then she can attend to all the secrets of
the neighborhood all the time. A wo
man with a large family makes a very
poor whisperer. It is astonishing how
these whisperers gather up everything.
They know everything that happens.
There are telephone and teleghrapli
wires reaching from their ears to all the
houses in the neighborhood. They
have no taste for healthy news, but for
the scrap 'S and peilings thrown out of
the scullery into the back yard they
have great avidity. On the day when
there is anew scandal in the newspa
pers, they have no time to go abroad. On
the day when there are four or five
columns of delightful private letters
published in a divorce case, she stays
at home and reads, and reads and reads.
No time for her Bible that day, but
toward night perhaps she may find
time to run out a little while and see
whether there are any new develop
ments. Satan does have to keep a very
sharp look out for his evil dominion in
that neighborhood. He has let out to
her the whole contract! She gets hus
bands and wives into a quarrel, and
brothers and sisters into antagonism,
and she disgusts the pastor with
the flock and the flock with the pastor,
and she makes neighbors, who before
were kindly disposed toward each other,
over suspicious and critical, so when
one of the neighbors passes by in a car
riage they hiss through their teeth and
say: “Ah! we could all keep carriages
if we never paid our debts.” When
two or throe whisperers get together
they stir a caldron of trouble which
makes me think of the three witches of
Macbeth dancing around a boiling cal
dron in a dark cave:
Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind worm’s sting,
Lizard’s log and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a bell both boil and bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf
Of the raven’d salt sea shark;
Make the gruel thick and slab;
Add thereto a tiger’s cliandron
For the ingredients of our caldron.
Double, double toil and trouble,
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Gool it with a baboon’s blood;
Then the charm is firm and good.
I would only change Shakespeare in
this, that where he puts the word witch
I would put the word whisperer. All!
what a caidron. Did you ever get a
taste of it? I have more respect for the
poor waif of the street that goes down
under the gaslight, with no home and
no God—for she deceives no one as to
what she is—than I have for those hags
of respectable society who cover up
their tiger claws with aline shawl, and
bolt the hell of their hearts with a dia
mond breastpin! The work of mascu
line whisperers is chiefly seen in the
embarrassment of business. Now, I
suppose there are hundreds of men here
who at some time have been in busi
ness trouble. I will undertake to say
that in nine cases out of ten it was tho
result of some whisperer’s work. The
whisperer uttered some suspicion in re
gard to your credit. You sold your
horse and carriage because you had no
use for them, and the whisperer said:
“Sold his horse and carriage because
he had to sell them. The fact chat he
sold his horse and carriage shows he
is going down in business.” One of
your friends gets embarrassed and you
are a little involved with him. The
whisperer says: “I wonder if he can
stand under all this pressnre? I think
he is going down. I think he will have
to give up.” You borrow money out
of tho bank and a director whispers
outside about it, and after a while the
suspicion gets fairly started, and it
leaps from one whisperer’s lip to another
whisperer’s lip until all the people you
owe want their money and want it right
away, and all the business circles come
around you like a pack of wolves, and
though you had assets four times more
than were necessary to meet your lia
bilities, crash! went everything. Whis
perers! whisperers, O! how much bus
iness men have suffered. Sometimes
in cirolee of clergymen we discuss why
it is that a great many merchants do
not go to church. By the time Satur
day night comes they are worn out with
the annoyances of business life. They
have had enough meanness practiced
upon them to set their whole nervous
system atwitch. People sometimes do
not understand why in this church we
generally have men in the majority in
alrabst all our audiences. It is because
I preach so much to business men;
and I resolved years ago that I would
never let a Sunday pass but in prayer
or sermon I would ntter my sympathies
for the struggle of business men, know
ing that struggle in many cases to be
the work of whisperers. I have seen
men in Brooklyn and New York whis
pered into bankruptcy. You have seen
tlie same thing. O! if people would
only mind their own business we would
have the millineum next week. Alas!
for these gadaboutß, these scandal-mon
gers, these everlasting snoops. I hate
them with an ever increasing vehem
ence of hatred, and I ask God to give
me more intensity with which to hat®
them. I think among the worst of the
whisperers are those who gather up all
the harsh things that have been said
about you and bring them to you—all
the things said against you or against
your family, or against your style of
business. They gather them all up
and they bring them to you; they bring
them to you in the very worst shape;
they bring them to you without any of
the extenuating circumstances, and af
ter they have made your feelings all
raw, very raw, they take this brine,
this turpentine, this aquafortis, and
rub it in with a coarse towel, and rub
it in until it sinks to the bone. They
make you the pin-cushion in which
they thrust all the sharp things they
havo ever heard about you. “Now,
don’t bring me into a scrape. Now,
now, don’t tell anybody I told you.
Let it be between you and me. Don’t
involve me in it at all.” They aggravate
you to the point of profanity, and then
they wonder you cannot sing psalm
tunes! They turn you on a spit before
a hot fire, and wonder why you are not
absorbed in gratitude to them because
they turn you on a spit. Pedlars and
nightshade. Pedlars of Canada thistle.
Pedlars of nux vomica. Sometimes
they get you in a corner, where you can
not very well escape without being rude
and then they tell you all about this
one, and all about that one, and all
about the other one, and they talk,
talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. After
a while they go away, leaving the place
looking like a barnyard after the foxes
and tho weasels have been around—
here a wing, and there a claw, and yon
der an eye, and there a crop. Oh! how
they do make the feathers fly. Rather
than the defamation of good names, it
seems to me it would he more honor
able and useful if you just took a box
of matches in your pocket, and a razor
in your hand, and go through the streets
and see how many houses you can burn
down and how many throats you can
cut. That is a better business. The
destruction of a man’s name is worse
than the destruction of his life. A
woman came in confessional to a priest
and told him that she had been slander
ing her neighbors. The priest gave
her a thistle top, and said: “You can
take that thistle and scatter the seeds
all over the field.” She went and did
so, and came back. “Now,” said the
priest, “gather up all these seeds.” She
said “I can’t.” "Ah!” lie said, “I
know you can’t; neither can you gather
up the evil words you spoke about your
neighbors.” All good men and all
good women have sometimes had de
tractors after them. John Wesley’s
wife whispered about him, whispered
all over England; kept, a-whispering
about that good man—as good a man
as ever lived—and kept on whispering
until the connubial relation was dis
solved. Jesus Christ had these whis
perers after Him, and they charged Him
with drinking too much and keeping
bad company—a wine-bibber and the
friends of publicans and sinners. Y’ou
take the best man that ever lived, and
put a detective on his track for ten
years, watching where he goes and
when he comes, and with a determina
tion to misconstrue everything and to
think he goes hero fo: a bad purpose,
and there for a bad purpose, with that
determination of destroying him, at the
end of the ten years he will be held
despicable in the sight of a great many
people. If it is an outrageous thing to
despoil a man’s character, how much
worse is it to damage a woman’s repu
tation. Yet that evil goes lrom century
to century, and it is all done by whis
perers. A suspicion is started. The
next whisperer who gets hold of it
states the suspicion as a proven fact,
and many a good woman, as honorable
as your wife or your mother, has been
whispered out of all kindly associations,
and whispered into the grave. Some
people say there is no hell for such a
despoiler of womanly character, it is
high time that some philanthropist
build one! But there is such a place
established, and what a time they will
have when all the whisperers get down
there together rehearsing things!
Everlasting carnival of mud. Were it
not for the uncomfortable surroundings,
you might suppose they would he glad
to get there. In that region where they
are all bad, what opportunities for ex
ploration by these whisperers. On
earth, to despoil their neighbors, some
times they liad to lie about them, hut
down there they can say the worst
things possible about their neighbors,
and tell the truth. Jubilee of whis
pers, grand gala day of backbiters,
semi-heaven of scandal-mongers stop
ping their gabble about their diabolical
neighbors only long enough to go up to
the iron gate and ask some new-comer
from the earth, “What is the last gos
sip in Brooklyn?”
Now, how are we to war against this
iniquity which curses every communi
ty on earth? First, by refusing to lis
ten to or believe a whisperer. Every
court of the land has for a law, and all
decent communities have for a law,
that you must hold people innocent un
til they are found guilty. There is on
ly one person worse than the whisperer,
and that is the man or the woman who
listens without protest. The trouble
is, you hold the sack while they fill it.
The receiver of stolen goods is just as
the thief. An ancient writer declares
that a slanderer and a man who re
ceives the slander ought both to be
hung—the one by the tongue and the
other by the ear, and I agree with him.
When you hear something bad about
your neighbors, do not go all over and
ask about it, whether it is true, and
scatter it and spread it. You might
as well go to a smallpox hospital and
take a patient and carry him all
| FOUR DOLLARS PER ANNUM.
through the community, asking people
if they really thought it is a case ef
smallpox. That would be very bad for
the patient and for all the’ neighbors.
Do not retail slanders and whisperings.
Do not make yourself the inspector of
warts and the supervisor of carbuncles,
and the commissioner for street gutters,
and the holder of stakes for a dog-fight.
Can it be that yon, an immortal man,
that you, an immortal woman, can find
uo better business than to become a
gutter iaspector? Besides that, at your
family table allow no attraction. Teach
your children to speak well of others.
Show them the difference between a bee
and a wasp—the one gathering honey
and the other thrusting a sting. 1 read
of a family where they kept what they
called a slander book, and when slan
derous words were uttered in the house
about anybody, or detraction uttered, it
was all put down in this hook. The
book was kept caretully. For the first
few weeks there were a great many en
tries, but after awhile there were no en
tries at all. Detraction stopped in that
household. It would be a good thing
to have a slander-book in all house
holds. Are any of you given to this
habit of whispering about others?
Whisperer, let me persuade you to
desist. Mount Tanrus was a great
place for eagles, and cranes would fly
along that way, and they would cackle
so loud that the eagles would know of
their coming and they would pounce
upon them and destroy them. It is
said that the old cranes found this out,
and before they started on their flight
they would always have a stone in their
mouth so they could not cackle, and
then thej would fly in perfect Bafety.
Oh! my friends, be as wise as the old
cranes and avoid the folly of the young
cranes. Do not cackle. If there are
people hero who are whispered about, if
there are people here who are slandered,
if there are people here who are abused
in any circle of life, let me say for your
encouragement that these whisperers
soon run out, They may do a little
damage for a while, but after a while
their detraction becomes a eulogy, and
people understand them just as well as
though some one chalked all over their
overcoat or their shawl these words:
“Here goes a whisperer. Room for the
leper. Room!” You go ahead and do
your duty and God will take care of
your reputation. How dare you dis
trust Him? You have committed to Him
your souls. Can you not trust Him
frith your reputation? Get down on
your knees before God and settle the
whole matter there. That man whom
God takes care of is well sheltered.
Let me charge yon, my friends, to make
right and holy use of the tongue. It is
loose at one end and can swing either
way, but it is fastened at the other end
to the floor of your mouth, and that
makes yon responsible for the way it
wags. Xanthus the philosopher told
his servant that on the morrow he was
going to have some friends to dine, and
told him to get tlie best thing he could
find in the market. The philosopher
and his guests sat down the next day at
the table. They had nothing but tongue
—four or five courses of tongue—tongue
cooked in this way and tongue cooked
in that way, and tlie philosopher lost
his patience and said to his servant:
“Didn’t I tell you to get the best thing
in the market?” He said: “I did get
the best thing in the market. Isn’t the
tongue the organ of sociality, the organ
of eloquence, the organ of kindness, the
organ of worship?” Then Xanthus
said: “To-morrow I want you to get
the worst thing in the market.” And
on the morrow the philosopher sat at
the table, and there was nothing there
but tongue—four or five courses of
tongue—tongue in this shape and
tongue in that shape, and the philoso
pher again lost his patience and said:
“Didn’t I tell you to get the wore*
thing in the market?” The servant
replied: “I did: for isn’t the tongue
the organ of blasphemy, the organ of
defamation, the organ of lying?” O!
my friends, employ the tongue which
God so wonderfully created as the or
gan of taste, the organ of deglutition,
the organ of articnlation, to make
others happy, and in the service of God.
If you whisper, whisper—encourage*
meat to the fallen and hope to the lost.
Ah, my friends, the time will soon come
when we will all whisper. The voice
will be enfeebled in the last sickness,
and though that voice could laugh and
shout and sing and halloo until the
forest echoes answered, it will he so
feeble then we can only whisper conso
lation to those whom we leave behind,
and only whisper our hope of heaven.
While I speak, this very moment, there
are hundreds whispering their last ut
terances. O, when that solemn hour
comes to you and to me, as come it will,
may it be found that we did our best to
serve Christ, and to cheer our comrades
in the earthly struggle, and that we
consecrated not only our hand but onr
tongue to God. So that the shadows
that fall around onr dying pillow shall
not be the evening twilight of a gather
ing night, but the morning twilight of
an everlasting day. This morning, at
half-past five o’clock, I looked out of my
window, and the stars were very dim.
I looked out a few moments after, and
the stars were almost invisible. I looked
ont an hour or two afterward, not a star
was to be seen. What was the matter
with the stars? Had they melted into
darkness? No. They had melted into
the glorious light of a Sabbath morn.
Let us pray.
Young men or middle aged ones,
suffering from nervous debility and
kindred weaknesses should send
three stamps for Part VII or World’s
Dispensary Dime Series of books.
Address World’s Dispensary Medical
Association, Buffalo, N. Y.
NO. 26.