The Sneak Tattler

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 30, 1872

The Sneak Tattler.

THE most odious and disgusting mortal in human form—when once you penetrate the hypocritical guise that covers the deformity—is the sneak tattler! In this thing, which results in the moral sweeping of the universe, you will find lurking inordinate self-esteem, the meanest kind of jealousy, a mind of vanity, malice enough to stock a regiment of Thugs, a Lilliputian soul, and a heart black as Erebus. In treachery a Turk, in moral coarseness a cannibal, in inhumanity an Algerine, in selfishness a Shylock, and in low cunning an Iago. The sneak tattler adroitly and stealthily commences his dirty work by cautiously dropping here and there a word of innuendo in families he is allowed to visit, and if he finds he is listened to, he then proceeds, step by step, more elaborately and openly, to berate his victim, generally premising by stating his deep regret that things are thus

and so, and frequently is in giving the assailed credit in minor matters of little or no consequence—the more effectually to conceal his purpose—while he stabs him in the most vital part, and always seeks to cover his polluted tracks from betrayal under the time-honored sanction of private confidence.