Killed by Idle Gossip by Bernard P. Foote

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 5, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, December 5, 1916

Killed by Idle Gossip

By Bernard P. Foote

Such was the verdict rendered by a coroner’s jury in an English town not long ago. A young girl committed suicide. At the inquest, it was learned that the girl had not been guilty of any serious misdeed, but that “the gossip disseminated by the women of the village blackened her name until she could bear the suspicious looks and spoken taunts no longer.”

This premature death of an innocent girl, together with the verdict brought in by the coroner’s jury, set the people to thinking to such an extent that what is known as “an anti-gossip crusade” was started. The following from Pearson’s Weekly, of London, describes it:

“A society has been formed and rules drawn up. The entrance fee has been fixed at a nominal sum, because the society desired to embrace all classes, both rich and poor. Our richer women are just as adept at robbing others of their character as are the women of the working classes who chat with each other from their respective door-steps.

“The organizers are quite hopeful of minimizing the number of gossips, because they are convinced that the worst offenders talk scandal more from a matter of habit than through any really malicious desire to injure another.

“Members must take a vow to avoid either starting or spreading any unkind remarks about any one else, nor will they listen to a person who tries to tell them. To repeat what they have heard, even if known to be true, is equally as bad as to set the ball rolling. For the first ten breaches of this law, a fine is imposed, graduating from a shilling up to the maximum fine of ten shillings. After ten slips, the women are to be blackballed as incurables. . . .

“If we pick up mud and throw it at a fashionably dressed lady and spoil her clothes, she can get redress through the law. No well brought up woman, however, ever dreams of throwing mud at her friends.

“If, on the other hand, we imagine that she is too flighty in her behavior, and, in order to strengthen our belief, we repeat all her trivial little indiscreet actions, we are flinging mud at her character, and she can get no redress unless it should happen to interfere with the earning of her livelihood, or can be proved a malicious act.”

Passing the Three Golden Gates

“Idle gossip does more harm than anything else in the world; and if the organizers of the anti-gossip crusade have only the perseverance and courage to make it universal, they will do inestimable good for the general happiness of the community.

“Charity, like all else, should begin at home; and those who cannot join the crusade should begin in their own family circle, and resolve not even to think ill of their friends, acquaintances, or those of whom they have little knowledge. When ugly tales are told them, these should be immediately forgotten.

“Before making a statement about any one, do not forget to let it pass the three golden gates: ‘Is it true?’ ‘Is it needful?’ and ‘Is it kind?’”

“These form the motto of the anti-gossip crusade.”

These suggestions are certainly worthy of the careful consideration of every one of us, for there is hardly a person in the world but is tempted along these lines. A well-known writer has said, “Human beings confess readily enough that they like a harmless bit of gossip, and fail utterly to realize that that ‘harmless bit of gossip’ grows in the telling, and assumes the proportions of a harmful bit of scandal.”

A Death with Every Breath

It has been said that “with every breath, a reputation dies.” And only the Judgment itself will reveal how many human lives have been shortened by criticism and gossip. If we cannot form an anti-gossip society, we can and should each appoint ourself a committee of one to see that there is less of this evil in the future than there has been in the past. In the mouth of those who are ready and waiting for the Lord when He comes will be found no guile.

When John Bunyan saw a criminal led out to be hanged, he said, “There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bunyan.” And but for the grace of God, every one of us would

be—nobody knows where. We are to “judge not,” that we “be not judged.” We may be more unworthy, in the sight of God, than the one we are criticizing. “No matter how lowly the station of an individual, or how underdeveloped his mentality, he finds some one to look down upon and criticize.”

The following lines are easy to remember, and may prove helpful in this connection:

“If you your lips Would keep from slips, Five things observe with care: To whom you speak, Of whom you speak, And how, and when, and where.”