The Lexington intelligencer. [volume], August 03, 1901, Image 8

About The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949

Image provided by: State Historical Society of Missouri; Columbia, MO

                
THE EVILS OF GOSSIP
A Sermon to Those Who Are Dis
posed to Talk Too Much.
Dlinirtt of Dr. Tataaaa te Tvst
"Discover Sol ecrt to A a
other iood aaa Bod -
eret Sorlrtlra.
ICpoyrht, 1X1. by Litis K'.ppich. N. T.J
WAtturgtoe. July 2S.
A practical question which U akcd
in most houses, auj (or many years
is here asked tv l'r. Taliiiuge and
answered; tct. I'rovvrbs .":9. ""Dis
cover not a n'cret to another."
It appear that in S.iIouiou's time,
as iu, all giibfi)uciit jhthhIs o( the
world, there were pvopie too tuuih
disposed to tell all thev knew. It
was blab, blab, blab; physicians re
vealing' the case of their patient.,
lawyer exposing the private affairs
of their clients; neighbors advertis
ing1 the faults of the uext-door resi
dent; pretended friends betrayinff
confidences.
One-half of the trouble of every
ct niniunity comes from thejact that
o many people have not capacity to
keep their mouths shut. When 1 hear
something disparaging of you, my
first duty is not to tell you, but if I
tell you what .somebody has said
ajrainst you and then po out and
tell others what I told them that I
told you, and we all go out, sonie to
hunt up the originator of th? story
and others to hunt it down, we shall
fret the whole community talking
about what you did do and what you
did not do, and there will be as many
scalps taken as though a band of
Modocs had swept upon a helpless
Tillage. We have two ears, but only
one tongue, a physiological sugges
tion, that we ought to hear good
deal more than we telL Let us join
a conspiracy that we will tell each
other all the good and nothing of the
ill, and then there will not be such
awful need of sermons on Solomon's
words: "Discover not a secret to
another. '
Solomon had a very large domestic
circle. In hia earlier days he had
very confused notions about monog
amy and polygamy, and hia multi
tudinous associates in the matri
monial state kept him too well in
formed as to what was going on in
Jerusalem. They gathered up all the
privacies and poured them into his
ear, and his family became a sorosis
or female debating society of TOO,
discussing day after day all the diffi
culties between husbands and wires,
between employers and employes,
between ruler and subjects, until
Solomon, in my text, deplores volu
bility about affairs that do not be
long to us and extols the virtue of,
secretiveness.
By the power of a secret, divulged
families, churches, neighborhoods,
nations, fly apart. By the power of
a secret kept great charities, social
ities, reformatory, movements and
Christian enterprises may be ad
vanced. Men are gregarious catfle
in herds, fish in schools, birds in
flocks, men in social circles. You
may by the discharge of a gun scat
ter a flock of quails or by the plunge
of the anchor send apart tha deni
sens of the sea, but they will gather
themselves together again. If you
by some new power could break the
associations in which men now stand,,
they would again adhere, God
meant it so. He has gathered all the
flowers and shrubs into associations.
You may plant one forget menot or
heartsease alone, away off upon the
hillside, but it will goon hunt up
ome other forgetmenot or hearts
ease, riants love company. You
wiu nna mem talking to each other
in the dew.
You sometimes see a man with no
outbranchlngs of sympathy. His na
ture is cold and hard, like a ship's
mast Ice glazed, which the most agile
sailor could never climb. Others
have a thousand roots and a thou
sand branches. Innumerable tendrils
climb their hearts and blossom all
the way up, and the fowls of heaven
sing In the branches. In consequence
of this tendency we find men coming
together in tribes, in communities, in
churches, in societies. Some gather
together to cultivate the arts, some
to plan for the welfare of the state,
some to discuss religious themes,
some to kindle their mirth, some to
advance their craft. So every active
community ia divided into associa
tions Of artista. of mvpchsnta n
bookbinders, of carpenters, of
masons, of plasterers, of shipwrights,
of plumbers. Do you cry out against
It? Then you cry out against a ten
dency divinely implanted. Your
tirades would accomplish no mora
than if you should preach to a busy
ant hill a long sermon against se
cret societies.
Here we find the oft discussed
question whether associations that
do their work with closed doors and
admit their members by passwords
and greet each other with a secret
grip are right or wrong. I answer
that it depends entirely on the na
ture of the object for which they
meet. Is it to pass the hours in
revelry, wassail, blasphemy and ob
scene talk or to plot trouble to the
atate or to ilrojuch the innocent,
then I say, with an emphasis that no
man can mistake. No! But is the
object the defense of the rights of
any class against oppression, the im
provement of the mind, the enlarge
ment of the heart, the advancement
of art, the defense of the govern
ment, the extirpation of crime or the
kindling of a pure hearted sociality,
then I say, with just as much em
phasis. Yes.
There is no need that we who plan
for the conquest of right over wrong
should publish to all the world our
Imrntions. The general of any army
never semis to the opposing troops
information of the coming attack.
Shall e who hae enlisted in the
cause of liod and humanity expose
our plans to the enemy? No; we will
in secret plot the ruin of all the en
terprises of Satan and his cohorts.
Wheu they expect us by day, we will
fall upon them by night. hile they
arc strengthening their Ifft wing
we will fall on their right. l!y a
plan of battle formed in secret con
clave we will come suddenly upon
them crying:. The sword of the
Lord and of Gideon." Secrecy of
plot and execution Is wrong only
when the object and ends are nefari- . ice 0 ,,raver.nieetings and to reli
ous. Every family is a secret society, i ious convocation. She systematical
every business rm and every bank- I dlM.avei him ,nav untii now he
ing and insurance institution. Those
men who have no capacity to keep a
secret are unfit for positions of trust
anywhere. There are thousands of
men whose vital need is culturing a
capacity to keep a secret. Men talk
too much, and women, too. There
is a time to keep silence as well as a
time to speak.
Although not belonging to any of
the great secret societies about which
there has been so much violent discus
sion, I have only words of praise for
those associations which have for
their object the maintenance of right
against wrong or the reclamation of
inebriates or, like the score of mutual
benefit societies called by different
names, that provide temporary relief
for widows and orphans and for men
Incapacitated by sickness or accident
from earning a livelihood. Had it not
been for the secret labor organizations
in this country monopoly would long
ago have, under its ponderous wheels,
ground the laboring classes into an
intolerable servitude. The men who
want the whole earth to themselves
would have got it before this had it
not been for the banding together of
great secret organizations, and while
we deplore many things that have
been done by them, their existence is
a necessity and their legitimate sphere
distinctly pointed out by the Provi
dence of God. Such organizations are
trying to dismiss from their asso
ciation all members who are in favor
of anarchy and aocial chaos. They
will gradually cease anything like tyr
anny over their members and will
forbid violent interference with any
man's work, whether he belongs to
their union or is outside of it, and
will declare their disgust with any
such rule as that passed in England
by the Manchester Bricklayers' asso
ciation, which ssys any man found
running or working beyond a regular
speed shall be fined two shillings six
pence for the first offense, five shil
lings for the second, ten shillings for
the third, and If still persisting shall
be dealt with as the committee thinks
proper.
There are secret societies in our col
leges that have letters of the Greek
alphabet for their nomenclature, and
their members are at the very front
in scholarship and irreproachable in
morals, while there are others the
scene of carousal, and they gamble,
and they drink, and they graduate
knowing a hundred times more about
sin than they do of geometry and
Sophocles. In other words, secret so
cieties, like individuals, are good or
bad, are the means of moral health or
of temporal and eternaldamnation. All
good people recognize the vice of slan
dering an individual, but many do not
see the sin of slandering an organiza
tion. There are old secret societies in
this snd other countries, some of them
centuries old, which have been wide
ly denounced as immoral and damag
ing in their Influence, yet I have hun
dreds of personal friends who belong
to them friends who are consecrated
to God, pillars In the church, faithful
in all relations of life, examplea of
virtue and piety. They are the kind
of friends whom I would have for my
executora at the time of decease, and
they are the men whom I would have
carry me out to the last sleep when
1 sm dead. You cannot make me be
lieve that they would belong to bad In
stitutions. They are the men who would
stamp on anything iniquitous, and I
would certainly rather take their tes
timony in regard to such societies
t.. u t. ii . .
Wbee .wornTnY "lV
"t.
assault upon them confess themselves
perjurers.
One of these secret societies gave
for the relief of the sick in 1873, in
this country, $1,490,274. Some of
these societies have poured a very
heaven of sunshine and benediction
into the home of suffering. Several
of them are founded on fidelity to
good citizenship and the Bible. I
hare never taken one of their de
grees. They might give me the grip
a thousand times snd I would not
recognize it. I am Ignorant of their
pass-words, and I must Judge entire
r from tbe outside. But Christ has
given us a rule by which we may
judge not only all individuals, but all
societies, secret snd open. Bj their
fruits ye shall know them." Bad
societies make bad men. tiood socie
ties make good men. A bad man will
not stay in a good society. A good
man will not stay in a bad society.
Then try all accret societies by two
or three rules.
Test the first: Their Influence on
home, if you have a home. That wife
mnn loses her influence over her
, husband who nervously and foolish
ly looks upon all evening aWnce as
a'n assault on domesticity. How are
the great enterprises of reform and
art and literature and beneficence
and public weal to be carried on if
every man is to have his world bound
ed on one side by his front doorstep
and on the other side by his back
window, knowing nothing higher
than his own attic or lower than his
own cellar? That wife who becomes
jealous of her husband's attentive to
art or literature or religion or chari
ty is breaking her own scepter of
conjugal power. I know an instance
where a wife thought that her hus
band was giving too many nights to
rhp. ., ,prvi. ta charitable serv.
attends no church, waits upon no
charitable institution and is ou a
rapid way to destruction, his morals
gone, his money gone and, I tear, his
soul gone.
Here are six secular nights in the
week. "What shall I do with them?"
ssys the father and the husband. "I
will give four of these nights to the
improvement and entertainment of
my family, either at home or in good
neighborhood. I will devote one to
charitable institutions. I will devote
one to my lodge." I congratulate
you. Here is a maa who says: "Out
of the aix secular nights of the week
I will devote five to lodges and clubs
and associations and ons to the home,
which night I will spend in scowling
like a March squall, wishing I waa
out spending it as I have spent the
other five." That man's obituary la
written. Not one out of ten thou
sand that ever get so far on the
wrong road ever stops. Gradually his
health will fail through late hours,
and through too much stimulants he
will be first-rate prey for erysipelas
and rheumatism of the heart.
The doctor coming in will at a
glance see it is not only present dis
ease he must fight, but years of fast
living. The clergyman, for the sake
of the feelings of the family, on the
funeral day will only talk in reli
gious generalities. The men who got
his yacht in the eternal rapids will
not be at the obsequies. They have
pressing engagements that day. Tbey
will aend flowers to the coffin, will
send their wives to utter words of
sympathy, bu they will hsve engage
ments elsewhere. They never come.
Bring me mallet and chisel, and I
will cut that man'a epitaph: "Blessed
are' the dead who die In the Lord?"
"No," you say. "that would not be
approprv-fe." "Let me die the death
of the righteous and let my last end
be like his?" "No," you say, "that
would not be appropriate." Then
give me the mallet and the chisel, and
I will cut an honest epitaph: "Here
lies the victim of dissipating associa
tions!" Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right
or wrong is the effect it has on your
secular ocrtipation. I can understand
how through such an institution a man
can reach commercial success. I
know some men have formed their
best business relations through such
a channel. If the secret society has
advantaged you in an honorable call
ing, it is a good one. but has your
credit failed? Are bargain makers
now more anxious how they trust
you with a bale of goods? Have the
men whose names were down in the
commercial agency Al before they
entered the society been going down
since in commercial standing? Then
look out. You and I every day know
of commercial establishments going
to ruin through the social excesses
of one or two members, their fortune
beaten to death with ball players' bat
or cut amidships with the front prow
of the regatta or going down under
t'ae swift hoofs of the fast horses
or drowned in the large potations of
cognac or Monongahela. That secret
society was the Loch Earn. Their
business was the Ville de Havre.
They struck, snd the Ville de Havre
went underl
The third test by which you may
know whether the society to which you
belong is good or bad is this: What is
i met, ou your sense oi moral and
religious obligation? Now, If I should
tbe people in
its effect on your sense of moral and
this audience and put them on a roll
and then I should lay that roll back
of this organ and a hundred rears
from now some one should take that
roll and call it from A to Z there would
noi one of you answer. I say that
any society that makes me forget that
iaci is a Dad society.
Oh, man astray, God help you!
am going to make a very stout rope,
V.. 1
nuuw ,ni sometimes a rope
maker will take very small threads
and wind them together until after
awhile they become a ship cable.
And I am going to take soma very
man, aeucate threads and wind
D
I)
I will sell at Public Auction the followino- p, !
Property belonging to estate of Jas. A. Thorp, decea
ed, at farm 4 miles southwest of Wellington t
HI in 8, 190
described.as follows to-wit: A lot of household and
Kitchen Furniture, Hedge Posts, Wood, Plank, Fence)
Wire, Bacon, Grain Sacks Buggies, a lot of Hav
Corn. Oats, Rye, Chickens, 5 Milch Cows, 5 Calved
1 Mule and S Horses, Farming Implements of all kinds J
TERMS CASH j
SALE TO BEGIN AT io O'CLOCK A. M. j
THOS E. CHINN, Auctioneer.
MAT D. WILSON. Public Adm j
t
:
them together until they make a very
stout rope. I will take all the mem
ories of the marriage day a thread
of laughter, a thread of light, a
thread of music, a thread of ban
queting, a thread of congratulation
and I twist them together, and I
have one strand. Then I take a
thread of the hour of tha first ad
vent in your bouse, a thread of the
darkness that preceded, and a thread
of the light that followed, and a
thread of the beautiful scarf that lit
tle child used to wear when she
bounded out at eventide to greet you,
and then a thread of tha beautiful
dress in which you laid her away for
the resurrection, and then I twist all
these threads together, and I have
another strand. Then I take a
thread of the scarlet robe of a suf
fering Christ, and a thread of the
white raiment of your loved ones be
fore the throne, and a string of the
harp cherubio, and a string of the
harp seraphic, and I twist them all
together, and I have a third strand.
"Oh," you ssy, "either strand is
enough to hold fast a world!" No. I
will take these strands, and I will
twist them together, and one end
of that rope I will fasten, not to
the communion table, for it shall be
removed; not to a pillar of the or
gan, for that will crumble in the
agea; but I wind it round and round
the croas of a sympathizing Christ,
and, having fastened one end of the
rope to the cross, I throw the other
end to you. Lay hold of it! Pull
for your life! Pull for Heaven!
Grand Central Hotel,
Reopened and
Newly Furnished
Good Meals and best service. Your
patronago solicited.
D. M. FRAZIER, Propr.
Needed in Every
Home ....
Noth.np it productive of more
happiness in the family than
a Pttrt'o
THE SINGER
is the best
Is always In order and can be
depended on to do every kind of
work. If you are Interested,
write or nend word to
L. W. BRELSFORD.
Local Agent, Lexington. Mo.
Cigar Clippings
granulated and coarse
30 - Cents a Pound - 30
HINESLEY'S SMOKER
Dr. T. b, Ramsey.
Successor to flsssell a Bsmsej
SURGEON
DENTIST
Office over Schawe & Wei., Comer
10th and Main Streets.
Nltras Oxld. Oas Given.
- t
n
A.
4 MMeHJ
Special 'Low Ecuni Ifijlilj
VIA
sM44
The Mo. Psc. By. Co. ars MllioitietN
to almost Trywbrs at vtry low ma
for the roood trip. Note tb la list of In
rates:
St. Paul sad MtaaesDolii tad win,
f 13.80. Tickets oa sals from AugattltoS
Good to retara until October 31.
From Lexington to Pueblo, Colon
Springs, Dsavar and retora.f 16.30. Tiet.
eta oo sals from August 1 to 10. Ooodtt
return natll October 81.
Louisville, Ky.f aD( return, Auiaitl
to 3tl, 118,95.
Springfield. Mo., and r.tnrn Anns
7 to 12, 6 50.
New York and rcturo, oa sale daily,
143.50.
Baa Antoaio and return, Septtmbtrli
to 16, 125.20.
Kaoaaa City a ad returo, October IBM
38,1175.
Kansas City and return, October 5
12.fl.30. -
8t. Louie ad return, October "
11.18 95. , '
Clsrelaad. Ohio and ratnra. ScDtutt
8 to 11, 1 20 05. ' . t
Homeweektr dates Anrutt 8 sod ft.
September 3 and 17.
Mcilester Springs and return l.N;N
sale dally.
McAleeter Springs and return l.i
sale Friday ana Saturday.
McAlester Serines and retnrn 65c;oi
saleoaSuodsyiooly.
Perils SDrlnrrs and return J3.S5: otaw
dally.
Psrtle Sprints and return 12.95: on rale
dally.
Pertle Sprints and return 11.95: oou
Sundays only,
Buffalo 125.50 sad M3 .( on n!e dill?,
good returning 10 and 15 days.
ror runner Information plesie cm
A. 8. LO0.MI3, Altai
When Tired
And Weary . . .
With the heat and duet of traI
or the labors of the day, drop in '
THE FORT
Where you can secure a gooi
luncheon, a refreshing drink of
the choicest beverages to K
found anywhere or a delightful
smoke In the cooling shade.
-VfVf
Geo. I D. l.S.
VETERINARIAN,
Phone 117 Lexi-voton,-).