--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Jordan, William George collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 9 published: 1908-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'William George Jordan, "Self-Control. II. The Crimes of the Tongue," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 9 (July 1908): 686–689.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1109unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1109unse start_page: 686 end_page: 689 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1109unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Self-Control. II. The Crimes of the Tongue SELF-COINTROL. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. 2.— THE CRIMES OF THE TONGUE. The second most deadly instrument of destruction is the dy- namite gun, —the first is the human tongue. The gun merely kills bodies; the tongue kills reputations and, ofttimes, ruins characters. Each gun works alone; each loaded tongue has a hundred accom- plices. The havoc of the gun is visible at once. The full evil of the tongue lives through all the years; even the eye of Omniscience might grow tired in tracing it to its finality. The crimes of the tongue are words of unkindness, of anger, of malice, of envy, of bitterness, of harsh criticism, gossip, lying and scandal. Theft and murder are awful crimes, yet in any single year the aggregate sorrow, pain and suffering they cause in a na- tion is microscopic when compared with the sorrows that come from the crimes of the tongue. Place in one of the scale-pans of Justice the evils resulting from the acts of criminals, and in the other the grief and tears and suffering resulting from the crimes of respectability, and you will start back in amazement as you see the scale you thought the heavier shoot high in air. At the hands of thief or murderer few of us suffer, even in- directly. But from the careless tongue of friend, the cruel tongue of enemy, who is free? No human being can live a life so true so fair, so pure, as to be beyond the reach of malice, or immune from the poisonous emanation of envy. The insidious attacks against one's reputation, the loathsome innuendoes, slurs, half -lies, *From Self-Control; Its Kingship and Majesty. Copyright 1889 and 1905 by Fleming H. Re veil Company. SELF-CONTROL. 687 by which jealous mediocrity seeks to ruin its superiors, are like those insect parasites that kill the heart and life of a mighty oak. So cowardly is the method, so stealthy the shooting of the poisoned thorns, so insignificant the separate acts in their seeming, that one is not on guard against them . It is easier to dodge an ele- phant than a microbe. In Lor^don they have recently formed an Anti-Scandal League. The members promise to combat in every way in their power "the prevalent custom of talking scandal, the terrible and unending consequences of which are not generally estimated." Scandal is one of the crimes of the tongue, but it is only one. Every individual who breathes a word of scandal is an active stock- holder in a society for the spread of moral contagion. He is in- stantly punished by Nature by having his mental eyes dimmed to sweetness and purity, and his mind deadened to the sunlight and glow: of charity. There is developed a wondrous, ingenious per- version of mental vision by which every act of others is explained and interpreted from the lowest possible motives. They become like certain carrion flies, that pass lightly over acres of rose- gardens, to feast on a piece of putrid meat. They have developed a keen scent for the foul matter upon which they feed. There are pillows wet by sobs; there are noble hearts broken in the silence whence comes no cry of protest; there are gentle, sensitive natures seared and warped; there are old-time friends separated and walking their lonely ways with hope dead and mem- ory but a pang; there are cruel misunderstandings that make all life look dark, — these are but a few of the sorrows that come from the crimes of the tongue. A man may lead a life of honesty and purity, battling bravely for all he holds dearest, so firm and sure of the rightness of his life . that he never thinks for an instant of the diabolic ingenuity that makes evil and evil report where naught but good really ex- ists. A few words lightly spoken by the tongue of slander, a significant expression of the eyes, a cruel shrug of the shoulders, with a pursing of the lips, —and then, friendly hands grow cold, the accustomed smile is displaced by a sneer, and one stands alone and aloof with a dazed feeling of wonder at the vague, intangible some- thing that has caused it all. 688 iMPRO VEMENT ERA . For this craze for scandal, sensational newspapers of today are largely responsible. Each newspaper is not one tongue, but a thousand or a million tongues, telling the same foul story to as many pairs of listening ears. The vultures of sensationalism scent the carcass of immorality afar off. From the uttermost parts of the earth they collect the sin, disgrace and folly of humanity, and show them bare to the world. They do not even require /ads, for morbid memories and fertile imaginations make even the worst of the world's happenings seem tame when compared with their mon- strosities of invention. These stories, and the discussions they ex- cite, develop in readers a cheap, shrewd power of distortion of the acts of all around them. If a rich man give a donation to some charity, they say: "He is doing it to get his name talked about, — to help his business." If he give it anonymously, they say, "Oh, it's some millionaire who is clever enough to know that refraining from giving his name will pique curiosity;he will see that the public is informed later." If he do not give to charity, they say: "Oh, he's stingy with his money, of course, like the rest of the millionaires." To the vile tongue of gossip and slander. Virtue is ever deemed but a mask, noble ideals but a pretense, generosity a bribe. The man who stands above his fellows must expect to be the target for the envious arrows of their inferiority. It is part of the price he must pay for his advance. One of the most detest- able characters in all literature is lago. Envious of the promotion of Cassio above his head, he hated Othello. His was one of those low natures that become absorbed in sustaining his dignity, talking of "preserving his honor,"— forgetting it has so long been dead that even embalming could not preserve it. Day by day lago drop- ped his poison; day by day did subtle resentment and studied vengeance distill the poison of distrust and suspicion into more powerfully insidious doses. With a mind wonderfully concentrated by the blackness of his purpose, he wove a network of circum- stantial evidence around the pure-hearted Desdemona, and then murdered her vicariously, by the hand of Othello. Her very sim- plicity, confidence, innocence and artlessness made Desdemona the easier mark for the diabolic tactics of lago. lago still lives in the hearts of thousands, who have all his ! ; SELF-CONTROL. 689 despicable meanness without his cleverness. The constant dropping of their lying words of malice and envy have in too many instances at last worn away the noble reputations of their superiors. To sustain ourselves in our own hasty judgments we some- times say, as we listen, and accept without investigation, the words of these modern lagoes: "Well, where there is so much smoke, there must be some fire." Yes, but the fire may be only the fire of malice, the incendiary firing of the reputation of another by the lighted torch of envy, thrown into the innocent facts of a life of superiority. (to be continued.) ''CAST THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS." (ecclesiastbs 11: 1.) {For the Improvement Era.) "Cast thy bread upon the waters," Sow the Savior's priceless seed. Soothe one's sorrow, feed the hungry, Clothe the poor who are in need. Charity is love's sweet mission. Springing from the heart's desire, 'Tis the grace of thy redemption, Lighted by celestial fire "Cast thy bread upon the waters," Let thy giving cheerful be In the cycle of God's blessings, 'Twill return in love to thee. Mercy shall return in mercy. Love with love obtain reward; As thou givest to another. Is thy measure from the Lord. J. L. TOWNSEND. Salt Lake City, Utah.