By Jim Harmon
“There now exists in Montana as fine a band of whispering and insinuating political (gossipers) as ever poured poison into the ear of man.”
“They are trying to get rid of their musty package of musty falsehoods, using one argument in one locality and a very different argument in another, telling one story here and another there and all for the purpose of damaging public opinion and winning (a) seat ( in) government.”
“Send the whispers home…they are not worth your time and attention.”
Cutout – Whispering Poison
Cutout – Whispering Poison
It sounds like something you might hear in political advertising these days, but the quote was actually from a Missoulian newspaper editorial in 1894, regarding the battle between Anaconda and Helena over which city would be the capital of Montana.
Gossiping seems to be part of the human condition.
In 1923, the Missoula Sentinel shared a clipping from a Missouri newspaper about “malicious gossip.”
“A young woman from Missouri was about to marry a young man from that state. Some busybody in the neighborhood had the opportunity to tell her, on the eve of her wedding, that her young woman was already married and therefore could not marry her.
“Of course, this was completely false, but the shock for the young woman was so great that she lost her mental balance and drowned. “We wish there were some particularly savage way to punish malicious gossips, male or female.”
Clipping – Malicious Gossip 1923
Clipping – Malicious Gossip 1923
Then there was the case of a prominent real estate agent in Missoula in 1923.
Harry Morrison was accused of certain irregularity (specifically forgery) in a real estate transaction. He pleaded not guilty (through his attorney), denied any wrongdoing, and asked the court to dismiss the case for lack of “sufficient facts.”
That didn’t sway the town gossips, who claimed that the “alleged forgeries totaled $16,000.”
Mrs Morrison told reporters: “I haven’t seen or spoken to anyone. I haven’t read the newspapers either. If it were true, I wouldn’t try to say that wrong is right.”
Among the stories circulating on the street was a story that Mrs. Julia A. Graff had filed a complaint because the paperwork for a $500 note was not properly recorded with the clerk and recorder.
“Mrs. Graff,” according to local gossip, “was very excited when she was told that it had never been registered” and was even more excited “when she was told that the chief secretary’s signature on the document was a forgery.”
Curiously, no subsequent article on the matter was found in any publication until late 1923. Presumably, the matter was settled out of court.
Cut – Headline Chicago
Cut – Headline Chicago
Meanwhile, in Chicago, the school board considered a resolution “prohibiting the future existence of fraternities and societies in the secondary schools of the city, and making membership in them grounds for expulsion of pupils from the schools.”
The professors claimed that “the general moral tone of the members is lowered by their experience in these associations, that idleness, small talk… and the spread of gossip are accompanied by fraternities (as is) the fact of arriving late, obscene language and the use of obscene language.” songs, smoking, drunkenness, gambling and social violence.”
And in Camden, New Jersey, a judge sentenced a man to three months in jail for gossiping. The mill foreman had been telling everyone that he “saw a worker kissing her boyfriend.” The judge called him “a gossiper of the worst kind.”
Clipping – Male gossip
Clipping – Male gossip
Columnist Byron Williams wrote: “Interesting, light-hearted gossip has its charm. “Men like it as much as women.” In fact, he claimed that men were worse than women when it came to gossiping.
“What in men seems like just ‘talking about it’, in women is ‘nosy gossip.’ What men say with impunity often breeds resentment when repeated by a woman.
And in that sense, I have already said enough. Let the rumors begin.
Jim Harmon is a long-time Missoula newscaster, now retired, who writes a weekly history column for the Missoula Current. You can contact Jim at fuzzyfossil187@gmail.com. His best-selling book, “The Sneakin’est Man That Ever Was,” a collection of 46 vignettes of western Montana history, is available at harmonshistories.com.
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