Article November 12, 1921 Issue

Rumors

ALEXANDER F. PRIMROSE

Some rumors are quite local, others are circulated and believed the world over, some of them even being current from time immemorial. And the curious thing about rumors is that the more improbable and the more mysterious they are, the more likely are they to be credited. A good example of a fantastic story which at one time gained considerable prominence was the rumor which sprang up in the early years of the great war, when the Allies were being pressed on the western front, that hordes of Russian troops had been brought over to some port in Scotland and from there they had been transported in the middle of the night and with great secrecy, down through England in long troop trains and with drawn blinds. But no one ever actually saw them, though, of course, they said they knew some one who had. Another tale, equally without a single grain of truth in it, though perhaps it has duped more people, was the old tale of the Indian faker and the rope trick, in which he is said to have thrown a rope up into the air where it remained without any visible support while a little native boy climbed up it and disappeared into thin air.

But, it may well be asked, why are these stories believed? Mrs. Eddy, in speaking of the betrayal by Judas, went to the root of the matter when she said in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 47): "He knew that the world generally loves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the betrayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular estimation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the traitor fell with it." The world has never liked to be told the truth and will not listen to it, and Jesus explained why in no uncertain language when he thundered out in the temple: "Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not."

It would be well if people would remember the commandment. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." The trouble is that the gossip and the tale-bearer never imagine for a moment the harm they are doing in repeating and passing along some little tidbit of scandal. Tales of this kind also have an extraordinary habit of gaining in size, like a snowball rolling down a hill. If the good people who help to spread rumors realized the harm they were, perhaps quite unintentionally, trying to do and realized that they were guilty of mental malpractice, often of a most despicable kind, they would think twice before they spoke.

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