SLIMY SLANDERS.

NZ Truth, Issue 127, 23 November 1907, Page 6

SLIMY SLANDERS.

The Terrible Tongues of Foxdown.

To speak disparagingly of a woman who is avowedly of good character ; to create scandal by making base and utterly uncalled-for observations which infer that the woman might bemuch better morally, is about the worst thing an alleged man, „or, or worm, or thing, or whatever he is, ban do m the way of ruining the character of one of the opposite sex. jTbere are some low-minded . individuals who aire too prone to that^sortof thing, whether there's justification or I hot. Scandal' is a thing dearly, beloved by people of this calibre, and it always will be so until Gabriel starts his band solo. In little country places everybody seems to know everybody else's fatuous follies, or of their picturesque prancing piety, and tongues wag when there is anything lat^all'- to talk about: Scargill, m the sduth, is such a place, and the two estates adjacent m particular. More so the Foxdown than the other. Mr DiJworth Fox runs this show, and the., servants are changed frepquently, mainly because the place is a very lonely (one, and the average female nowadays likes town better :than outback. But whenever a girl leaves that estate, crook observa- ! tions are made as to where she is i making .for— Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland, and of the purpose for which - she is going. One girl (who stayed 11 months at Fox-down heard all these remarks about domestic? that had preceded her, and was wondering 1 what" ■

THESE FOUL-TONGUED BLACK- -:■ .-.,■..,. , GUARDS would say when she turned her billet up. There was bound. to be talk of some kind. Well, she got sick of the show and left, but didn't go far a-, wayv-only as far as Ashburton, and m due course she was informed that observations detrimental to "her moral character had ; been passed and canvassed." The' upshot was that Lawyer Buchanan,, of Asbburton, wrote to a fellow named Charles Wood, engaged on the, estate,, m connection with slariderous statements alleged to have been made by him against a young- woman, and demanding an apology or there would be trouble: It is alleged that Wood said that the girl was m trouble, m a maternal way of speaking, and that the chances were that she would put the child on to him. Now, the girl m question was naturally highly indignant at being urade the subject of such. a. remark, and that was why ! she got a lawyer to say what she thought* of Wood, wiio is a rouseabout -on .the place, and a toothless ; one at' •that. He" has been there about five ; years, and has seen many a servant ecoine and go. However, he .^ replied, saying-tee had never uttered * such a p'thmg- m his life, and that it was a malicious lie. "Truth" is very glad •to hear it, because the young woman iis : evidently respectable, is now employed m the house of a leading barrister of Christchurch, and her character is -believed to be beyond reproaph. Once a slur is cast upon that i valuable asset— elraracter— a girl is rpractica-Hy ostracised from the frest houses. Now. that Wood; has entered *an emphatic denial the matter is s£tl.tle'd ; but Dilworth Fox, or las manager, .or whoever is running the show, might give their male employees a i lecture on chivalry now and' again, 'and caution them against dissemina:ting, scandal. 'A 1 girl has a, lot to-put ,up with when working among a -lot *%i hoodlums on a station.