Who would live in one, if he could help it? And who wants to throw stones?
But who lives in any thing else, nowadays? And how much better off are
they who never threw a stone in their lives than the rude mob who throw
them all the time?
Really, the proverb might as well be blotted out from our books and
dropped from our speech. It has no longer use or meaning.
It is becoming a serious question what shall be done, or rather what can
be done, to secure to fastidious people some show and shadow of privacy in
their homes. The silly and vulgar passion of people for knowing all about
their neighbors' affairs, which is bad enough while it takes shape merely
in idle gossip of mouth, is something terrible when it is exalted into a
regular market demand of the community, and fed by a regular market supply
from all who wish to print what the community will read.
We do not know which is worse in this traffic, the buyer or the seller; we
think, on the whole, the buyer. But then he is again a seller; and so
there it is,--wheel within wheel, cog upon cog.
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