Harmon’s Histories: Gossip sometimes skewed news in early Montana

By Jim Harmon

“There is now abroad in Montana as fine a band of whispering and insinuating political (gossipers) as ever poured venom into the ear of man.”

“They attempt to unload their mildewed parcel of musty falsehoods, using one argument in one locality and very different argument in another, telling one tale here and another there and all for the purpose of prejudicing the public mind and winning (a) seat (in) government.”

“Send the whispers home ... they are unworthy of your time and attention.”

Sounds like something you might hear in political advertising these days, but the quote actually was from a Missoulian newspaper editorial in 1894, relating to the battle between Anaconda and Helena over which city would be Montana’s capital.

Gossiping seems to be part of the human condition.

In 1923, the Missoula Sentinel newspaper shared a clipping from a Missouri newspaper about “malicious gossip.”

“A young woman of Missouri was about to be married to a young man of that state. Some busybody of the neighborhood took occasion to tell her on the eve of her wedding, that her young man already was married and hence could not marry her.”

“Of course this was utterly untrue, but the shock to the young woman was so great that she became mentally unbalanced and drowned herself. We wish that there were some particularly savage way in which malicious gossips, male or female, might be punished.”

Then, there was the case of a prominent real estate agent in Missoula in 1923.

Harry Morrison was accused of some underhandedness (specifically forgery) in a property transaction. He pleaded not guilty (through his attorney), denied any irregularity, and asked the court to dismiss the case for lack of “sufficient facts.”

That didn’t sway the gossipers in town, who claimed the “alleged forgeries would total $16,000.”

Mrs. Morrison told reporters, “I have not seen nor talked with anyone. Neither have I read the papers. If it were true, I would not attempt 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 that paperwork for a $500 promissory note was not properly recorded with the clerk and recorder.

“Mrs. Graff,” according to the local gossip, “become much excited when told it had never been recorded” and further excited “when told the signature of the chief clerk on the document was a forgery.”

Strangely, there was no follow-up story regarding the matter to be found in any publication through the end of 1923. Presumably, the matter was settled out of court.

Meantime, in Chicago, the school board considered a resolution “prohibiting the further existence of fraternities and societies in the city high schools, and making membership in them a ground for expulsion of pupils from the schools.”

Teachers claimed “the general moral tone of members is lowered by their experience in these associations, that idleness, trivial conversation ... and the spread of gossip all go with fraternities (as well as) the keeping of late hours, ribald language, obscene 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 “he saw a girl worker kissing her boyfriend.” The judge called him “a male gossip of the worst kind.”

Columnist Byron Williams wrote, “Interesting, breezy gossip has its charm. Men like it as well as women.” In fact he claimed men were worse than women, when it came to gossiping.

“What in men seems like simply ‘talking it over,’ in women is ‘meddlesome gossip.’ What men may say with impunity often is resented when repeated by a woman.

And on that note – enough said. Let the rumors begin.

Jim Harmon is a longtime Missoula news broadcaster, now retired, who writes a weekly history column for 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.