Verhovayak Lapja, 1944 (27. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)
1944 / Verhovay Journal
-age *----------------------------------------Verhovay Journal Tongue Wagging Annie Tongue Wagging Annie wasn’t a bad girl, really. She had a warm heart gushing into tears or laughter on the slightest occasion. She had a deep interest in anything human . . . she yearned to see people as they are, she liked to listen to their talks, to see them with their hair down, and to satisfy her intense curiosity she did not even hesitate to play Peeping Tom on occasions when the ominous sounds went back to those who tried to hide their misery behind tightly drawn curtains and hold them that Annie v:as telling tall stories about them . . . and when they did not seem to believe it, they proceeded to prove their accusations by quoting what Annie had said . . . and when it still did not have the desired effect and those people still did not share their contempt for Tongue Wagging of an especially interesting scene broke into the silent street from behind tightly drawn curtains. Don’t you ever say that she gloated over the misery of her fellowmen. If she\ gloated over anything it was over having gained knowledge of things that better remain hidden in the darkest corners of human existence . . . she gloated and rejoiced, because she succeded breaking up the hard nutshell of human secrets and could pull out the worm that was eating its insides and could show it to the world, as once Columbus showed to the Queen the gold he found on the shores of America. It was the success of her investigations that made her happy, not what she found in the course of her investigations. It was the proud feeling that she had eaten from the tree of knowledge, and that she became all the wiser by it, that made her happy and contented with her achievements. For the faults, and mistakes and miseries she discovered, she had sincere sympathy. She could have given her right hand for being able to dry the tears she could glimpse through the tightly drawn curtains of shut-in lives. And she I went around among other people and told them with tears in her eyes how she felt about those poor people whose secrets she saw so shamelessly revealed and tried to awaken in them the same sympathy that filled her heart to overflowing. Somehow, the people to whom she told what she saw, did not seem to appreciate her goodness. They called her a gossip . . . they said that she gloated over other peoples’ troubles . . . they said that she has set herself to ruin other peoples’ reputation . . . they said that she was a Peeping Tom . . . they called her Tongue Wagging Annie . . . t So some of these, people Annie, then they added some more . . . just in the way of explaining what implications the stories of Annie may have contained. So these people got sore and left their tightly drawn curtains and called on Annie and told her their mind, and poor Annie was awfully heartbroken about the whole affair. She could not understand why she was accused of having made a public spectacle of something that was not intended for the public . .. she could not understand what they meant when they told her, quite brutally, to mind her own business. After all, she felt, it was her business. Humanity was her business. Sadness and sorrow, torture and pain, unpaid debts and torturous scenes were her business, because she wanted to help people by telling them how others suffered. And so, in her own selfdefense, she told the people from behind the tightly drawn curtains, what those other people had said about them that came and accused her of gossiping. She told them how they voiced their suspicions as to what was occuring behind the tightly drawn curtains. She explained to them that what she did was not gossiping, but rather a fair presentation of the facts which were really much more acceptable than what other people said. Finally everybody got mad at poor little Tongue Wagging Annie and she crawled into a corner and cried bitterly. And everyone shook his head over her. They said that she messed things up. They said that she turned people against one another. They said that she made enemies of everyone and that she had everyone as her enemy. And when poor Annie heard these things, she cried even more bitterly. But loud as she cried, nobody paid any attention to her. They left her there crying in the dark corner. ' People did not like her anymore, and besides, they had other things to do. They had to fight with one another because of the things that Annie carried from one to the other. Lovers divorced, friends parted, relatives stopped talking to one another, the whole town was in a feud... and poor little Tongue Wagging Annie slowly got tired of crying. One day she got up, she dried her eyes and with a hard little line around her mouth she declared: “Never again will I peep into anyone’s window . . . never again will I ask for anyone else’s trouble . . . never again will I care what anyone suffers ... I am through with people, once and for all ... I will draw my own curtains and I dare anyone to peep through them into my life.” And so it came that poor little, sympathetic, Tongue Wagging Annie became a selfish woman. She wasn’t anymore interested in humanity. She wasn’t anymore moved by other peoples’ misery. Cold and hard she lived by herself and if she heard of anyone’s sorrow, she only shrugged her shoulder. And by that time people began to like Annie. She wasn’t a gossip anymore.... she did not cause any trouble . . . old friends remembered her and new ones came, because they thought she ivas a fine soul. It never occurred to them that Annie had a much warmer heart at the time when she was known as Tongue Wagging Annie ... It never occurred to them that they actually killed her heart when they stopped her tongue. But who cared? The main thing was: Annie did not cause anymore damage.-----------------------v----------------------The future can be anything we want it to be, providing we have the faith and that we realize that peace, no less than war, requires “blood and sweat and tears.” (Kettering) “A generation may change their laws and institutions to suit themselves. Nothing is unchangable but the inherent and inalienable rights of man.” —Jefferson. PLEASE DO NOT TRY to INCREASE YOUR INSURANCE if YOUR LIFE HAS NO VALUE July 13, 1944 ' CAPTAIN AND MRS. GEORGE J. LAURANCHOK We are pleased to present to our readers Capt. and Mrs. George Lauranchok whose wedding took place on June 17th, 1944, In Bellevue, Pa., as reported in the last issue of the Journal. Mrs.. Lauranchok, nee Emma Phillips, is the Deputy Auditor of the Verhovay F. I. A., at the Home Office in Pittsburgh, Pa. MAY NEED SAND “So you complain of finding! sand in your soup?” “Yes, sir.’ “Did you join the army to serve your country, or complain about the soup?” “To serve my country, sir — not to eat it.” ON THE QUIET Lieut.: “Why didn’t you salute?” Pat.: “Well, sir, I didn’t want to attract more attention than necessary, because I’m not supposed to be out without a pass.” NARROW ESCAPE Colonel: “You say you served with the army in France?” Cook: “Yes, sir. Officers cook for two years and wounded twice.” Colonel: “You’re lucky, man. It’s a wonder they didn’t kill you.” DIG IN First Recruit (digging ditch): “Do you remember the big posters saying ‘Enlist and see the world’?” Second R.: “Yes, but why?” First R.: “Well, I didn’t know we had to dig clear through it in order to see it.” WRONG HOUSE Salesman — “I say, sonny, is your mother at home?’ Small Boy— “Yes, sir.” Salesman (after knocking in vain) — “I thought you said she was at home.” Small Boy — “Yes, sir, but I don’t live here-”------------v-----------SATISFIED An Eastern go-getter spied a lazy Indian chief lolling indolently at the door of his tepee somewhere out West. “Chief”, remonstrated the gogetter, “why don’t you get your self a job?” “Why?” grunted the chief. “Well, you could earn a lot of money. Maybe thirty or forty dollars a week.” “Why?” insisted the chief. “Oh, if you worked hard and saved your money, you’d soon haev a bank account. Wouldn’t you like that?” “Why?” again asked the chief. “For gosh sakes!” shouted the exasperated go-getter. “With a big bank account you could retire, and then you wouldn’t have to work any more . . .” “Not working now” pointed out the Indian.-------v------MISUNDERSTANDING FRANK: “What are you taking for that cold of yours?”, JOE: “How much will you offer me for it?' *
