Tallulah saw Scarlet’s uncle Phineous get into the elevator with a much younger woman at the hotel she was visiting one day. Phineous’s wife was nowhere to be seen. Tallulah told her best friend, who told her best friend, who told her husband, who told his brother and the secret was out. The rumor was started and soon Phineous was blasted by everyone in their small town. The only problem with this rumor is the fact that the younger woman that Phineous was seen getting into the elevator with was his young adult niece and they were going up to the room where his wife was waiting to greet this niece.

Another problem with this rumor was that Phineous and his wife had to go back to their small town and live. They had to endure the snide and cruel comments from well meaning people. They knew the truth but because the rumor had become so wide spread no one believed them.

Eventually new rumors about other people started and Phineous and his wife were forgotten but it was hard for them to forget what they had to endure from people that they thought were their friends.

We received a letter in the mail this week from a business stating that contrary to rumors that were circulating they were not going to close. I hadn’t heard this rumor but I was really happy to hear they were not shutting down their business. Unfortunately it cost them money to send out letters to all of their customers disputing this rumor. They should not have had to do this.

How do rumors get started? A rumor could get started because someone misunderstood what they saw. A rumor could get started because someone misunderstood a conversation they overheard because it wasn’t their conversation. A rumor could get started because someone just wanted to tell a story about someone so they could make this person’s life miserable.

We are all human. We all gossip. We all tell stories. We all have the curiosity of a cat. We all want to be in the know about everyone and their lives. When we are in the know we can’t wait to tell someone.

We have to be in the know about celebrities so we read the National Enquirer and other sorts of publications that embellish the truth. Maybe some people believe magazines like this. Does this make sense? We spend money on magazines and waste time on gossip Web sites so we can learn facts about people that are not true. So we end up knowing many untrue facts that we pass along to our friends.

About.com describes a rumor as this: “A rumor goes in one ear and out many mouths,” reads an ancient Chinese proverb. In the original Latin, “rumor” was a synonym for “noise.” Rumors, gossip and hearsay have long been regarded — and derided — as forms of idle, destructive chatter.

We are so used to rumors that we do not think before we spread them. We do not think of the consequences. A rumor can destroy a business. A rumor can destroy a life.

Of course in the technology age rumors can spread even faster because of e-mail and the Internet. There are many rumors and hoaxes forwarded every day. There are Web sites that you can actually check out to see if these rumors are true. (Snopes.com, for one.) When we get a forward, how many of us check this out before we send it on to someone else?

I am not blameless in this rumor game. I don’t think any of us are. I think we are just human. Perhaps we can be better. Perhaps we can think about the consequences of a rumor before we pass it on. Who will it help? Who will it hurt?

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at thecolumn@bevcomm.net.