The reported presence of parachutists in the vicinity of Hyde Park, N. Y., has been discarded by the Army authorities as unfounded gossip, and they read a lecture on the circulation of such reports, the investigation of which uselessly takes up the time of Army intelligence men. The fact that no action was taken against the circulators of the report suggests that the gossip was innocent or idle and that the originator of it actually thought he saw parachutes. This would not be phenomenal, for the phantasmagoria created by imaginative gossip exceeds the spectacles of mummery. The "Battle Of Los Angeles," in which supposedly hostile planes were driven off by gunfire, has been its war-time opus thus far. Whether what someone said they saw and heard were hostile planes is still a moot question.
But the difference between innocent mongering and hair-frigger vigilance by citizens may be the measure of protection against suprise, and the authorities would certainly be loath to prescribe the ducking-stool for all who peddle unconfirmed reports of covert enemy infiltration. It was the cackling of the geese that saved Rome from surprise attack on one occasion, and idle gossips are only human geese.