In the early 20th Century, a number of states and cities passed anti-gossip statutes, according to the Wall Street Journal. Wisconsin and Kentucky outlawed gossip, and people were duly arrested and tried for the crime. In 1923, a Justice of the Peace in Brawley, California fined a woman for gossiping, and issued the following proclamation:
Ye people of the township of Brawley will no longer tolerate ye gossips who go about spreading ill-thought and ill-feeling.
Which is a good example of archaic usage in the law, although one suspects (hopes?) the JP was being ironic with his use of "ye."
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