d a great stir in the city and resulted in an editorial, said to
have been written by Grace, which appeared next day, and which reveals
something of Charleston tradition and something of Grace, as well. It
was headed "The Saint Cecilia Ball," and ran as follows:

We carried on yesterday a full account of the famous Saint Cecilia
Ball. From the foundation of Charleston until the present moment it
has been regarded as an unwritten law that the annual events of
this ancient society shall not be touched upon.

Of course it was permissible for the thirty-five thousand poor
white people of Charleston to talk about the Saint Cecilia, and to
indulge in the thrilling sensation that comes to the proverbial cat
when she looks at a queen. Some of them, moved by curiosity, even
ventured within half a block of the Hibernian Hall to observe from
afar the gay festivities.

The press being forbidden to cover Saint Cecilia events, there grew
up in the vulgar mind weird stories of what went on behind the
scenes. While the Saint Cecilia has enjoyed the happy privilege of
journalistic silence, it has, therefore, correspondingly suffered
on the tongue of gossip. The truth is that we always knew that the
Saint Cecilia was just about the same as every other social
collection of human beings--a little gaiety flavored with a little
frivolity; nothing more, nothing less.

There was a time when this society was the extreme limit of social
exclusiveness. It was an anachronism on American soil, a matter of
pure heredity, the right to membership in which was as fixed as
Median law, but transcendently above the median line. Now, however,
since the society, in keeping with the spirit of the age, has
relaxed its rules to admit from year to year (if, indeed, only a
few now and then) members whose blood is far from indigo, we think
it perfectly legitimate for the newspaper, which represents ALL
classes of people, to invade the quondam sanctity of its functions
which are now being OPENED to all classes.

Following this, the editorial quoted from Don Seitz's book, telling how
the elder James Gordon Bennett was in the habit of mocking "events to
which he was not invited," and how, in 1840, he managed to get one of
his reporters into "Henry I Brevoort's fancy dress ball, the social
event of the period." The quotation