from Mr. Seitz's book ends with the
following: "A far cry from this to 1894, when Ward McAlister, arbiter of
the '400' at Mrs. Astor's famous ball, became a leader on social topics
for the New York 'World.' It took many years for this umbrage at the
reporting of social events to wear off and make the reporter welcome.
Indeed, there is one place yet on the map where it is not even now
permitted to record a social event, though the editors and owners of
papers may be among those present. That is Charleston, South
Carolina...."

The Charleston editor then resumes his own reflections in this wise:

We regret to say, and it is the regret of our life, that we were
not one of the editors present at the Saint Cecilia. This,
therefore, relieves us of the implied condition to adhere any
longer to this silly and absurd custom which, in the language of
this great newspaper man, has made its last stand "on the map" at
Charleston. We are glad that we have forever nailed, in the opinion
of one hundred million ordinary people who make the American
nation, the absurdity that there is any social event so sacred, any
people so DIFFERENT from the rest of us poor human beings, that we
dare not speak of them.

Just why private social events should be, as Mr. Grace seems to assume,
particularly the property of the press, it is somewhat difficult to
explain, unless we do so by accepting as fundamental the theory that the
press is justified in invading personal privacy purely in order to
pander, on the one hand to the new breed of vulgar rich which thrives on
"publicity," and on the other, to the breed of vulgar poor which enjoys
reading that supremest of American inanities, the "society page."

What Mr. Seitz said in his book as to the reticence of Charleston
newspapers, where society is concerned, is, however, generally
true--amazingly so to one who has become hardened to the attitude of the
metropolitan press elsewhere. The society columns of Charleston papers
hardly ever print the names of the city's real aristocrats, and in the
past they have gone much farther than this, for they have been known to
suppress important news stories in which prominent citizens were
unpleasantly involved. It may be added that earthquakes are evidently
classed as members of the aristocracy, since occasional tremors felt in
the city are pointedly ignored by the press. Whether or not the paper
edited by the fe