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.
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