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 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...."