Huntsville gazette., 1889-10-05
SOCIAL PROMOTERS.
A Useful Glass Who Introduce the Newly
vEsss Rich Into Society.

Rich Into Society.
1t is reported that the Queen OF Eng
land, who looks rather carefully about
the etiquette of her court, has been
graciously pleased to express her dis
pleasure at the conduct Of certain i'm
pecunious personages OF quality who
have made practice OF secretly turn
ing an honest penny by standing spon-
sor at court for those ambitious per-
sons who wished to be presented at
the drawing rooms, but had not a con-
nection which made it possibles with
outpurchasing the favor Her Majesty
Queen Victoria is a woman, and her
sex is traditionally known to be more
or less capricieus and illogical; SO that
it is not to be wondered at that in this
matter she seems not to have consid-
cred the question in all its bearings
and to have been somewhat unjust to
those unfortunate ladies who have
been forced by lack of funds into a
line OF procedure for which they evl-
IDENTIFY had no taste, but which they
doubtless regarded as perfectly legiti-
mate. They perceived what every
body knows, that social favors are
purely a conventional matter. and they
were right in assuming that if it
chanced to be the case that a given
lady had no friend to whom she wishes
to apply for the favor in question, it by
no means followed that she was not
entitled to the honor. Of having a chance
to kotou to her sovereign. What they
really did was to establish a new and
necessary industry, and one which in
some form or other, recognized or un-
recognized. is a necessity Of every So
cial system. They made themselves
social promoters.
The social promoter is the means by
which new blood is introduced into cir
cles necessarily exclusive and hard of
access. 1t is to the offices of this use
ful class that the newly rich who make
up the bulk OF modern fashionable So
ciety in all lands. unless it be among
the savage tribes with whose social
customs we are not fully familiar, OBJ
tain admission to the charmed ranks of
the-select. Sometimes it is simple
business transaction wherein a certain
sum Of money is frankly given and re-
ceived, and sometimes the compensa-
ton is in some other form; but in any
case the principle is the same. So
ciety is not wronged, because in any
case society has the veto power, and if
it is not satisfied with the candidate
presented for admission to its ranks, it
is in no way bound to admit him or her.
In the case of the Queens drawing
rooms there are officials whose especial
duty it is to pass upon the claims of all
whose names are submitted to them,
and it is popularly understood that her
Majesty herself gives personal scru-
tiny to the list before it is adopted.
Since she has the chance of rejecting
anybody on the merits of the case it
seems unreasonable to insist that the
motive of the sponsor shall have been
pure, friendship; and it would be equal
ly absurd for society to insist that the
people who claim its consideration and
favor shall be in the hands of their
friends simply.
Surely society should be now in
position sufficiently advanced to look at
this matter reasonably. A social pro-
moter would for his own sake, if prop
erly recognized, be careful whom he
took up, and his judgment would in
the end be far more reliable than that
of any friend, no matter how disinter-
ested and how high in the social scale.
We hear much about introducing busi-
ness principles into everything else,
and why not into thisp Why not have
some system in the management of the
four hundred as well as in the conduct
ing of the trivial affairs of lifep Let it
be understood that there are properly
appointed persons to whom are to be SUBJ
mitted the claims of all candidates for
social consideration, and the whole
thing. instead of being involved in its
present painful confusion, becomes at
once beautifully simple, and works
like the wheels of clock. Nobody is
hurt or wronged, and nobody will then
be kept out Of the place which he is en-
titled to occupy for want of means oil
presenting his claims. The thing once
properly tried would enrapture all So
cial leaders and go SO far to bring
about social millennium that the gen.
eral mellennium would not be likely to
tarry long behind. Boston Courier.
In flower yard of Lexington. Ga /,