The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-02-10
A SOCIETY NEWS GATHERER
MUST BE "CAVIARE TO
THE GENERAL"
BY the
Society
Woman.

porters the society reporter
Woman. is the most ubiquitous and
Unsuitable. You make up
your mind to invite few friends to
dinner, and before your last invita-
ton is delivered (they are sent late,
as it is to be quite informaD the re-
porter is at the door to know "how
many guests there are please, and who are
they to be, what are the decorations, and
are you going to have favors or souve
nirs?"
Or you think you will have small card
party, for your house isn't very large, to
relieve yourself of some of your obliga-
tons, and just as you are in the midst of
the throes of last details, have received
late regrets and are wildly casting about
in your mind who to get and how to get
them, to fill the places, behold-the re-
porter, to pry about and view the decora-
tons, to ask innumerable questions as to
how many prizes you are going to give,
and what your score cards are made of,
ending with Il request for your "list of
guests.
Now you know that if you allow that
list to be published you are going to
make mortal enemies of every person you
and try to put her off OTIS always a
''her' and it's SO much harder to be
finty with a woman than with MANI,
and begin to make explanations and
wish you were dead; but finally she goes,
triumphant, with the list in her hand,
card party later on, when you must in
vite those that you didn't invite to this
one.
Then again you deliberately plan to get
out of your social indie btedness by giving
q crush" come-and-go reception,
with light refreshments and string or
chestra. You spread yourself on the dec
orations and feel rather well satisfied
that it is going to be great success all
around. Again the reporter appears, but
you think that this effort is worthy of an
account in the Sunday paper and confide
will hold it till the following Sunday.
The immediate reply. has a. Yankee fla
vor, in that it is another question: "Will
you keep it out of the other papers till
Sunday" eyes, oh yes-no other paper
shall have it till Sunday" and you look
in the other paper next day to see who
else has given party, and-there is the
account of your own, the promise to
keep it out till Sunday to the contrary
Notwithstanding.
Alas! This is world full of woes and
wickedness, and what are the reporters
feelings all bnlS timer is III any more 1un
for her to insinuate herself into the pri-
vacy of various private homes, and, with
oily smiles and seductive bland shments,
try to extort information regarding pri-
waite entertainments, that is often cheer
fully given, to be sure, but sometimes
very reluctantly doled out? No, it is not
fun at all, but it is her business; in some
instances it is case of bread and
butter, and there is no position on
paper that requires more tact, more
policy, and a keener knowledge of human
nature than that which obliges either
man or woman to go to a private resi-
dence and secure from lady who, for any
reason, does not desire it, an account of
her private entertainments, which may
be published in the society column of a
daily paper. OF course there are many
cases where the minutest detail is given
with most genial cordiality, where the
decorations and favors the list of guests,
and even the-but that is another story.