The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1905-09-21
the PERSONAL COLUMN.
Dailies Think Items Silly in Weeklies
That Are Proper in Their Sheets.


a news interest. Additionally, they
have a personal interest to others.
They take the place, to degree. of
the exchange of personal information
that used to be made at the church
and which still, under circumstances
that give it value, is made there.
There is. besides. in the personal col
umn human side. 1t represents in
terest in people amid the multifarious
concerns of other kinds with which
the newspaper is freighted. This per-
sonal column is the same in its char
acteristicS wherever it is found-the
same in London, Indiana. as in Lon
don. England. (Wc speak. of course,
to the purely private personal informa-
ton: that which gets no warrant from
official position or commercial func-
tom
And yet few things are more anus
ing to community than the persona!
column or items of another community.
There is more fun in it than in looking
at the fashions of last year or the last
decade. We know how conSumed'y
funny tight trousers look in an era OF
loose trousers. or tight-waisted. long
Skirted coats in time of straight gar
mentS-never rejecting that when
fashion swings round again the pres
ent styles will look precisely as ridic-
ulous. So, each community finds fun
in the personal columns of another
community, and seldom with the re-
Election that the converse is the case.
Few newspapers indulge in this sort
of fun so frequently, and Gt must be-
get so much enjoyment out of it. as
those of our great imperial city of New
York. 1t is almost standing feature
for them to copy the personal informa-
ton of some other community. The
enjoyment that it occasions can be
imagined from the frequency and
prominence with which it is done. \
recent example was the reproduction
in one of the metropolitan papers Of
the personal column Of paper OF
small Kentucky town. One Of these
items so solemnly reproduced Cthere
were others of its kin6 was this:
Mrs. Mann, of Ewing, Ky, is visit
ing her brother, C. NJ. Boone, of this
place"
This was doubtless very funny. But
the same New York paper contained
this item for itself:
Mr.. and Mrs. Thomas Hunt have
arrived from Europe, and are guests
of Mr.. and Mrs. Julian w. Robbins"
And doubtless there was nothing
funny at all to the New York paper in
that. But why should the one be sober
and the other silly? The Hunts and
the Robbinses are as much unknown
quantities in the Kentucky community
as the Manns and the Boones are in
New York. AS for the Importance OF
the event chronicled to the two COM
munities, manifestly it is horse and
horse" Similarly another funny
Kentucky personal was copied, thus
George and New Fox started Mon
day to Illionois, where they will make
their home this summer
But the New York paper chronicled:
Mrs. James McVickar has left town
for Brookside, her place at DobbS
Ferry, on the Hudson, for the season"
Again we have Kentucky:
Mr.. W. L. Stages bought Of Mrs.
James Mason a farm Of eighty acres
at $67 per acre"
And New York:
mfr. and Mrs. Thomas Mexican. who
are at present in Paris, have rented
Pince cottage No. 8. in Narragansett
avenue. for the coming season"
Where is the difference, if any? The
persons involved are equally unknown
IN the "other" community, and both
alike in 4 third community. All are
in private life. They touch the public
in nothing. And certainly there is as
much dignity in buying n farm as
renting house; and for the matter OF
that the one implies life Of industry
which means something added to the
countTys riches; the other implies
life o. idleness, mere dawdling with
nothing more intelligent in it than the
play Of children with hobby horses and
dolls.
It SEEMS to us that there is a large
field for the metropolitan papers to
cultivate with reference to the personal
intelligence department, and that is TO
get over the idea that such items in
other communities are ridiculous. while
in theirs they are Of the utmost dignity
and moment. Both alike have their
local value, but not one silver of worth
outside of that. and both are equally
inanc to 4 third party; and If there IS
any difference the New York items are
the inaner of the two, for they are
vain repetition Of the names OF the
sane set of idlers-the folk that liter
ally do nothing. and all that is chron-
icled Of them is just that: They come
to town. they go to the country; they
90 to Europe; they rent cottage
they give dinner; they attend a dance,
OF ce:era ad nauseam. For the Ken
tucky folk it can 1T least be said that
the personal mention that they occas-
ionally get does not represent all they
90 in life.-Indianapolis News.
-
How Portland Was Named.
Frank W. Pettygrove, of Seattle. has
the penny that named the city OF Port
land Ore On the toss OF this com