The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-05-16
Indigestion and Constipation

union who go from house to house
carrying the secrets of their last en-
pioyers to their new ones. But they
can't, for obvious reasons, reach
village stage, besides they operate
largely in one and the same set,
where the front perch and parlor
blacksmiths would do the work pretty
the S. r., however. and her only ex-
cuse for existence, is to chronicle the
doings of one set for the benefit of an
other, or rather in a town of this size
the doings Of the smart set for the
benefit of all the others. including the
great UnWashed, of which the smart
set wots not or Wot nots-just as you
prefer
The S. r. herself may be a retiring,
I Injurious, harmless sort of person with
no especial taste or talent for gossip.
Usually she drifted into her igno-
minious and disgracefu1 position in
her callow youth under the erroneous
| impression, which has been the rock
/ blue stocking has gone to wreck, that
Journalism" is somehow connected
with and may be a. steppingstone to
literature. At any rate the S. R.
should not be blamed for a social con-
dition of which. she is at once the
product, the unwilling tool and the
helpless victim. AS long as we have
a smart set" by its own or other peo-
/ pies denomination, we will have the
society column and the S. R.
1t is the greatest of mistakes to sup
pose that the society column is insti-
tuted or maintained IN the interests
Of the smart set. They continue to get
their gossip about one another in the
primitive way by word of mouth, and
i for the gossip outside their set they
care nothing; indeed, they are not
4 aware of the existence of any set but
their own They are bored and an
noyed, or affect to be. by the liberties
| which the society columns take in re-
porting their goings a d comings, their
entertainments. engagements, and so
| forth Sometimes they go so far as
to request the S. r. to keep their
/ names out of the paper" and it should
be understood in the S. RS behalf,
that as far as she is personally con-
| cerned she would as lief do SO as
not, II she could with justice to her
real clientele. For it must be remem-
bered that the S. RS clientele is not
| composed of the smart set. and that
it Is not for their sake that the society
/ column is written and published. AS
has been said before. they care moth
ing about it, and If they did their
number is so small that 1t would
hardly justify the expense. The
smart set are a very important factor
| in the community, undOubte dly-if
| it were not for them what would the
people of whose existence they are I'M
culation department of the newspaper
they are only counted in round num-
berS and, in that computation compare
with the rest of the world very IN
favorably. For numerically they are
the smallest part of the community
The society column is therefore not for
the smart set whose affairs it records
from day to day, but for the plebeians
the common herd, the hot polloi,
| without reference to race, color or
/ n
people of the agricultural districts who
live along the free rural routes; the
primitive yokels of Podunk, Plum
Creek. Smiths Corner and other
whistling stations all of whom must
know what is going on in the metro
politan centers of social activity in or
der that they may copy their own So
cial pleasures and diversions from
models which have the stamp of
fashionable authority. Just as New
York copies London. and Chicago apes
New York, and Kansas City considers
Chicago a model. and Topeka borrows
ideas from Kansas City-and largely
through the medium of the society
columns, for It must not be thought
because the smart set of one town
despises its own society column that
it is equally indifferent to the dofngs
of its superiors in the social scale
Just so Podunk. Plum Creek and
Smiths Corners follow the lead of To-
pelSa. And who would be so indif-
ferent to the cause of social progress
as to wish to leave Podunk ct al in
the benighted ignorance that would be
theirs without the society column ?
Not even the most aristocratic exclu-
siven ess, desirable and even essential
as that quality is in a. smart set worthy
to be the subject Of 8 society column,
could excuse such self1shness. No.
the smart set may find the society
column and the S. r. annoying, but
> thew are necessary evils The plain
People demand them and it is one OF
the most cherished traditions OF the
smart set. one of the main f1ctionl
upon which 1t has its foundation, that
the Plain People must have what they
want