Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1918-02-28
Back-Door
Methods
By Helen Gregg


IF you ever expect to make a go as
society editor" said the city editor,
looking over the top of his horn spec
tacles and not taking the trouble to
take the cigarette from the place where
1t adhered to his lower lip, you've got
to learn the back-door method. Get
the dramatic editor to give you tick
cts for bum shows that none Of us
want to see, and hand them out to the
telephone operators in some of the
swell hotels. In return, they will lis
ten to conversations when the swell
danes in their places call anyone up
Kid the ladies' maids in the dressing
rooms when you go to charity balls,
and get next to the hair-dressers and
manicure girls that are employed by
the society women who don't have
their own maids. OF course, the big
bugs themselves won't take the trou
BILE to talk to you" and there was an
emphasis on the "you'' that was very
belittling to Clarice Daw, newly in
stalled as society editor Of the News
World.
Sometimes, in spite of the city ed
itor's judgment, the "big-bugs" did talk
to Clarice If they ever mentioned her
mt all to each other 1t was to speak Of
her as a mice little thing" Very
pretty though she was. she managed
never to be striking when she attend
ed society functions, and though more
than one husband or son would gladly
have talked to her instead of the more
eligible women Of their own set, Clar-
ice knew too much to let them. She
preferred the back-door method of get
ting news II she were forced to con-
suit the "big-bugs" at all. she had
learned that the oldish women when
approached with considerable but dis
Greet f1attery yielded up the facts she
wanted to know better than anyone
else But Clarice had made the dis
covery that there is no one in the
world that Is so dattered by the at
tention Of young and pretty woman
as an old woman, especially when that
attention Is accompanied by complete
obliviousness Of the existence of that
aging ones husband or son.
On the occasion of the big war ben
eft bazaar that was to be given out
at Colonel James Drew's country es-
tate late in the autumn, Clarice was
urged to do her durndest" by the city
editor. He promised to give the event
the most conspicuous position on the
front page, of course, provided there
was not another revolution in Rus
STA or a cabinet minister did not re-
sign or something of that sort. Its
to be the biggest social event of the
season." he told her, land, besides,
there is a very good reason why we
want to have Drew think the News
World is the best sheet in town."
'Well. I'm sure there is every reason
why he should" protested Clarice
whose loyalty to the paper for which
she worked was complete.
Clarice circled hurriedly round the
large drawing rooms where the vari-
Gus booths had been set upN and then
roamed through the protected gardens
of the old estate and down linden lanes
and through hemlock groves and in
and out Japanese garden, where the
various money-extracting schemes
were established. She noted on the
tiny sheets of paper that she held in
conspicuously in her hand the gowns
of the various distinguished women
whose faces had come to be very ia
miliar to her. But, reflected Clarice,
gowns wouldn't be enough for a first
page story. Sne WlSneO that nre
might break out in a wing of the house
or that someone would fall into the
pool In the Japanese garden so that
someone else might make q heroic
rescue. But nothing like that hap
pened. Then Clarice remembered the
back-door method.
Sheltered in a grape arbor that ran
at right angles from the hedge that
bounded the kitchen yard was an elab-
orately set-up bar. Although. per-
force, all the drinks there dispensed
were of the soft variety. The bar was
entirely attended by men, who stood
smoking and sfivering there in the ar
bor-apparently their sanctuary from
too much femininity. Mayhap behind
those bottles of ginger ale were some
others not listed on the enormous,
facetiously worded list of drinks that
was fastened conspicuously over the
lmpromptu bar. Clarice knew, of
course, that interesting though such
revelation might be, it would never do
to make the interest of her article de-
pend on such information.
What did focus her attention was
the presence of two Woodworking men
in white linen coats who mixed vari-
GUS connections with all the expertness
of professionals They were the only
servants that Clarice had yet been able
to discover. She knew that if she could
get hold of one of the servants