Sioux County pioneer., 1922-12-07
The Society
Editor
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE

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~ WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE i=
Cepysishe. 1922. b. the Macmillan CO.
TNHEY say that in the newspaper
offices Of the city men work In
u ra1s; that the editorial writer
never reports an item, no matter how
much he knows Of It; that repoter is
not allowed to express an editorial
view Of q subject, even though he be
we'll qualified to speak; but on our
little country daily newspaper 1t is
entirely different. We work on the
interchangeable point system. Every
one writes items, all of US get adver-
tising and job-work when 1t comes our
way, and when one Of US writes any,
thing particularly good, 1t is marked
for the editorial page. The religious
reporter does the racing matinee in
Wildwood park, and the financial ed
ator. who gets the market reports from
the feed-store men, also gets any
church news that comes along.
The only time we ever established
a department was when we made Miss
1arrabee society editor. She came
from the high school, where her grad
uating essay on Kipling attracted our
attention, and. after an office council
mad decided that Saturday society
page would be paying proposition.
At first. for six months after she
came to the office, Miss Larrabee de.
voted herself to the accumulation Of
professional pride. This pride was as
much part Of her life as her pompa-
.dour, which at that time was so high
that she had to tiptoe to reach it.
However she managed to keep 1t up
was the wonder of the office. Finally,
we all agreed that she must use
.chicken.fence. She denied this, but
vas inclined to be good-natured about
It, and, as an Office joke, the boys
used to leave step-ladder by her desk.
80 that she could climb up and see
now her top-knot really looked. Moth
ing ruffled her spirits. and we soon
quit teasing her and began to admire
her work. In addition to filling six
columns Of the Saturdays paper with
her society report in town where
church social is important enough to
Justify publishing the names Of those
who wait on the tables, Miss Larrabee
was credit to the Office.
She was always invited to the enter
tainments at the homes Of the Worth
ingtons and the Conklins, who had
stationary washtubs in the easements
of their houses and who ate dinner
instead Of supper In the evening; and
when she put on what the boys called
her trotting harness, her silk petticoats
rustled louder than any others at the
party. One day she suddenly dropped
her pompadour and appeared with her
hair parted in the middle and doused
over her ears in long, undulating bill
lows No other girl In town came
within quarter Of an inch Of Miss
Larrabee's dare. When straight fronts
became stylish, Miss Larrabee was a
vertical marvel, and when she rolled
up her sleeves and organized q country
club, she referred to her shoes as boots
and took the longest steps in town.
But with it all she was no mere
clothes-horse. We drilled it into her
head during her first two weeks that
society" news in country town
means not merely the doings of the
-cut-glass set, but that 1t means as well
the doings Of the Happy Hoppers, the
Trundle.Bed Trash, the Knights of Co
1umbus, the Rathbone Sisters, the
Kings Daughters, the Epworth league,
the Christian Endeavorers, the Wo.
mans Relief corps, the Ladies' Aid and
the Home Missionary societies, Miss
Nelson's Dancing class, the Switch
mems Annual ball-if we get. their
5ob-work every kindred, every
tribe, except such as gather in what
ds known as Kitchen sweats" and oc-
-casionally send in call for the police.
When Miss Larrabee got this into her
head she began to groan under her
burden, and by the end Of the year,
though she had great pride in her
profession, she affected to loathe her
department. s.ss .5.
vvCuO1u6S WOAO nSI SSYCClAl 6UOIll.
nations. When the. first social cloud
appeared on the horizon, indicating the
approach Of q series Of showers for the
bride which would culminate in a
cloudburst at some stone church, Miss
Larrabee would Begin to rumble like
distant thunder and, as the storm grew
thicker, she would flash out crooked
chain-lightning .imprecation ON the
heads Of the young people, their faith
ers and mother and uncles and aunts.
BY the day Of the wedding she would
be rolling steady diapason Of polite,
decolorized, expurgated, ladylike pro.
family.
While she sat at her desk writing
the stereotyped account Of the event,
It was like picking up a live wire to
speak to her. As she wrote, we could
/ tell at just what stage she had arrived
In her copy. Thus, IL she said to the
adjacent atmosphere, "What a whop-
4 PERI we knew that she had written,
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