"sassiety" And Vice

it wonld be hard indeed if -we ccrald not get a laugh out of all these horrkt scandals that sear society's face, and it bas come at last- broad, bearty and irrepressible. The good peopleof Newport - not the old Newporters, but the people who have followed in their train - are so incensed by tb reports published abont the misdoings of tne Four Hundred that they have organized a Society For the Suppression of Newspaper Notoriety. Dear, comical, old El bridge T. Gerry is at the head of the new society, and it looks as if he would have time to attend to nothing else. The purpose of the society is to prevent the publication in New York and Boston (othercities don'tcount) of matters that are purely personal to the Four .Hundred and of no public interest. If Mrs. Stevens' maid takes advantage oí Mr. Torn Cushing's valet, that is legitimrfe news, and no objection will be il % to its publication, bnt if Mrs. Stevens herself should cast sheep's eyes at Mr. Cnshing, or if Mr. A. should comprcmi.se Mr. B. 's wife, orMr. C. sue his wife for divorce, or Mrs. D. go wrong with a dude - these are matters that concern nobody but the culprits themselves and their most intímate friends. No wonder the laugh is loud and lonp at these good people's expense. Did it never occur to dear old Gerry and his younger friends on the social toboggan slide that a "Society For tho Suppression of Vice In the Four Hundred" would cut at the very root of the evil of which they complain, whereas the step they are taking now can only trim off some of the topmost boughs? There is without doubt a certain amount of reckless newspaper writing going on which every one abominates- and every ono reads. This writing keeps pace with the doings of the day. It is often inaccurate, vnlgar and malicious; but, on the other hand, there is so much social evil doing that never finds its way into print at all that the score is pretty even up to date. I could mention the names of hundreds of prominent New York and Boston families who have never had cause to complain of a single line or word printed to their derogation. And why? Siniply because they have never given the opportunity. While not inaking a pleaforthé society reporter or the scandal loving editor I am sufficiently familiar with their methods to know that they would just as lief print good news of prominent people as bad news. Bad news sells better than good news, of course. In times of war, tempest, famine, fire and flood the demand for newspapers doubles and trebles. So it does in times of great social disaster. The collapse of Duncan, Sherman & Co. , the f ailuro of Grant & Ward, the elopement of Herbert Peil and Mrs. Kate Kernochan, the divorce of Mr. and Mrs. Fernando Yznaga and the subsequent marriage of both, the Drayton scandal, the Vanderbilt imbroglio, the Gould fiasco - all these stirring incidents in social life, and thousands of others for which I haven't space, constitute the gossip of the day which is on every one's lips, and which can no more be kept out of the newspapers than a dnck can be kept out of water or Ward McAllister out of print. That is why I advise kind old Gerry and his pretty playmates to begin to trim ship before they yell that they are overpowered by water. I cannot predict any success for the D6W societywith the object of suppressing bad news about fashionable people. Murder will out - so will adultery, drunkenness, cheating at cards, dishonorable indebtedness and all the other vices to which flesh is heir. As I said before, a society that condemus pubhcity has ouly to ponder for a moment upon all it does that is not printed and be grateful on its marrow bones that such matters are still personal and have not yet become of public