PLAN No. 326. A SOCIAL REGISTER
The society reporter of a leading daily newspaper in a middle western city, who enjoyed an extensive acquaintance among the prominent people of the place, devoted her vacation to accumulating the material for a “social register” in addition to the knowledge she already possessed regarding the foremost families of the city.
She was on intimate terms with most of the society leaders, and therefore had but little difficulty in inducing them to pay her $2 each for including the family name in the register, which was open only to those who were representatives of good citizenship, and properly entitled to such prominence.
The $2 paid by the head of each family covered the entire charge for having the names of all members of the family in the book, and included the family name, given names, address, telephone number, “at-home” days, names of daughters having made their debut, as well as those “coming out” the present season, the names of social societies or clubs to which any members of the family belong, with official position, if any held therein, the families, summer address, etc. In a word, it was a complete record of the city’s best people.
She appointed one or two solicitors capable of approaching exclusive people, for the purpose of enrolling them, and solicited only enough advertisements of the highest class to fill six or seven pages, charging very high rates for the same; and, although no capital was required to start the enterprise, by the time the solicitors and the printers were paid, she found she had cleared nearly $600 from the publication of the book. Every two years thereafter she published a new edition.