Society news of the early 80's, as handled in the Oregon papers, had advanced from the fumbling formlessness of the late forties and the fifties; society itself was "growing up" a bit. Until the advent of the Sunday paper, late in 1881, the social week was reviewed to the extent of half a column to a column in the Saturday morning Oregonian.
Right up to the time of the Sunday paper there was rather a heavy seriousness about it; any humor that appeared had "crept in," inadvertently. Headlines were small and as far removed from liveliness as humanly possible.
Among the personals is a comment on some prominent Portland society matrons, clipped from Andrew's Society Queen, "the great society paper," in its issue of September 3:
Mrs. ex-Senator Corbett is one of the most elegant ladies at the "States." She dresses in exquisite taste without being fond of display and is altogether a most charming and affable lady. There is excellent society in Portland, and she is a leader. . . .
Mrs. Oscar R. Meyer of Portland, Oregon, is a lady of delightful vivacity, a fine singer, and highly cultured in every respect.
The Sunday Oregonian was launched about two months later (Dec. 4, 1881), and the gayety attending its advent was not wanting in the social column itself, which had been transferred to the Sunday paper. Nothing heavy and didactic is interpolated, but the column is not allowed to get monotonous. In the very first Sunday issue, right in the middle of the Society notes, between a solemn description of an heirloom costume worn at a recent Old Folks' concert and a story of a dignified party at the residence of Mr. C. B. Bagley at Olympia Wednesday on the occasion of the birthday of the editor of the Courier, one comes suddenly upon this:
Mary had a vaccine scab
Upon her snow-white arm;
She warned her beau to this effect
For fear he'd do it harm.
But when they came to part that night,
She gave a mighty grab
And whispered, "Hug me awful tight
And never mind the scab."
Nothing like that has been appearing in the Sunday society department in Portland for some time.
An ad like this in these days would probably suggest that the persons involved were declasse or at least not of the elite. The names, however, belie this and indicate that society news and editing were not in those days what they have since become:
