The Man Who Robbed The Robber Barons

Everyone has heard of the robber barons ... who not only preyed on each other but on the nation at large during the second half of the [19th] century. Yet when these lords of industry were at the height of their power, a now all-but-forgotten magazine editor named Colonel William d'Alton Man was, in his turn, systematically robbing the robbers. The secret of the Colonel's power lay in the editorial philosophy of his magazine, "Town Topics, the Journal of Society". Each week half of "Town Topics" was given over to reports, largely scandalous, about what was going on among society leaders -- or would-be society leaders -- in major American Cities. This department, called "Saunterings" and signed "The Saunterer" -- the Colonel's nom de plume -- makes lively and often appalling reading even ... generations later. ...One hero emerges ... the husband of Emily Post who brought Colonel Mann to trial because he preferred public humiliation in "Town Topics' to the private humiliation of paying blackmail to a blackguard. -- Jacket flap.