What Is Society? Toto Papin Explains
by Marguerite Martyn
Marguerite Martyn was an experienced reporter, but one interviewee lit her up in a way that many others did not.
She had tracked down Theophile Papin and insisted that he share with her some of Society’s Secrets. Papin bought and sold real estate. He was as an eminently educated man, a linguist, a lover of rare books, and a collector of valuable paintings. |
Above all, Papin was known as the “squire of debutantes” because of all the society mamas who called on him to steer their 18-or 19-year-old daughters through the “coming out” that St. Louis society demanded of marriageable females.