Show written for this paper OUR DIPLOMATS ABROAD washington D C march and 1897 SECRETARY sherman t tells e I 1 I 1 s me that the applications f for 0 r consulships consul ships will probably numb e r 5 0 0 0 there are more than ten applicants for every s foreign mission seem to look upon and the die politicians appo ointments int ments as the beat ah ante in the gilt of 0 the administration mistake I 1 have at is a great t times visited every legation in and asia and have come into M mirope ta with more than one hundred assa 10 axi consuls consuls in all parts of the tt most ot of them were dissatisfied with their positions and all of big expenses and small U there is scarcely an office in in aa gm of th the state department which to allow its occupant to live enough nw station and entertain as he to ills ll 11 id one of the chief reasons for rich men to the courts of lon ZB Paris s berlin and st petersburg is is by means of their private tor for sy can keep up the style which minister should maintain aarder a to be of value at these courts these ministers get the highest salaries pod to any of our diplomats they re drive SIEZ ia soo a year each their ex however are often twice or WORM abis this amount whitelaw reid viso paid it is said sa a year house rent while he was minister to paris and his entertainments eneau must have cost him as seikh swore more our present minister to jP trance rance mr eustis PYs a year sw jor his bis house and his necessary ex ceases as given in an itemized state ift latent not long ago were a year jT visited it paris pans when levi P morton morion was OW minister there he paid more than twice his salary to keep up his establishment governor noyes of ohio when he was minister to france was too poor to maintain the dignity of the place out of hla his own pocket he was helped by having a rich secretary of legation this wa representative representative hitt of illinois who spent I 1 have been told as much as a year in entertain entertaining ing another costly foreign place is berlin minister inister there ought to keep up an ie with the ministers from other I 1 he cannot do so on much i 4 oooo a year the british minister at berlin gets a year and has a palace furnished by his govern ment and a big allowance for entertaining ng the british legation building at plis paris is five times as big as that of the british legation at washington and glands En german minister gets a year and additional for entertaining ta our minister to berlin is I 1 am told worth less today than he was when cleveland appointed him american ambassador to germany it is said that he failed in some of his diplomatic negotiations from a lack of money for entertaining and that his necessities at one time were such that he seriously thought ot of sending in his res resignation i agnation gna tion I 1 visited william walter phelps a few years ago when lie he was our minister to germany he was you know a man ot of large fortune and he spent money freely when he g got ot to berlin he c could find no house suitable for the american legation an independent establishment costs a great deal in that city many of the fashionable peo pie live in flats and only the richest can afford houses there were few houses for rent in the diplomatic locality mr phelps picked out the building he wanted and then sent his agents to buy out the tenants he ousted the storekeepers irom from the ground floor he bought up the leases of the fashionable people who were living above and then having released the whole building he turned an army of carpenters and masons into it and had it remodeled to suit himself his home was perhaps the finest any american foreign minister has ever had it contained amon among other rooms eight large parlors chice which cou d be thrown into one and it was so large that minister phelps cou d have entertained the whole of the german court had he wished to do so still his services to the united states were such that our government could have well afforded to have allowed him enough money for several such houses his entertainments brought him int the closest clodest relations with the Gr germans mans he was popular with both bismarck and the young emperor and arien he tried to get anything done for america he succeeded another efficient minister was oscar straus who represented us at constantinople during Clev elands first administration tra tion mr straus spent at least a year more than his salary he had i the closest relations witti the sultan ana his court and he was abe to settle any concerning america to our advantage in very short order few people have any idea of the expenses of our ministers those who are sent to the orient require a large number ot of servants ser vans the minister to japan has coachmen who are dressed in japanese livery and who wear hats like butter bows turned upside down the minis ter to peking has two men who do nothing else but watch the gates of the legation ground i to let the visitors in and out his coachman is is a swell chinaman who wears bright colored silk dresses when the minister goes out to ride on horseback a gorgeous groom follows behind while I 1 was in calcutta I 1 met the american consul ge general heral he was a plain oregon mancho man who I 1 venture had never neve had rhad moret more toan nan two servants at home in india he had to keep twenty when he went out to driva there were two coachmen with turbans and gowns on tire the front of his carri carriage agie and two other turbaned stand ing on the footboard Ite behind hind in oriental countries our ministers usually have servants go ahead of thern them as they walk through the city to dear clear the streets in constantinople and cairo the man who prec precedes ides the minister is known as the kavass the kavass has a sword enormous pistols and sometimes also a stall with a silver head he is dressed with much gold braid and wears a fez cap during daring my stay in egypt I 1 had an interview with the khedive at this time a kavass went with the consul general and myself to the palace when I 1 accompanied the american consul to call upon the patriarch of jerusalem we had two kavash ka in front of us each man carried a club as tall as himself upon the top of which was a ball of silver as big as your fist fisl As we walked through the narrow streets of jerusalem these swells drop ped their heavy sticks on the stone pave ment as they walked in front f rout and cleared the way for us our oar minister to corea has a company of soldiers from the king who act as his special body guard they are dressed in plum color ed zouave pantaloons short blouses belted in at the waist and hats of black horse hair which are tied on by ribbons fastened under the chin during my stay in I 1 had an interview with the king Ati this time the soldiers went in front from and cleared the way for me the present american minister to corea was first presented to the king on that day and we went together the king sending down a number ot of his own servants to accompany us to the palace our con in china have each a man called the pingchi Ting chi to go in front of them when they go out to make visits of state such a man man went in front ot of me when I 1 called upon li hung chang he was dressed in in bright colored silk and had on a pair of black cloth boots with soles an inch thick upon his head there was a hat which looked like an inverted spittoon and there was a big button on its crown to show that he was a man of rank style means a great deal in foreign courts and our ministers would be willett much better off if they could wear a uniform instead of being required to appear as is the rule ot of the state department in the ordinary dress of an american citizen our usual dress is you know just the same as that of the waiters and our ministers have in fact been taken for thew the waiters at some great diplomatic receptions when lambert tree was minister to belgium he attended such a reception he was standing holding a cup of coffee in his hand waiting for it to cool when an of one of the other legations wearing a bushel of gold lace and a peck ol of brass buttons seized the cup out of his hand and carried it away before mr tree knew what he was about the man took him for a waiter the other diplomats upon such occasions are clad in in uniforms em broidered broi dered with gold lace they wear swords and medals and many of them have silk belts and sashes if an american minister has been an officer ot of the army he usually wears a military uniform and it ii not he tries to get over the regulation in some other way james buchanan compromised on a black suit a white vest and a black handled sword our first minister to china john W ard adopted the costume of a captain of the georgia militia he had been ejected captain of a little company known as the chatham artillery and the uniform which he had bad made for himself as captain had brass buttons marked C A when he was at the chinese court one ot the almond eyed silk gowned noblemen asked him what the letters C A stood for mr ward replied that they were made in honor of the friendship or of china and america and that in order to give the greater honor to china its initial 1 C had been placed in front of that of america this seemed to delight the chinaman general lew W al lace wore his military uniform while he was minister to turkey it was his uniform that first attracted the attention of the sultan the first friday atter after general wallace arrived in constantinople he went to the building opposite the mosque to see his majesty as he went to prayers As the sultan came out of the mosque he looked over at the party of foreigners about general wallace and asked who the fine looking man in in uniform might be he was told it ic was the new american minister and he there upon raised his sallow hand to his bis red fez fex cap and saluted the general shortly after this when general wallace w was as presented the sultan referred to having seen him and the two became strong friends general wallace spent much time at the sultan sultans Is palace and amo among ng the other mementoes which he brought back from turkey is is a very fine pencil sketch of his majesty which the general drew while his majesty posed why should secretary sherman not inaugurate a new costume tor for our ministers mr sherman once appeared be tote tore napoleon III in knee breeches he wore an evening suit knee pants black silk stockings and pumps and he says in his book that it seemed very awkward ankwai d at first until he saw that all the other parties r ties at the reception were dressed as r be e was clifton R breckinridge our present minister to st petersburg appeared at the he court of the czar with his shapely shins clad in silk stockings now in these days of bicycle suits there is no reason why some such dress might not be adopted I 1 as the ordinary dress of the american citizen it was so in the he past when john adams was presented to king george III he wore a coat embroidered with lace his tat fat calves were clad in silk stockings and his shoes were ornamented with silver buckles benjamin franklin at his presentation sen tation to the king of france wore a plain suit of black velvet with black velvet knee breeches white silk stockings and black shoes he had intended to wear a wig but when it arrived the hair dresser could not squeeze it upon franklins big head the man worked and stretched and franklin finally told him that the wig was not large enough whereupon the french hairdresser angrily threw it upon the floor saying monsieur that is impossible it is not the wig which is too small it is the head which is too large most of our american ministers do good service they labor under I 1 he greatest disadvantages and have to compete with men who have spent their lives in the school of diplomacy they have no money and are under the sha dow of probable removal at the end of tour four years the method of their appointment is such that it is not strange that many inefficient men find their way to the head of our foreign legations so that every now and then one of them does something which is a disgrace to the united states I 1 have heard of a number of such instances and the stories of the adventures and mistakes of american ministers abroad could they be collected would make abood a book more ridiculous than artemus wards travels one of the diplomats whom cleveland sent to italy lived it is said over a dairy stable and appeared at court in a frayed collar and a soiled shirt I 1 was told in cairo how one of our former consuls general used to go to ismail pasha and whine about the poor salary his government gave him he reminded the khedive that bi bis majesty was rich and asked him for aid out of the egyptian treasury the khedive gave this consul general money again and again our government never knowing how bow much it was being disgraced it is no excuse for this man to add that he be was usually drunk at the times he made such requests I 1 have heard stories of the queer a acts ts of some of our south american mini ministers of the past one of them lived in buenos ayres for years in a small room over the shop which he had rented as our legation he gave no functions whatever until at last the outcry against his bis parsimony became so great that he rented a skating rink and sent out printed circulars asking the distinguished people of the argentine republic to come to an american entertainment when the president the diplomatic corps and the rest of buenos ayres swell dorn arrived they found the ameri amer 1 can minister sitting on a platform with the stars and stripes festooned festoon ed above him and a tigers skin at his feet about him were thirty eight women dressed in all colors of the rainbow to represent the thirty eight states which our country then had the minister did not rise to greet his guests they wandered about the room to the music of a brass band and waited in vain for the dancing to begin there was nothing to eat and nothing to drink and the occasion passed of as the social curiosity of the year another south ameri can minister took rooms in an humble bumble I 1 part of the capital at which he was sta 0 tinned he got an indian woman to do d his cooking for him and did his marketing himself shortly after he arrived ha applied for a position for his daughter asa teacher in one of the schools but ther the superintendent of education told him that public sentiment would not approve of the employment of the daughter daught erot ot a man of so high a rank for that purpose ose I 1 could tell a lot of queer stories storie about some of our ministers to the far east how for instance one of cleve lands ministers minister to japan used to comer coiner in verson person to th the front door of his lem lega tion lion to answer the bell at such times he might possibly be in his shirt sleeves and without a collar this man was the laughing stock of the far east for a time and his popularity at the court of the mikado was not increased by his letters which were published in the american papers in one of these he wrote that he was having a high old time among the japanese and informed the people of his town that it was the custom of the ladies of the empire to bathe in in the streams without bathing suit sand that the sight of them was worth the journey to japan this man was one a of Clev elands worst mistakes ot of him makes me think of another 1 I refer to bayliss W hanna who was appointed minister to the argentine republic shortly after arriving at buenos ayres he sent home a letter which was published in the local newspapers of w which the following are extracts this is a wonderful city of souls a revelation to me there is r more nori money here than in any place I 1 ever saw but just now they are having our greenback days over again gold being worth ax 51 it is the most extravagant government on earth I 1 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