The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-10
A RIDICULOUS DIPLOMAT.

From the N. T. Sun.
Mr.. John Jay is Minister of the Unite
States to Austria, and represents our country
at the Court of his Catholic and Apostolic
Royal-Imperial Majesty Francis Joseph 1, in
the beautiful city of Vienna.
Thepetition of our Minister to Austria, where
in he asks the civil and criminal court of Baden
Baden to prevent his wife from having the
chills and fever, shows that Mr.. Jay has sue
ceeded in getting into an absurd family
quarrel, and has chosen to do this in way
to attract the largest share of public at
tention.
Since the present administration began,
brothers-in-law have gained prominent noto-
riety MIR. Jay, like those in more eminent
position, has been brought into trouble by his
brother-in-law. This gentleman is Hickson
w. Field, Jr., of New York While Mr. jays
family were at Homburg, this festive youth
arrived there. His father having made
a will in which he had given the largest share
of his property to Mrs. Jay and her children,
young Hickson had become irate. He de-
manded his sisters assent to change in the
will. She refused it. Upon this the terrible
young man made remarks of severe nature,
which caused Mrs. Jay to have an attack of
chills and fever
Mr. Jay was at Vienna when he learned of
this occurrence. He took the first train for
Homburg. There he found what his brother
in-law had said, his remarks being such as
that he would raise -" and 'crush them"
Mr. Jay incorporates all this into his appeal
to the Baden Baden tribunal. He says that
he is obliged to return to Vienna and cannot
take his family with him. as they have been
ordered elsewhere by their physician; that he
fears Hickson will carry out his threats; and
that his son is soon to go home to America,
so that he cannot protect the rest. He asks
fha (p11rt tn the nQrtiag
before it, and take measures to guard them
against the angry brother-in-law.
Is not this ridiculous? A high official of
the United States appears in the role of pc
titioner to a court of petty fifth-rate Ger
man principality, all about family quarrel
| in which the avarice of both sides is the most
prominent feature. Why did not his son, who
| is set forth in the document as Lieutenant
Colonel William JAY" have warlike ardor suf-
ficient to raise something on his part and in.
continently kick Field ont of his house when
he abused his mother? That would have
saved all this flourish of trumpets and of
titles which respectable American ought to
be ashamed to write out in full, except when
he cannot help it. If legal proceedings were
necessary, lieutenant-colonel ought to be
man enough to institute them without calling
the parent Jay from his gilded cage at the
Austrian capital The whole affair seems tC
us one of those operations concerning dirty
linen which, in the common opinion of man
kind, should be confined to the wsh-tub att
| home.
On one account we are glad to hear of Jayl
Stiffness. 1t will annoy the snobs and trouble
those who fancy that an avarioious and foolisl
individual can make great country ridicu
lous. But it is painful to reflect that Presi
dent Grant chose such a man for the Austrian
mission in preference to William Cutler
RrVant