Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-15
TAKING OUT PASSPORTS.
Where American Travellers Have Uncle
Sans Seal Put on Them.
The Documents that Place Man Under the
Stars and StrIDes-How the Passports
Are Issued
Washington Star.

/
relative to the American citizen ander all
ordinary circumstances. It is only
when the American goes abroad that the
striped trousers and star-be-spangled
waistcoat seem the uniform of fatherly
care. Through the state department a
watchful eye is kept on the citizens of
! this country who choose to wander in the
land of strangers. To the man at home
! the state department seems useless and
| ornamental establishment of red tape
paper seals, exclusion, and secretiveness.
! Abroad, the state department is the only
branch of the government he has use for,
+ unless it is the navy.
! An American citizen, signed, sealed
and certified to by the state department
that is, furnished with an American
passports not a stranger i'll any land
The passport is a sort of accident in
surance policy, though the officials in
that very dlgnified department might not
like to look at it in that light Pay a
fee of 81 and you are given q document
which viii command the services of
the American minister or consul if
you are in distress in foreign land
You may travel through the greater part
of Europe very comfortably and never
have occasion to use this document; but
If you do need it you want it very badly
Again, there are some places where you
cannot 90 without it. Having it, your
loving country might even go to war to
defend you from insult and outrage. 1t
is formidable protection on occasion.
FILLING OUT PASSPORTS.
This is the great season for passports.
The clerks in the state department in
charge of that branch of the work are
kept busy taking descriptions of portly
Dapas, slender spinsters, elderly man.
mas and young daughters, not to mention
young men with lisping foreign accents,
who come to have their citizenship certi-
fed to before going abroad. This
business is done in a large light
room on the first floor of the big
granite building where Mr. Blaine for
mulates his vigorous foreign policy. A
very polite gentleman asks you some
pointedly personal questions, examines
you critically, makes a pen picture of
your prominent points, takes your dollar,
and you are insured against diplomatic
accidents. The applicant for passport
must have some one to identify him.
Then he must answer to his age Ids
place of birth, and give a little 6fehis
pedigree, as well as describe his occupa-
ton. Then the passport man writes
down very careful description of the
applicant - his height, his weigaif
whether fat or lean, the color of his hair,
the color of his eyes, whether cross-eyed
or straight, the style Of beard the shape
of face, the length of nose and general
description of that feature, shape of face,
whether long or round, high checked
bones or not, stopped or straight ana
many other little points besides that go
to make up individuality of appearance.
All these things have to go into the pass
port papers.
SEEING ONE IS SELF WITH OTHER s EYES.
If one wants an utterly impartial
opinion of ones personal appearance it
is necessary only to get out a passport
and read the description. The man en-
gagged in this descriptive writing has been
at it for number of years and is quite
an expert. He Is regarded also as a
physognomIst of no mean ability,
for his study of the human
countenance has been prolonged
and critical. There are difficulties in the
work, but he is most accurate portrayer
of personalities. 1t requires skill to give
an accurate and at the same time salts
factory description of lady who is not
quite as well satisfied as she appears to
be with what nature has done for her in
an architectural and artistic way. Many
women would prefer to run the risk
of being sent to Siberia or
locked in Russian dungeon
rather than have it said in their pass
port that they were born fifty years ago,
are unmarried, angular. with high cheek
feanes and sunken eyes, wear false teeth,
artificial bangs, and are endowed with |
noses much out of the ordinary proper |
tons. In cases where this is a perfectly |
accurate description on the passport man |
must exercise diplomacy. 1t might not |
do to point ont as distinguishing feature |
of a fashionable lady that she had ex-
large feet, for instance, or
that she had a moustache on her upper |
lip.
THE HARDNESS OF A PASSPORT.
man may imagine that passport is
luggage, but he is apt to be
corrected of this impression if he acts on
it. There are countries, such as Russia,
where he cannot 90 without it. But
where greater liberty is allowed travel
ers, and apparently there is no need of a
passport, occasion may arise at any mo-
ment when having one would save lots
Of trouble. You might 20 to
Ireland. No one would demand
that you show your passport on
the border. But just suppose some pa
triot got the notion that you were