The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-11-29

Secretary Blaine-for this was he-rose
and gave me his hand; a white well kept
hand, firm and shapely. Before sat down
he had given me an instance of
HIS EXTRAORDINARY MEMORY
by recalling the occasion of our last meet
ing, at dinner given By Whitelaw Reid
nine years before.
Mr.. Blaine spoke in full musical voice
agreeable TO the ear, and expressed himself
Nth noticeable distinctness, both of mat
ter and utterance, yet with the natural
ness and ease of one whose mind is perspi-
cacious and whose ideas flow easily. He
sat with his elbows on the arms of his
chair, occasionally making slight gestures
with his hands. His eyes are soft, bright
and clear; and they are intelligence itself
l don't know that [ have seen such another
pair of eyes; they see and understand
everything at once and without effort: in
fact effort, in the sense of straining to
achieve, is not suggested by Mr.. Blaine's
aspect; he seems to do what he does easily
and even pleasursbly. He holds the most
important and responsible post under the
administration; but $50 far, at least, as his
intellect is concerned) his capacity remains
indefinitely in excess of any demands upon
it.
The routine of the office,n said he, sis
very simple, and you can understand it in
ant secretary and a second and third assist
ants. The assistant secretary takes his
place as secretary pro tenn when the secre-
tary is absent, and attends to all the con-
sular correspondence. The present incum-
bentis Mr.. William f. Wharton, of Bos-
ton. The second assistant, MIR. Alvey A
Adee, is engaged wholly in the diplomatic
department The third assistant has all
cases of extradition and does great deal of
miscellaneous duty besides. 1t is vacant
now. 1t was occupied by Mr.. John b.
Moore, who resigned to accept very
tempting offer in Columbia college as pro-
lessor Of international law. He was in
troduced IN the department as clerk by Mr..
Bayard, my immediate predecessor. He is
very mature man, and very able. At
twenty nine, only, he wrote what / think
VIII be considered the standard work on
extradition. l predict he will be heard
from in his career.
THERE ARE SIX BUREAUS
accounts, statistics, rolls and library and
indexes and archives. There is also an
officer, Mr.. Frank P. Partridge, who
serves here, but appointed by the attorney
general, to whom all law cases are submit
ted and by whom al claims are determined.
An appeal lies to the attorney general, the
supreme law head of the government The
~A-SA SASAh 10 hSAg OlliC6E IN
the administration OF the departmental
man Of all work who knows everything
about the department. The present oc-
cupant is Mr. Leyellon Brown, who was
originally appointed by Mr.. Seward
but you haven't told me where you
come in, Mr.. Blaine2"
well, of course all these subordinate d.
visions centre here replied the secretary,
tapping his fingers on the desk. 1.-THE mo-
ment any difficulty occurs in the transac-
actions of any division it comes 10 me. /
have TO sign all diplomatic correspondence
and countersign documents such as procia-
nations, treaties and commissions, to
which the President has affixed his sig
nature, aud all passports and exequatursn
but in such matters you place some
trust In your subordinates-you don't have
to go through everything personality"
"Oh, very great deal of trust is placed
in subordinates. | sometimes think, for
instance, that couldn't get on without my
assistant secretary. MIR. Adee, who is in
that room there ;"-he pointed to a door at
the western extremity of the room. "He
Is very able man" he added, with en-
phasis. 'Our force here is somewhat less
than In the other departments: we have
only sixty-nine altogether. But they know
what their duties are, and perform them
diligently and faithfully. At the begin.
ming OF our government the
head OF tho state department.
las called the secretary of