The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-05-03

From time to time for years past little items
have appeared in the gossip columns of Wash
ington papers and in the Washington CORE
spondence Of those of other cities regarding
the severely economical style in which certain
members of the Diplomatic Corps lived here.
These items recited that the economical diplo-
mats although they represented great nations
and presumably received good salaries, resided
in very humble quarters, and, while accepting
right and left invitations to dinners and other
entertainments, never returned the favors
thus received. OF course 1t is to be presumed
the writers Of the paragraphs referred to had
more than one individual In mind, but from
gossip that has been floating around since
Baron Fava the italian Minister, left Wash
ington, it seems likely that his manner of liv-
ing must have inspired good many of them.
Baron Fava's colleagues in the Diplomatic
Corps occasionally let drop remarks which
showed their surprise at the style In which the
representative of the King OF Italy lived in
Washington, and it is said few of them ever
called on the Baron, because they did not care
to seek him out in the exceedingly unpreten-
tious quarters in which he resided.
Mr.. Celso Caesar Moreno, an Italian resident
of Washington, recently addressed commu-
nication to New York italian paper, the
Cristof0ro Colombo, in which he gave some
interesting facts about Faya's methods of
living Mr.. Moreno took for his text an in
teryiew which appeared in the Eco d. Italia,
another Italian paper of New York. The in
teryiew was with Mr.. Riva, the Italian consul
in New York, in which, speaking of Baron
Fava's recall, he said that the ''royal Italian
coat-of-arms and the national flag of Italy
would be taken down from the palatial resi-
dence of the Italian Legation in Washington
and follow the Italian Minister" Abiding
to this remark, Mr.. Moreno says in his COM
munication, W hich is translated as follows:
"The royal coat. farms and the national
flag of Italy cannot be taken down. for the
simple reasons that they are not there, they
never have been there, and there is no place
to put them. The Italian Legation does not
exist in Washington, unless in scorn a fur
nished room at No. lilo Connecticut avenue,
in a small house situated between the barber
shop of negro, by name Peter Marshall, and
the shop of confectioner and caterer, by
name Ritti, is called the Legation Of His
Majesty the King of Italy. The Legation of
His Majesty the King OF Italy in Washington
is peripatetic, and is always to be found in
modest furnished room in modest lodging
houses, where poor clerks, walters, BARRIERS,
and shopkeepers lodge. To my own knowledge
from 1885 to 1891 q know 1t because it was
pointed out to me by newspaper men, politi-
clans, and others, who desired to laugh at me
and Italy, the so-called Legation of the King
of Italy was at No. 1405, then at No. 1905,
then at 1715 H street northwest, then at No.
915 Sixteenth street, then at S29 Eighteenth
street, and is now at ITO Connecticut avenue.
The royal coat-of-arms OF Italy and the
national flag have never been seen in front of or
on top of these lodging-houses where the
Italian Legation and the humble domclle of
Fava have been.
'This official niggardliness, which has so
much damaged the prestige of the Italian
name and made Fava the laughing stock of
the foreign diplomats and Of the people of
Washington, has been for years an item for
the daily chronicle of the Capital. While all
the nations of Europe, Mexico, Central and
South America, and even China, Korea, and
Japan have palaces for their Legations and
residences and give grand receptions, Italy
alone showed the most squalid official poverty
worthy of scorn and ridicule-a public scan
dal.
"Fava, in order to save the fat salary of
$4,000 year which the overtaxed Italian
taxpayers gave him, always accepted invita-
tions to dinners and receptions from foreign
diplomats, from Presidents Cleveland and
Harrison, from Mr.. Blaine, and prominent
citizens. But on account of this niggardli-
ness, or because his furnished room was too
small, he never reciprocated the courtesies
and hospitality offered to him as the repre-
sentative of the classic land of Christopher
Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci. The peo-
pie, government, and King of Italy always
ignored this humliating and shameful state of
things, because they were all the time erro-
neously informed by Fava himself and by the
tremendous puffs-probably written by Fava
and sent by his iatterer, an ex-Italian disciple
of Figaro--in the Italian newspapers In New
York and in ITALY,"
Baron Fava's turn for economy is made all
the more striking when it is known that he
was allowed $1,000 year by the Italian gov
ernment to pay rent for a legation building
in Washington. Not long ago, it is said.
the rumors about Faya's way of living reached
Rome. An official of the Foreign Office there
wrote to friend in Washington, asking for
exact information as to the sort of style In
which Fava lived. The desired information
was sent.