The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-01-29
WASHINGTON NOTES.
How the War Talk Affected Those
in the Capital of the Nation.
Minister Mont and Some OF His Diplomatic
Blunders-The Latest sensation-An Irate
Dressmaker - Secretary Foster.


Sunday MIR. Blaine suffered another of his
attacks Of acute Indigestion, which housed
him until Tuesday, when he went to the
Cabinet meeting and was taken i'll again
and was obliged to leave. Either the
active management of his department for
two months or the Chilean excitement is
plainly proving TOD much for Mr.. Blaine
and these repeated attacks are giving seri-
Gus concern to those interested in him.
The protestations of his Philadelphia doc
tor that Mr.. Blaine is in perfect healthier
was month agO-gO for nothing with
those who meet him. Chile was
all forgotten at the Cabinet meet
ing, it is said, when Mr.. Blaine,
growing whittier and whittier, began to gasp
and sink in his chair, and his colleagues
helped him to the open window while the
President reached for water and rang for
stimuIants. With war at hand the Secre-
tary of State needs to be at his best and
strongest. cle9r-headed and equal to any
strain and exertion, as there will be enough
to weary and break the SOundest man.
Night and day cable messages come and
must be anxiously deciphered, messages
must go aud conferences must be held. All
feel that the times are sufficiently trying
$500
are most apprehensive. Even Secretary
Elkins' jolly, serene face was clouded and
anxious when he assisted him home from
the Cabinet meeting and drove round for
his doctor.
One does not have to travel far away from
home to be RECALLED with the breaks and
plumbers Of United States Ministers and
COnsuls abroad, and now when so many
newspapers have had their filings at Min
lister Egan in Chile, il is fair for Minister
Mont at Washington TO be held to the same
strict accounting. Few United States MIN
lsters abroad and rarely has any member Of
the diplomatic corps at Washington made
as many blunders in official and social con-
duct as the present Chilean Minister. Senior
Mont has gone on from blundeT TO bIunder
tnaI al any other capital would not be over
looked. Certainly no German Minister to
France could do half as much without plung-
ing Europe In war, but we being heed
less, good-natured, informal people have not
taken the little Chilean seriously, and have
continued TO overlook his faux pas. Senior
Mont began his career by carrying that
nOn-cOnmSsiOned busybOdy and fomentOr
OF dl>cOTd MIR. Julio Foster with him on his
first official Interview with the Secretary Of
State. Mr.. Blaine wasted no time in
Diminishing Mr.. Foster from the audi
ence. That was diplomatic breach cal
culated TO make Taleyrand roll in his
grave. But when Senior Mont happened to
think OF something he would like to have
the Secretary Of the Navy know and just
naturally walked into Secretary Tracy's
office TO say it, TaIIeyrand must have left
his grave and taken fight to a still further
world. Had Minister Egan or any United
States Minister committed such blunder
and undertaken to deal personally with tile
separate officers of any government instead
Of through the regularly accepted channel
OF the State Department, the whole world
would laVa with II And RIGHT
straight along Senior MOntt has continued
TO put his diplomatic foot into every i'm
possible aperture. until conservative and
urder-lOving diplOmates have nearly gone
Wild. To save any more faux pas, for
there IS no telling what the biuhderlng
Chilean of Pennsylvania descent may not
do next, the dean of the diplomatic
corps nearly always accompanies him on
his visits to the State Department, and
steers him safely home before he can do
something more calculated to make diplo-
matte hair stand on end. Senior Months
dinner TO MI Blaine, when such a COmprO-
missing set Of guests were brought round the
table and those arch wre-puilerS cabled
misleading messages to Chile at the close of
the feast, was another Of Senior Months
happy strokes with the wrong end OF the
poker. Last week, when the President
gave his state reception in honor of the
diplomatic corps, all the other members
OF the corps, according to custom and
CObluDu 5oCAAI luiGos HSotiHU 4CQ a. lIlt man
sion before the hour named and were for
mally ushered in before any other guests.
An hour atteTWard. when his colleagues
had scattered and gone from the blue
parlOr. Senior Mont wandered in-iuSt
thought he would come to the party after
all, OF course, Senior MOntt cannot know
everything, but having q tongue he can
ask, and at such a crisis in our relations lie
might at least refrain from being so I'M
pleasantly conspicuous and cratic. This
dreadful little man speaks little English,
and socially is a conversational milestone
his victims say He IS not attractive in ap-
pearance either, being understood, sWarthy.
specialized and hedged with a trimmed
black beard that Will not look trim.
What! that the Chilean Minister" ex-
claimed an amazed Congressman, who has
been thrstinQ 10 appropriate few millions
for war for weeks back. "Why, l could dis
pose of dozen Chileans myself in Ten min
utes if that's what we have to fight Why,
it will only be picnic yachting trip To-
the White Squadron, TO go down and lick
the whole 100000 OF them"
The latest sensation, socially, was the
Chinese Minister'S ball. and all autcipa-
tons were surpassed in the reality. Nine.
ISul did actually stand up and receive her
guests and went out to supper on the arm of
Mr.. Blaine. No one was admitted without
card, but ii was a curOuSy chosen assem-
bage. The higher official set were, of course,
all there, ana that list being made out from
the blue-book could not 20 wrong, but those
persOnages met scores of people whom they
had never encountered before in any invited
company, and there was a mixing of sets
and interSectlng Of remote circles never
equaled before. There was the greatest
scramble for invitations on the part of peO-
pie for inviting whom there was no shadow
of reason or obligation. These worthless
rushed to call as soon as they heard that
cards were out. They wrote and they called
upon the Secretaries and they way laid them
as they walked abroad. Even now, those
who accepted the Minister'S hospitality
are unable to straighteu out his do
nestle arrangements and tell which
was which aud who was who Of the
three Chinese women visible that night.
There was comely young woman in the
upstairs hall with the baby in her arms
and there were two older women in the line
Of the receiving party In the dTawing-TO0m.
One authority explained that Ii was a nurse
maid with the infant upstairs, and another
pr0tessed intimate avOWed that 1t was the
Minister'S second and younger wife and
that rank and etiquette did not allow her
below stairs in line with the official wife.
The second lady in the drawing was
explained as Mrs. Wang, wife of the Secre-
taTy OF Legation. One neighbOr announced
that she knew one of the three Chinese
women was the maid Of the others, because
one-she could not tell which one, though
always seemed to follow in the rear when
they walked abroad, and was often seen
about the doorway and garden chatting
with the men servants Then another
neighbor avowed that they were all maid
servants or all ladies of rank, from the
freedom and equality with which they
strolled the streets and chatted together on
summer evenings when | stopped 10