The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-02-17

! BLAINE'S TABLE IN THE DIPLOMATIC ROOM.
the most Interesting as well as the most
important parsonage OF the state depart
ment is Secretary Blaine. The great secre-
tarys name is on every tongue and every
visitor to the department wants to see him.
But Mr.. Blaine is for the most part in
| visible. He is less accessible than the
| other members of the cabinet.
One must in these days be an old friend
or have business of the most pressing inn
| portance if he hopes to gain audience with
| the secretary of state. There are good rea-
sons for this. Mr. Blaine is not very
strong, and the demands of his work so tax
| his time and strength that he has none to
waste epon callers whose business can be
| transacted as we'll with some of his subOr-
| dinates If Mr.. Blaine were to see one-half
the people who want to see him, or who
would flock to the state department to see
| him if it were understood he would re-
ceive them, he would have time left for
nothing else And that Mr.. Blaine has
| other and more important business is wit
| messed by the voluminousness and gravity
Of the correspondence which has passed
| between this government and the govern
ment of Chilli
Mr.. Blaine has made an odd selection of
Office quarters for himself. Most men like
a rather small office in which the feeling
of the occupant will be the comfortable one
Of "snugness" and where privacy is posi-
ole. Mr.. Biaine's desk is nothing more
than one end of table perhaps twenty
feet long in the great diplomatic room of
the state department. The apartment is
as big as ballroom and rather cold and
cherries in its aspect. Portraits of for
mer secretaries of state are ranged about
the walls, and besides the huge table and
few chairs-a very few-the room is des-
titute of furniture. At the secretary's
ok blazes CRATE fire, and on one side of
table his secretary sits at certain times
the day to take dictation and assist in
the study of documents. For the most
part Mr.. Blaine occupies this big room all
alone, calling his secretary or sending for
some of his subordinates when they are
wanted by touching an electric button.
On the average Mr. Blaine sees no mora
than six or eight persons in day. These
are for the most part his assistant secre-
taries, Mr.. Wharton and Mr.. Adee; the
chief clerk, Mr.. Sevellon Brown, who occu-
pies confidential position, and Mr.. John
W. Foster, who is one of the secretary's
uSCSO duNlStES. SCtdSIOildll1 OH6 VI Uut
other cabinet ministers calls on Mr.. Blaine,
but not often. Now and then a senator or
representative in congress is admitted to
the diplomatic room, but these calls are
rare, it being well understood that Mr..
Blaine does not wish to be disturbed The
secretary really does most of his work at
home, in the famous house across the
square which is commonly known as the
Red House." to distinguish it from the
White House. In the minds of some of
Mr.. Blaines admirers the Red House is al
most as important a place as the Executive
Mansion.
Now that Mrs Blaine has recovered her
health, which was undermined by her long
vigil during the illness of the secretary at
Bar Harbor last summer, she acts as a sort
of privse secretary for her husband, and
he has learned to rely with much confidence
upon her judgment. 1t is said by friends
of the family that Mrs. Blaine knows every
state secret of this administration, and that
the secretary takes no action without first
consulting his wife