The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1897-04-18

tive Americans always to represent US
officially at foreign capitals. We have
been peculiarly fortunate in our minis
tiers or ambassadors at London, Paris
and Vienna, but many Of our ministers
at other capitals have been mere poll
ticians, and our consuls general and
consuls have been, if anything, worse.
| don't mean to sneer at the politician
if he is anything else. But we should
not send abroad men who are politicians
only, men who lack business and social
standing. education and refinement.
The English government would never
send farmer to act as consul general
at New York. 1t might give him spe-
cial mission to examine our agricultural
resources and honor him i'll other ap-
propriate ways, but a consul general
would be selected from the list OF men
with business experience Oh the rolls of
the foreign Office.
Secretary Sherman, when he was a
senator, told me he thought no man
ought to go abroad for our government
who did not speak the language of the
country in which he was to be stationed.
1t is unfortunate that Mr.. Sherman did
not make that an inviolable rule of his
department when he took charge of it.
Mr.. Sherman, by the way, was pre-
sented to the emperor Of France at an
official reception when he was in Paris,
and he wore knee 'breeches, silk stock
ings and low shoes for the occasion.
This was the costume worn by E1nbas-
sadOr Breckinridge at the coronation of
the czar. The story about it made much
merriment for Mr.. Breckinridge's
friends and for newspaper readers gen
orally in the United States. Knee
breeches are worn by many of our dip
lomats on state occasions. General Por-
ter will wear his uniform as a brigadier
general of the regular army when he is
presented to President Faure. But Colo
mel John Hay, whose military service
was limited to two months, ambassador
White and En- bassador Draper may have
to appear in what classic Boston calls
"knee pants.
Our representatives abroad once wore
not Cnly knee breeches, but swords. But
that was i'll the day when the president
and observed some of the ceremonies
familiar to the courts of Europe Now
adays our ambassadors prefer uniforms,
even militia uniforms, because they are
more imposing and usually more becom-
ing. A thin legged ambassador is not an
impressive sight III knickerbockers, and
Mr.. Sherman, who was always thin,
must have presented remarkable ap-
pearance when he made his bow to the
president of France. Besides, the uni
form is accompanied by a title, and
titles are dear to the American heart.
Here in Washington they are in some
disrepute, because the hangers on at the
hotels and about the capitol have come
to be known as ''the majors and the
colonies" But the travelling American
likes to be known as of military rank,
and the American ambassador and the
American minister are not exempt from
the national weakness.
One feature Of the passport business,
by the way, causes many heartburnings.
The state department has an absolute
rule forbidding the insertion of any title
in a passport. The militia officer who
wants to be generated" abroad and the
regular officer Of the army, the mayor
of a city and the judge on the bench are
Oh equal terms with the plain citizen in
the passport Office.
Colonel John Smith" is John Smith
there, and the "HOn Obadiah Otter
son" is plain Obadiah. They protest to
the department, but the rule is infexi-
bic GEORGE GRANTHAM Balm.