Evening star., 1897-05-29

four. and that his eyes are just as good
today as they ever were"
Over His Signature.
For instance. to elaborate little on Mr..
Babocck's talk. the country In general
probably fancies that all the sounding dip
lomatic documents that are occasionally
published in the newspapers are written by
the hand of the Secretary of State himself;
that he sits down under a gas lamp and
gnaws his fingernails and aoGsles up his
hair in doing it, like any youthful member
of a school of journalism preparing an
essay thickly sown with ives" For any
Secretary of State TO do this. or anything
like II. no matter what the degree of his
yolubility. would be a sheer impossibilty.
Tens OF thousands of words of this sort of
correspondence are sent broadcast through
out the world from the American Depart
ment of State every day, always over the
signature of the Secretary of State: but
the Secretary of State himself no more
revises il and shapes IL up than does the
editor of newspaper write the police
court news that appears in his paper. The
momentous documents, those bearing upon
great international questions, the Secre-
tary of State does write himself but all
the other diplomatic correspondence even
That relating to affairs of very conside rahe
Importance is gotten up in the diplomatic
bureau of the State Department of which
Mr.. Cridler is now the hard-working head.
All this formally and elab borately courte-
Gus correspondence with its renewed as
slrances OF profound, distinguished consid-
Grafton. and so on of course, pass over
the Secretary of States desk and is sub
ject to his revision before he signs, il: but
1t is very rare that he finds it necessary
to make any changes in it, so carefully and
thoroughly is this work done.
w henever any document reaches Mr.
sherman s desk that does not absolutely
require his personal attention, he sends
ft-IN fnr hn ,,s~
branch of the denartment the document
properly belongs. and turns il over TO him
with Few succinct instructions. He does
not lav 1t aside for future consideration,
and thereby accumulate monumental pile
OF papers filled with possibilities of grief
and labor TO come. 1t is really quite enter
tanning to see Mr.. Sherman cut open an
ofhcial letter as ii reaches him hot from
the mail, glance it over and grasp IL within
the compass of sixty seconds and then
either send for the proper official or else
shoot it out by messenger to the place it
belongs. The result is that Mr.. Sherman
at his desk. does in no wise rese nlble a
country editor buried up to his ears in
hopelessly entangled exchanges.
The Consular Service.
The American citizen loves his country's
consular system 10 an extent that makes
him quite willing to become a part OF 1t.
Seemingly, he has never before in his his
tory u the government regarded it with so
much positive veneration as he has since
the present administration began. The
tens Oi tnousands-lite rdi4y-of applications
on file at the State Department for consul
ships amply Illustrate this iacu An
analysis of the applications clearly shows
that Americans are a dreamy. poetic race.
nation of would-be lotus eaters: fer about
| three-fourths of those who have placed
their applications file for conSu.ships
want to be governmental!y waited to lands
where tbs always afternoon, on Aegean
| 1G1- 30 f.rlSs
main lan1 adjacent thereto: TO magnolia
scented Japan. in Yokohama, or Kobe. or
Narasaki, or Hakodate. where the white
resident perennially wears white duck
suit and a pith helmet and sips saki
through the long rosy day: to any land
where nature is repOseful and ove!y-and
| the emo.uments good. Muititudinously,
| these applications pour in every day: but
| they GO not pour through Mr. Sherman 5
J office, else he would never know what the
| inside of a novel looked like. 1t is a
separate branch of State Department busi-
| ness. this reception of applications for con-
sular jobs: that it is very big branch goes
| without saying. But. although il is'impos-
| sble for Mr.. Sherman to scan the papers
| IF the applicants for consuiShips. he can't
| get around the task of seeing the appli-
! cants themselves when they come 10
| Washington for that purpose-whch they
| 10. in very large numbers.
| Tine Secretary of State sees ih2m all.
| Mr.. Sherman picked up the manner that
i
| years ago and i. is pretty fine manner,
| SO that the men who visit him TO ask for
| ccnsulShipS have fair snow to study how
| their grandfathers used to receive visitors
/ But Mr.. Sherman has never b2en a spec
| tacuar success as a promiser out of hand
| and he is not that today. He will sec that
| the papers receive careful consideration;
| he will have the applicautss claims and
| qualifications thoroughly inquired into be-
| fore any appointment to such-ani-such q
post is made: and when Mr.. Sherman
! gently pulls his Spectacles down from his
| forehead, where he has pushed them the
| better to see his visitor. to his nose, and
| slowly wheels around that he is facing
| his desk. the visitor. if ne be a man OF
tact. makes his adieuX. Otherwise. his
conversation is continued with Private Sec
| retary Babcock-very briefly.
His Manner of Expression.
| Mr.. Sherman has quantity terse way
| of expressing himself. both in speaking
| and writing. With all the courtesy in the
| world Mr.. Sherman yet speaks almost alb
ruptly: he does it from appreciation OF
| verbal economy. When the diploma tic
documents that he himself writes begin tc
| be published the habitual comparer of the
| literary styles of statesmen will note thai
| while the documents may lack for instance
| the swing and the resonance of MIR. Blaine
state papers. they certainly possess bulls
tates are extremely terse and short as Il
| sentences: but they convey lot of mean
ing in a very few words.
| me only occasions upon which Mr.. Sher
man feels called upon to grow a little ex
paIsive are the diplomatic days-Thurs
day. This is the especial day that he set
aside for the reception of the diplomats
tn toll III, .-.sl