The evening times., 1899-03-17
abolished. The horrible spectacle at Hot
Springs ought to be warming
The Need for Ambassadors.

Ine NeeN HOf n AmDGhSAOOFS.
correspondent, after reading The
Times comment on the article of Mark
Twain about Ambassadors salaries, en-
quires if these public functionaries are of
any use, and cites the case of a gentle
man who was appointed Ambassador to
st. Petersburg and resigned in disgust after
brief service, declaring that he had not
more than five minutes work to do. An
answer to this question might be given in
Yankee fashion, by other questions. Why
should businesslike nation like England
maintain Ambassadors at much higher sal
aries than ours are paid, if there is nothing
for them to do? And why should the
shrewdest and most subtle and highly ed
ucated men in Europe take up the diplo-
matte service as their business in life il
there is nothing in it but a uniform?
Such men do not always care for mere
show They enjoy the sense of power;
they like to exercise all their talents in an
appropriate sphere. If they look forward
with delight to spending their days in abb
soute idleness while the people are under
the delusion that they are doing work, the
fact has not yet been discovered by any
observer of men and things on the conti-
nent of Europe.
In spite of the increased facilities of
communication between different nations
in these latter days, there are occasions
when a clash of interests may be averted
by skiIlfuI diplomatist whose business
it is to explain things. There is still an
advantage in having at every capital a
body of men from all the civilized nations
of the world, who are discreet, experienced,
and tactful, and may be relied upon to pro-
tect the interests of their governments and
give accurate and disinterested news of
political affairs. 1t is worth our while
to place i'll such positions men who are
fitted for them by nature and experience.
Our interests do not clash with those of
Russia, and therefore it is entirely possi-
bic that an American Ambassador to st.
Petersburg might have very little to do.
But England shows her appreciation of the
Importance of that post by sending
one of her best men there. Sup
pose that at time of the Fene-
zuelan boundary business we had
had man less discreet and wise than
Sir Julian Pauncefote in Washington.
Suppose at the most critical point of that
difficulty somebody had intercepted a let
ter like the De LONE letter of last spring,
but written by the English Ambassador.
What would have happened then?
There was once a farmer who INDUCED
/ in gibes at the editor of his county paper
! because he said, the latter did not work.
He thought that planting, and haying, and
chopping wood might be called work, but
that the writing of editorials and other
literature did not come under that head.
He thought that the column entitled fun
ny stuff was particularly easy to COM
pose. Finally the editor told him that he
would go out and do half a days work in
the bayfield, If the farmer would sit in his
office and write column Of jokes, The
bargain was made and the editor who
had been a farmers boy himself. went
TO work with a will. When he came back
TO his Office he found half sheet of paper
on which was written:
POTATER BUGS
potateT bug j. a very funny inScck.
The story is rather apocryphal, but it
will answer for an illustration There does
not seem TO be very much work in the
4 IsE,1,