El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-12-01
WASHINGTON LETTER
The srenCh Gun Scandal. and the
Departmental 6ossips - The
Trouble With Turkey.--h Word
About the Armenian "A Second
American Republic,-Imposi
% the Patent Office. Tobacco
As Comforter
BY D. o. E
speci.l Correspondence of 1h. Hernld.

| AS comforter
(BYD .O'F
Special Correspondence Of III. Herald.
WASHINGTON, Nov. "a The de-
partmental tea pot is merrily boiling
over the French gun scandal. caused by
the publication of Capt. |. n. Lewis
letter last week. and the army men are
improving this opportunity to get
square with each other on long-stand-
ing grudges. Which is to say royal
row is on between the respective ad-
herents of the commanding general
of the army and Gen. Burlington, chief
of ordnance. Capt. Lewis is an artil-
lery officer with considerably more en-
thusiasm on the subject OF gunnery
than the subject really warrants and
when he got hold of the plans Of the
new French field gun, he applied for
permission to have one built, and re-
ceived an allotment of S., 900 for that
purpose. All of which was trenching
on the prerogatives of the ordnance
people and didn't please them any. The
ordnance corps is only little behind
the U. S. engineers in dissatisfaction
and pride of intellect-and rapidly
| gIining-wherefore this move on the
part of a mere line officer was gall
and wormwood boiled down. So in
/ some mysterious way-to be further
| eXplained-Capt Lewis letter regard
| ing the gun came out in a local paper.
plus some caustic remarks about the
iniquity of stealing foreign secrets and
getting into trouble with France That
the American gun companies saw on
| which side their butter was Dreaded
and helped the trouble along. goes
| without saying However France
hasn't complained and really can't as
long as she maintains her military at
taches all over the world for the ex-
press purpose OF getting just such
/ news.
The gun undoubtedly has some val
liable features. being almost without
recoil. but at this stage of the game no
| weapon has paramount advantages
over all others. Nevertheless when
the French army got hold of it several
years ago. they made n great pretense
of secrecy and bluffed extensively
about its wonderful qualities. AS
remember it. only three officers in
France were supposed to know the de-
tails of construction and they were
oath bound as were all the mechanics
who were working with it. Still no
body kept track of the Dreyfus case
and the side-lights IL threw on French
affairs. can have any doubt that Ber-
lin. st. Petersburg and Rome knew all
about that gun with no inconvenient
delay And now that it has been in
troduced throughout the French army
and is in service in China, working
drawings can probably be obtained by
anybody with the price of few alb
sinthes about him.
| Meanwhile Capt. Lewis is up in
Bethlehem. Pennsylvania. making the
| gun.
| Heating the oven For Turkey.
| Next being Thanksgiving week.
/ q ic n AnnrODrlateneSS
about the preparations We are making
| to heat things up for Turkey. The
Kentucky is to call at Smyrna and BLUM
| while Griscom. our man at CONSTANT
Inople. goes around to ask questions OF
| his unchristian majesty. Griscom has
been making a regular weekly call Tor
| a long time. asking about the indem-
nity and the Harpoot consulate and
the Turkish officials are beginning to
| consider him tiresome. HarpOot is in
the Armenian district where there are
Ibig American missionary enterprises
and where there are thousands OF
American citizens. real and galvaniz-
ed. When an Armenian or Jew any
where in the east gets tired OF being
officially squeezed. he mostly tries to
become a citizen of some foreign coun-
/ try the United States for a choice.
| After which he swaggers around In a
maner not comforting to his ex-sover-
eigns and frequently gets his head
carved simultaneously. We are for
ever taking up the cause of these
I"American citizens" some of whom
never saw Yankeeland. Our present
| imbroglio with Morocco is over n Fez-
IAN Jew who managed to acquire cfti-
| zenship both in France and this coun-
/ try-whether tandem or team 1 don't
| remember now. For obvious reasons.
Turkey is not glad over the idea of any
consuls at Harpoot and at one time
we consented to relinquish the idea of
,establishin~ an office there. taking
Erzeroum instead. But as Great BIZ
ain was given the privilege of Har-
poot under the most favored nation"
/ idea we insist that we are also entitled
to it.
| There are many Armenians in this
country, most of them being in New
York. and they naturally take n vivid
| interest in our discussions with Tur-
key. They have n paper. the "kaw-
| kab'' which Is for expansion in a way
to make Bryan weary, wanting us to
extend the Monroe doctrine over all
Asia. II * filled ut times with the
most ornate English. literally translat-
| ed from the Armenian. Let please
his honor the president. look kindly on
this. our plea" is a frequent idiom
which always pleases my eye. The Ar
| menian is a gentleman usually pleas
anter to know over a telephone or by
correspondence. than personally. AS
the representative of one of the oldest
Christian churches, maintaining its
1 faith in the midst of heathendom and
filled with the sanctity and romance of
aniQuity. he has a charm which he
lacks when you view him in the light
of the Oriental proverb: Beware the
l Armenian One Greek can cheat three