Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-17
CANE OF HIGH DIPLOMACY
How Played by the United States Ambassa-
dor at the Court Of St. James.
HIS HOUR OF COFFEE AND CIGARS
NO Fuss and Feathers at the Ameri-
can Embassy-TrOubles of Yankee
Representatives-Morgan and
His Knee Brooches.
Ccopyright, 1909, by Marshall Lord.)

- - 49,. 1011 N1NNA IS
ing American university starts & special
course in diplomacy for youths who want to
become ambassadors, the chief item will
have to be instruction in the fine art OF
dining. international law and history and
all that sort OF thing doubtless would be
advantageous enough, too, but you might as
well omit anatomy from the study Of medi-
cine as to teach European diplomacy with
out dining.
His excellency the American ambassador
to the court Of st. James would be the
ideal professor in this branch Of instruction
when the time comes for him to leave Lon
don and get back home. He would testify
that his work at the broad, h~at-topped desk
In the dingy once Of the embassy in Vic
torta street was Of comparatively little ac-
count. that his of1cial communication with
the marquis Of Salisbury, Lord Lansdown
and the other Downing street folk had been
mostly formal after all, and that his occa-
sional audiences with the king had little
political significance. But when 1t came
to the hour Of coffee and cigars-that was
when the real business Of the nation was
done, sometimes in neat, artful speeches,
reported In full In the papers, and read by
everybody, sometimes in comfortable, I'M
%ofncial, informal talk with the men who
govern England, in fact, while the king
governs In name.
Those are the private talks in which the
pretudices, ambitions and friendships Of the
nations are weighed and measured-in
which IL is determined what is the lease
that one will accept and the most that the
other will give-in which are shaped the
international policies that are afterward
the subject Of formal, d~ignihed negotiations
to a predetermined end.
Fancy an Insignificant looking, shy, nerv-
Gus, awkward man representing a great ma
tion at one of these behind-the-scenes
spreads. He might know all there was to
know about international law and such
matters, but in these Intimate confabs the
personal impression counts for so much
that it sometimes outweighs everything
else. That is where Joseph Hodges Choatc
comes out strong. You can't lose him,
either in a crowd or in a group Of states
men. He may be inwardly nervous-ln
fact. l suspect he was pretty uncomfortable
when he first came over here-but he wears
all the outward and visible signs Of easy
satisfaction. When he rises, with a be-
nign smile, to respond to the toast the
chairman has given, everybody settles back
comfortable, sharing the ambassadors con-
hdence that his forthcoming speech is going
to be a rafting good one. The only other
man in England who creates quite the same
impression Is Lord Rosebery.
ChOate's Delicate Insinuations.
Opinions differ. of course, about Mr..
Choate's success In the formal side of d.
plomacy, but he has done something more
than make a personal hit with his after
diner addresses. l have heard a dozen or
an ~ AkAra a.. A-. -
missed from one Of them a note that
at first rather startled placid John Bull; in
one form or another. his excellency always
contrives to say deftly and insinuatingly
what. II put bluntly, would be something
like this:
Brother Bull, you are in most respects a
good fellow, but you have shown a little
tendency to De superior in times past. The
occasion for 1t has gone by, II 1t ever ex-
listed, and you will kindly take notice that
Brother Jonathan isn't playing the role Of
younger brother"
The ambassador has kept up such a steady
pounding on that note and commercial
events have given him such strong backing
that the effect has become noticeable.
Brother Bull has been getting the idea
firmly fixed In his head.
The American ambassador lives at No. /
Carlton House Terrace, Just back of the
Prince Of Wales Marlborough house, in
the great mansion bought by L. D.. Letter
for his daughter, wife OF the viceroy OF
India, where she is the first lady among
three times as many people as there are In
the United States. The Curzons rented the
place at a big price TO John Hay when he
represented the American government here,
and Mr.. Choate, after three or four weeks
of house hunting, concluded that he
couldn't do better than step into his chiefs
shoes, so to speak. TIL old yellow Georgian
houses Of which No. 1 stands at the upper
end are not gorgeous as seen from the out
side, but they have a stateliness and dignity
within that makes them exactly suited for
ambassadorial residences. The German am
bassy does occupy one of them. but the diff
ference is that Germany pays the rent. and
the ambassadors home and his Offices are In
the same building. whereas the American
ambassador pays the house rent out Of his
own pocket, d~evoting the larger part of his
salary to the purpose.
The curve Of the terrace makes It impos-
sible to get a good photograph OF the front
OF the house. but from st. James park In
the rear you get an impressive view Of this
famous row Of residences, where Mr.. Glad
stone once lived, and where Mrs. John w.
Mackay and William Waldorf Astor have
their own houses now. Gilbert Parker,
who married money" as they say, and has
made a lot more out OF his novels, also
lives in this elect territory. All good
Americans In London swarm from adjacent
Pail Mall into Carlton House Terrace on
each Fourth OF July to climb the fine curv-
ing stairway at No. /, hear their names
called out by the liveried footman. shake
the hand Of his exeellency at the head OF
the stairs, bow low to Mrs. Choate and then
squeeze on through the crowd that hlls the
long succession Of lofty rooms. back to the
temporary buffet. where portly walters deal
out good things to eat and drink.
Mr.. Dingy once.
II is only q short walk around by West
minister abbey TO No. 12l Victoria street,
where the United States government has
its little pied-a-terre. and a dingy. grimy,
stuffy. dark. depressing place It is, too. It
is a wonder that the ambassador and the
half dozen members OF his stan do not
suffer perpetually from the blues. No other
diplomat OF ambassadorial rank In London
has such mean quarters, and some Of the
from little South American re-
publies are far better provided for. The
only comforting reflection to Americans who
visit the place lie that II gives the lie TO the
British notion that Americans have a taste
for garish display.