East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1909-11-26
IS THE HANDY MAN
At WASHINGTON
SECOND ASST SEC. OF
STATE is INDISPENSABLE
Most Unique Character at the Ma
tons Capltal-Has Risen from the
Ranks and Will Die I'm Present
Station-Is Guide i'm Intrlcacies Of
International Diplomacy.


sistant secretary of state. His is the
omnisclent intellect that guides the
Up'ted States government through the
lntricacies of international diploma
cy; the universal encyclopedia of
knowledge of world politics; the re-
pository of more state secrets than
that Of any one human being
Besides all this, he is the most in
teresting, lovable and yet, at times,
irascible, public man now in the
government service. Another Bos- |
well will be needed adequately to !
chronicle his career. No man in |
Washington is productive Of more |
| stories than A. A. Adee a new one |
crops up every day--and all of them |
are good. Personally he is a slight
| wisp Of man, with a gray imperial
| beard and mustache stained by devo-
ton to My Lady Nicotine. His shoul-
ders are stopped, and he walks ner-
vously in short, choppy steps, his feet
! turned out like drum major's He
! has a quizzical kindly face and looks
| at his interviewers from underneath
scrubby eyebrows, with his head bent
| forward. He has the French trick
Of Struggling his shoulders. The Adee
laugh is characteristic No one ever
heard anything like it 1t starts
with a chuckle, increases'in volume to
cachinnation and subsidies 20 a Sc
rles of sly "tee hee's."
Is Self Raised
Born with a congenital throat de-
feet that deprived him of the power
of his vocal chords with only rudi-
mentary ear drums that have forced
him to go through life deaf Adee tri-
umphed through sheer force of will
and over7mastering intellectual abilL
ties. He taught himself to speak. al
though lacking the hard palate which
in the average throat is the sound
ing board, so to speak, of the human
voice. He was educated as "a archi-
tect but abandoned that profession
to enter the diplomatic service as Sec
retary Of the legation at Madrid,
( Spain, in 1870, having already MASTER
4 ed the language of the Dons. Since
z that time. incidentally, he has "pick-
a ed up" as he modestly puts It, French
German. italian and a smattering of
4 several other tongues.
He has been in the state depart
i ment as an under secretary since
n 1886; he will be there until he dies
. No one can take his place. He is alb
solutely unique.
The Real Handy Man.
/. II Secretary of State Knox wants
; TO write letter to Ambassador So
: and-So impressing a bald and brutal
fact. II is Secretary Adee who takes
s.l,n Txsf4 J.
Z the punctillous persiflage demanded
, by the international etiquette and en-.
Z velopes 1t in a foliage of choice dip
( lomatic phraseology. Then Kno1
z signs It.
: If President Taft is giving a recep
tion to the members of the diplomatic
Z corps, 1t is Alvey A. Adee who car
! reel off without an instants hesita
: ton the exact position every foreign
< representative should occupy in th'
line. according to his rank and th'
precedence of his nation.
D. He knows international law, cour
z ceremonials, world politics, the Mon
y roe doctrine. all the treaties. econom
As lc conditions in every civilized nation
Il and the history of every ndvidua
y who amounts to anything in ever
Z quarter of the globe He's the Off
\ cial "Who's Who" as well as What
- What"
- Many Sided Crank.
Adee began studying early in life
and now, at the age of sixty-sever
still burns the midnight incandescen
j He is bicycle crank-incidentall
| even his vacations are a mixture c
| business and pleasure, a bicycle rid
| through Europe every summer
| amateur photographer of no mea
| ability, botanist, a scientist, arcf
| ! aeologlst, and artist in sympathy
least.
l His room at the department is III
/ most wonderful mixture of conglon
4 crate odds and ends imaginable.
| microscope rests on one table; phoi
raphic apparatus on another; bool
on his desk, the floor, in shelves
j everywhere. He brews and drinl
tea necessarily, and smokes lit
black cigars in a discolored NEE
schaum and amber holder. He kee'
,n- two brands of cigars in his des<-
,ck box of good ones for himself. al
the some ten for fifteen cents for visitor
however. Nlltll lit plANiS N'u VI
will he'll remark naively, "You needi
i've smoke 1t. If you don't like it,"
all He is subject to irascible bra
storms" and has even been known
Ial- throw books at those who partic
larly tried his temper; but an hour
so later invariably becomes repel
ant and makes peace with the often
er by a present of one of the good
gars, and a funny story.
To n woman stenographer who h
\ presented to him a letter for sigr
M ture with the word "the" writ
Y thee" Adee addressed the writ
~ memorandum "the' not thee
much e's."
- A department clerk once cross
lXN Adee's path with corncob pipe
w his mouth. The second assistant 5
-. retary stopped him and looked qt
zically at the pipe.
"I see you are baseball fiend, y
observed
"why so, Mr.. Adee," demanded