The Washington herald., 1914-01-19
Slaae..sa, ~ - NJ.
y YaED g. KDEEH.

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~ yaBD G. KnrLH.
Thts = seezy w1th : moral.
s Dut swins u ne ssnsEa1 dssp.seafed
Dee1seles aeainst Stories Win meralA
~ shan oive n mssal nrs4 and hese
the woest ever With e oncs.
Ihus sverything WIN b perfeetly fair
aDd ahovebonrd ana thooo VINO are dis
eade1ed can quietly wifhdruW before the
peeformance begina
Ihe grsat moral principle involved -
simply this. that shout the only purpose
of forma11fy y to clutter up and az
gfavnte . sttuation.
Washtnston =. Of courss. . hotssd Of
foFmaAty. and those who are most for
mai have the least fun. You remember
the line IN the copybooks that couyen-
u0n ~ the mother OF necessity.
But al this ID mere idle chitchat Let
us ny at our tale.
A few weeks ago there came to our
shores . new Ainister from the Neither
lands, By name Chevalier w. L. r. c.
van Rappard. He is an excellent and
capable gentleman. but has been trained
IN the diplomatic service where formaiity
= rife. and naturally he does things in q
formal way.
One Of the old established formal Gus
toms b that within certain time after
his arrival here . new minister must
formally present himself to the Vice
President A minister is escorted to
meet the Secretary of State and the
President by the Third Assistant secre-
tary OF State. but when he meets the
Vice President there is no adequate pro-
xrtu H~p ~ "a arxrf to
and he must brace up and 60 through 1t
alone.
It was arranged that Vice President
Marshall should be at his ONCE In the
Capitol promptly at o'clock one aft
ernoon to receive the new minister.
Well, o'clock came and went but the
diplomatic caller failed to appear. Mar
shall didn't care particularly as he had
no other important engagement to keep.
and he In not q formal person but he
couldn't help wondering what could have
was still missing.
Then somebody brought word that a
mysterious stranger was wandering about
the corridors Of the Capitol from one
wing to another and looking greatly
worried. II turned out that he was the
missing minister. He had got lost In
the building, which was not surprising.
and had tramped about in a vain search
for the Vice Presidents room simply
because he thought II would be undigni-
fed and informal to walk up to some
body and inquire his way.
Having found the place at last. the new
minister suffered even more agony OF
splrit-entirely due to formality. He was
mortified half to death because he was
late. Being tardy for diplomatic ap-
pointment was to him a great incontro-
vertible sin sufiicient to bench him for
life. He felt as II he had a diplomatic
batting average Of o o o. And all his en-
barrassment and self-abasement were
needless, for Marshall did not hold II
against him at all. IL he had not been
brought up on formality all might have
been we'll
When 1t came time to go. the man
started out the door. still apologizing for
being late, and tripped over large, ex-
pensive rug.
Once again he thought he had done
something informal and therefore some
thing terrible Marshall tried to assure
him that he himself often tripped over
the rug and that it was perfectly all
right to do 80. but the diplomatic caller
was almost inconsolable.
anu W way VI pldIln6
straw on the climax. the man returned
in a few moments, more embarrassed
than ever. to confess that he had forgot
his hat. To have lived through all his
and finally got away alive, only
to return for 50 commonplace a thing as
q hat. seemed to him the height Of in
formality-and horror.
The point is. you see, that except for
the supposed necessity of maintaining
formality and dignity, the whole thing
might have been treated as a great joke.
Back in Indiana, where Marshall comes
from, men often come late and trip over
rugs and forget hats-au without impair
ing their standing in the community. So
such things did not seriously vex
Marshall. But the unfortunate young
diplomat did not know that.
As an example of the way a trivial
thing will get lodged in a mans mind
and stick there. one may cite this from
Joseph W. Folk, Solicitor of the State
I'll never forget the day I started
to school," remarked Folk one evening.
The teacher sat at her desk and ate
an egg. It wasn't the luncheon hour,
but she picked up a hard-boiled egg
and ate it. She had a perfect right
to, of course. but the thing struck me
as funny. Since then I have seen and
forgot a lot of important things. but
I'll never forget about that teacher
eating the egg"
Uncle Ike" Stephenson, of Wiscon-
sin, richest member of the Senate, has
out extravagantly this sea-
son in a large, honking automobile.
he has always ridden back
and forth to the Capitol in an old,
squeaky surrey. Many amusing stories
are being told about the remarks made
by the wealthy Wisconsin man when he
got his first garage bill after his en-
trance into the automobilious class.
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