Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-01-15
nv ANNE HARD.

-HE Consular Bird Is one Of the
stranSest OF American fauna.
I have hunted him in the
mnSles Of South America and
through the haroque' beauties
nj central Europe. I have observed
him in the unrestraincd drawing
rooms If Washington and In the dusty
business offices of London. He seems
10 the hunter a fine, decent bird, not
perhaps bird of paradise on the
wing. nor on the other hand, an
ostrich with its head in the sand.
II he we're closer ~ the eagle he
would not ne In the foreign service
cf this ri any other country. Per
haps he more resembles that other
national bird. the turkey. heinz sound
ami nourishing. and also being fair
Same for every anguished tourist,
travelling American and enraged bust
ness man to take a shot at.
Today he reminds me. under the
opera con oi the Rogers act, of certain
reCalcitrant animals back on the
farm. which we could lure out of the
pasture and into the barn by holding
hall peck ~ oats just ahead of the
muses. They may ar may not have
got the oats afterward hut they nice.
" followed into the barn.
x A&
I DROPPED into a certain Ameri-
can consulate in the Near East. I,
was $50 o'clock in tho morning. M
ore else of an official or substantial
business character in that city had
thought of such thing AS SoinS to
work nv such an unseemly hour.
The kwaSs at the door Il enlighten
you TO saw that a 'kwass" is II mag.
nihcent creature in cream and Grim
son. who carries sword and does
ezra nds and follows the consul or pre-.
cedes him in an Arabic cross between
p messenger and a bodyguardl let YOU
know that only the superior wages of
the superior American employer
could have persuaded one of his dig
nifty ~ he abroad at that hour. Only
low working worms should do SO.
Anyway went in. There were
the American clerks. all at work. and
there was Gerry young vice consul
in sole charge i'm the absence of his
chief on department business" also
hard AT work. There they were. too.
snd there they were at other similar
hours i'm other similar places where
] went at un-European and un-Asiati
working hours and during national
holidays that pepper the calendars of
certain countries outside our own.
He looked So grown IN and digni.
fed and stiffened by his job. this
young vice consul. that il was hard
70 remember him as the compa Mon
ce 6eSutantes OF the Washington of
the Winter before.
He was in charge Of situation in
which a Levantine Greek who had
nnce owned an ice cream parl3r in New
York for a term of years and had
thereby acquired American citizenship.
was engaged in a debate 10 the death
with six-foot Arab. the situation be.
ing further complicated by the. as II
were, spiritual presence of female
with similarly acquired citizenship
namely. the Leva milne Greeks wife.
Meanwhile a lady from Ohio was
waiting TO have certain papers signed
IN the matter of her estate.
Prom the loud noises about the con-
sulaF desk ii WAS apparent 10 the lady
from Ohio that the Y. G. would he
alain before her own affairs could get
attended to- Yet mySteriouSly the
sounds of rage auieted down. The
Arab departed minus the excellent
gun with which he had entered the
consulate. the two American citizens
departed amicabiy entwined and a
very solemn young V. G. came nut
and informed the lady from Ohio thai