Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-02
Tales of Well Known Folk
In Social and Official Life
Ambassador Teller, Prospective Dean of Diplo-
matte Corps, Youngest Envoy Ever Called
to the Exalted Post.
By MARGARET b. DOWNING.

BY MAHGAHET b. DOWNING.
When the Peruvian Ambassador, DR.
Herman. Velarde, sails for France on
this coming Friday Senior Manuel Teller
his colleague from Mexico, will auto
matically succeed to the honor of being
dean Of the diplomatic corps. SenoI
Teller is barely A and will be the
youngest envoy ever to have achieved
the distinction In this Capital. OF these
years nearly IS have been passed in the
foreign service of the Mexican Republic
and another third in preparing for it
The new dean Is native Of Jacatecas
and was born February Is, 1886. He
has proved that the Mexican Republic
as well as this, offers opportunity for
dowed, for without the usual advantages
of wealth and recognized position he
has reached the peak Of the foreign
service of his country.
Senior Teller, after a brilliant course
In statecraft and law in the National
University, was admitted as a student
clerk in the Department of Foreign Re-
lations and gave diligent service for al
most three years without compensation.
He began his diplomatic career in the
consular Office at San Antonio. It was
in China and Japan, however. that he
proved his unerring Judgment and
mental alertnesS, and he added to this
reputation in the minor role in the
Mexican embassy here from 1921 until
he was finally recognized as Ambassador
from the neighboring republic In 1925.
Sonora Teller was before her marriage
Senorita Emilia Benoit, daughter of a
distinguished French physician, who
was first attached to the corps Of Fer
dinand de Lesseps during his attempt to
cut the Panama Canal. DR.. Benoit
Withdrew and practiced his profession.
first in Vera Cruz, where the chatelaine
of the Mexican embassy was born, and
later in the City of Mexico. There are
three children, the daughter, Emilita,
and young Manuel being native Wash
tngtonians The second son, Jose, was
born in the Benoit home outside of the
Mexican capital.
Mrs. Roosevelt, widow of the Presi-
dent, would have every reason to be-
heve her identity established without
any Christian name attached. But re-
Gently she has added Sycamore Hill
to her visiting card, since at the present
juncture Of time Mrs. Franklin Roose-
welt is the first lady of New York State
and young Mrs. Ted, as wife of the
governor general of Porto Rico, looms
on the social horizon. Few even of the
most imposing names carry identity ir
this country without an index, so tc
speak. Mrs. Vanderbilt, widow of Cor
nelfus, is recognized in Gotham, but
when she visits other social centers she
needs to be placed. Mrs. Taft and Mrs
Longworth are readily distinguished in
Washington and their visiting cards
have no other designation, but Mrs
woodrow Wilson uses her husbands
name as well as the S street address
when she leaves or sends cards. Wash
ingtons official world has not taker
over the fad which holds in Europe, al
the famous woman member of Parlia-
ment, who has only Nancy Aston on 9
professional bit Of pasteboard.
= X =
The Minister to Salvador, Mr.. Warren
Delano Robbins, who has recently taken
over the onerous post known in the old
Latin term as 'arbiter elegantiarum" of
the White House, is, according to ex-
pressed opinions, the very man for the
place, in that besides experience and
careful study of etiquette in such d.
verging parts as Rome, Berlin, Paris,
Buenos Aires and the Far East, he has
q family background which stretches to
the opening seventeenth century In the
Robbins, the first of the family, was an
accomplished horticulturist from the
British midlands when he arrived at
Charlestown, Mass, in 1884 But the
climate was too rigorous, and a few
years later he obtained a grant from
the Lord Proprietor of Maryland and
planted the first peach farm in that
now famous region for such fruit near
the Eastern Shore. This immigrant
Robbins, however, retained all his hold
1ngs In Massachusetts,, though his nu-
merous brothers and sons located in
New England and the Middle States and
became allied with the illustrious found
ers OF the original commonwealth
such as Warren, Delano and the pio-
neers Of New Amsterdam. Mrs. Rob-
bins is descendant Of the old Dutch
arlstocracy and, although she had made
her home for number of years in
Buenos Aires, where she met and mar
ried the social arbiter of the White
House, she was born in New York City
and was before her marriage Miss Irene
de Bruyn, direct in line from Francis
Gus de Bruyn, who came to the colony
from the Netherlands and married the
considerable heiress who figures in 1.-The
Knickerbocker Tales" Catherine Var
leth.
Countess Adelbert de Chambrun. wife
Of the commanding general Of Fee and
conqueror Of the Riffs. has just COM
pleted a phenomenally complete and
entertaining study of the French sources
which Shakespeare used in his plays
and sonnets. A sister of the Speaker OF
the House, this gifted daughter of Ohio
uses pen-name, Longworth- Chambrun
and she stands on the pinnacle of fame
In French contemporary letters through
her essays and sketches Of political
France and of the Riffs studied from a
historical background. Gen. Chambrun
and the countess have been passing the
Winter in parie nT41U feSxy or
they departed for their picturesque
chateau high in the mountains of Mo-
rocco where they will remain the greater
part of the Summer. Previous to the
departure, Gen. Chambrun and his wife
gave reception to the large coterie OF
Shakespeare scholars who are perpetu-
ally pouring over the manuscripts in the
Cluny Musee. Countess Chambrun's
first volume Of the Gallo origin Of
Hamlet, fresh from the presses, was the
object of reverent interest. Nine
Longworth- Chambrun, as she is called
in literary Paris, about three years age
had all the critics agog over researches
into the identity of 1.-The dark LADY" OF
the Shakespeare sonnets.
x
Mr.. Abraham c. Ratchesky of Bos-
ton, who has been appointed to sue
coed Mr.. Lewis Einstein as Minister
to Czechoslovakia, was well known In
Washington during the years that the
Food Administration was functioning
for he was executive manager of that
governmental agency in Massachusetts
and at the same time he served as
chairman Of the committee on public
safety. This is Mr.. Ratchesky's first
diplomatic assignment, but it was plain
that he possessed tact and patience
during the period in which this Nation
was allied with France and others