The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 eBook

Lillie De Hegermann-Lindencrone
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 338 pages of information about The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912.

The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 eBook

Lillie De Hegermann-Lindencrone
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 338 pages of information about The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912.

Then another entertainment, a sort of mardi-gras maigre feast, was a champagne tea given for us at the Capitol by Mr. Blaine.  He had invited a great many of the Senators and the Ministers, his wife, and some other ladies.  These mighty people talked politics and had prodigious appetites.  Sandwiches and cake disappeared in a hazy mist, and they drank oceans of champagne.  They took cocktails before, during, and after!  I amused myself—­as I can’t talk politics, and would not if I could—­by noticing the ingenuity and variety of the spittoons placed about in convenient spots.  The spittoons that tried to be pretty were the most hideous.  I liked best the simplicity of the large, open, ready-to-receive ones filled with clean, dainty sand.  There was no humbug about them, no trying to be something else; whereas the others, that pretended to be Etruscan vases or umbrella-stands or flower-pots, were failures in my eyes.  Why are they ashamed of themselves?  Why do they call themselves by the graceful name of “cuspidor”—­suggestive of castanets and Andalusian wiles?  Why such foolish masquerading?  Spittoons will be spittoons—­they risk not being recognized.  I said as much as this to Mr. Blaine.  “You are right,” he said, “to fight their battles.  Did you ever hear the story about the Western man who was not accustomed to such artistic objects, and said in one of his spitting moods, ’If you don’t take that darned thing away I’ll spit in it’?”

I forgot to tell you that the Emperor and Empress of Brazil are here “doing” Washington—­doing it so thoroughly that they have almost overdone it.  The Brazilian Minister is worn out.  Every day he has a dinner and an entertainment of some kind.  The Emperor wants to see everything and to know everybody.  No institution is neglected, and all the industries are looked into thoroughly.  He goes to the Senate very often and sits through the whole seance, wishing to understand everything.  He always tries to get hold of the people who can give him the most information on any subject.  Dom Pedro is most popular; one sees him everywhere.  At the ball at the English Minister’s for their Majesties, a gentleman presented to the Empress said, “Je suis le Senateur qui parle frangais.”  The Empress said to Johan, “I beg of you to keep near me and talk to me so that the ’Senateur qui parle francais’ may be discouraged in his pursuit.”

PHILADELPHIA, 1876.

My dear Aunt,—­Is your heart melted with pity, or does it burst with national pride, and do you disregard such trifles as heat and exhaustion?  I told you in my last letter that the diplomats were invited en bloc (at the country’s expense) to be present at the opening of the Centennial Exposition.  The country provided good rooms for us at this hotel, where we are invited to spend two days:  one of those days was the day before yesterday, and I think that the other will be enough for me, for anything

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The Sunny Side of Diplomatic Life, 1875-1912 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.