File:Recollections of full years (1914) (14580004847).jpg

Identifier: recollectionsoff00taft (find matches)
Title: Recollections of full years
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Taft, Helen Herron, 1861-1943
Subjects: White House (Washington, D.C.) Philippines -- Description and travel Washington (D.C.) -- Social life and customs
Publisher: New York, Dodd, Mead & Company
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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o me it was never as interesting as theDiplomatic Dinner which follows it. There are thirty-nineforeign Embassies and Legations in Washington. EachAmbassador and Minister has his own distinctive and some-times very elaborate regalia; each attache, military andnaval, wears the uniform of his service, in many cases verypicturesque and often positively flamboyant; the foreignwomen, gowned exquisitely, are many of them crowned withtiaras and laden with jewels, and when they are all gatheredaround one great, glittering and gorgeously decorated tablethey present such a picture of varied colour and magnificenceas is not to be seen on any other occasion in Washington. I used always to wonder how they managed to get alongwith each other. There is an impression quite generalamong us that we are the only nation on earth that sendsabroad diplomatic representatives without any knowledge ofthe French language. This is not quite true. There are agood many diplomats in Washington who do not speak 376
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/ / s. / / - RECOLLECTIONS OF FULL YEARS French, and there are more diplomats wives. But as bothmen and women are seated at the Diplomatic Dinner instrict order of rank, there is no chance to take into considera-tion the seemingly important question as to whether or notdinner partners will be able to communicate with each othervery freely. They do speak English, of course, but many ofthem imperfectly, and, taking them all, with exactly thirty-nine different accents. Imagine the wife of the Chin<Minister sitting between the Minister of Salvador and theMinister of Cuba, or the wife of the Japanese Ambassadorhaving on one hand the German Ambassador and on theother the Minister of Costa Rica! It all depends on how long they have been in Washing-ton. When I first went to the White House the ItalianAmbassador was the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, withe Austrian Ambassador next, while among the Ministersthose from Siam and from Costa Rica, I think, had prece-dence over all others. If the

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