What it costs to be an Ambassador's lady

JEFFERSON CHASE

■ With another Presidential election about to zoom, the American lady of fashion is allowing her fancy, ever so lightly, to toy with the thought of being the wife of an Ambassador, when, as and if the right side wins.

On this account, a few pointers are in order, for the way of a would-be Ambassador's lady (whom henceforth I shall call, for brevity's sake, an Ambassadress) is hard and is paved with more, far more than good intentions. It is paved with campaign contributions.

The first thing is to have a husband who is not only clever enough to back the right candidate and the right political party, hut also astute enough—-during the critical moments of the pre-convention and homestretch campaigning—to hack them with check-hooks. This is essential. But there is no use at all in having a husband who heats about the bush and donates his money just on general principles or for the good of the Party. Let him go to the Party treasurer and say, "Here are fifty thousand smackers—on condition that I get an Ambassadorial post in Europe for Sue." If he sweetens the kitty with sufficient cash he may even name the post, and then, by all the laws of American politics, if the right side wins, the post is his.

The Court of St. James's, of course, is awarded on higher considerations than those of the candidate's ability to pay. Thus Woodrow Wilson sent Walter Page to London as a gesture to the solid South (with an extra bow to the world of literature) ; Roosevelt sent Judge Bingham there on the double basis of party loyalty and Southern affiliations; and George Harvey graced London for the shining reason that George had called the turn correctly on both Wilson's downfall and Harding's nomination. Indeed, even in the bestowal of lesser posts than that of London, the political element may he far from inconsiderable; and one European post was awarded not so long ago to a man who had the wit to he regularly and profitably beaten at golf by the nation's choice.

Generally, however, you can take it for granted that there will he little or no competition from the regular diplomatic service. Years of experience, knowledge of foreign lands and languages, professional training, will he set aside in favor of the brawny millionaire whose wife persuades him to drop his manna in the right hat.

Once the running is made and your husband has been nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, subject always to the prior agrérnent of the government to which he is accredited, the financial part of the job becomes a major consideration.

To begin with, any diplomatic post will cost you anything you feel like spending On it. The sky is the limit. Your husband's official salary of $17,500 and his microscopic rent and entertainment allowances will not begin to pay your expenses in those posts where the Government does not own its Embassy. It is safe, in any case, to reckon on a minimum outlay of $10,000 a year, of which the government will pay hut half. To carry the London Embassy, you will have to spend not less than $100,000 a year of your own money, Paris almost as much and the others to scale.

Let us move on to other things. There is the matter of your house. In many diplomatic posts the Government will expect you to locate and pay for your own house. This must he something in the nature of a palace, with a dining-room large enough for Slate dinners and preferably with a ball-room as well. In the old days, an Ambassador was described as an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country; today, an Ambassadress must he a hostess sent to dine abroad for the good of her country. You will have to do a lot of entertaining and you will have little choice as to your guests. They will include the official and the diplomatic set in your husband's post, also whatever is regarded there as being the best society, and naturally any visiting American officials, Senators and politicians. The quantity of your guests is likewise determined by these factors. You must have teas, lunches, cocktail parties, dinners and an occasional evening reception and you must expect to have an average of at least four and usually five official dinners a week during the season.

This means, in turn, that you must maintain a suitable establishment, with plenty of servants, and particularly a maid for yourself, a valet for your husband, a butler, at least one footman, a chef, kitchen maid and chauffeur. Even in countries where wages are low, this runs into real groceries, and there is no sense in pretending that you will not allow yourself to be fleeced. You will have to engage a good social secretary—that is to say,

good in terms of London, Paris, Rome, or wherever you may be and pa\ her well to attend to your correspondence along social lines. All your notes must he written in French on the Continent or in the language of the country to which your husband is accredited, and you will need someone who is familiar with all the forms and niceties of the locale if you wish to avoid making yourself ridiculous: and a foolish or stupid Ambassadress is far worse than none.

Assuming that you and your husband have sufficient cash to permit vou to maintain tin' baronial establishment which is conventional for the emissaries of a Great Power to one of the major world-capitals, you will find yourself under heavy personal tribute. T he normal rules of good American and English society must he forgotten, in favor of an entirely rigid though by no means unreasonable set of rules.

In the first place, you must be on your guard against everybody not of official or diplomatic rank who calls upon you when you first arrive. Every world capital is inhabited by a crew of social harpies who keep afloat by the simple process of annexing the unsophisticated, newly arrived diplomats. ^ ou will he an asset to them and they will rush you at the outset. They are quite likely to be charming, intelligent and amusing people from the American point of view, but from the point of view of the local society they may be the scum of the earth and if you associate with them you will he injuring your husband and your country. I lie wisest course is to ask the doyenne of the local diplomatic corps to recommend a good social secretary and to maintain an attitude of friendly reserve until she is able to give you tin; low-down on the people who are apparently so eager to befriend you.

One vital matter, for which American life has only partly prepared you, is the use of names, and titles. Just as you do not expect strangers to call you by your Christian name the first or second time they meet you, so will foreigners expect not to have their names or titles miscalled. English titles are, of course, a world in themselves. Bear in mind that "Sir Reginald Foster" is not Lord Foster hut simply Sir Reginald and that his wife Mary is called Lady Foster and not Lady Mary, unless she is the daughter of a duke, marquess, or earl. Also there are no English Counts, only Viscounts, although there are Countesses. In Latin countries you must remember that it is customary among the gentry for a man to add his mother's name lo that of his father, as Jose Ricardi-Volpi. He should he called Mr.—or Signor— Ricardi. and to called him Mr. Volpi implies that his mother was not married.

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Another matter which will cause you much difficulty unless you are prepared for it is the matter of seating your guests at dinner, as well as the sort of people you invite to the same dinner. You must, of course, stick to the canonical series of numbers for your guests—six. ten, fourteen, eighteen, etc.—so that the man-woman-manwoman layout will come even. You must also seat your guests according to their proper precedence. Every foreign office maintains a ceremonial bureau to which your husband can send his private secretary for advice on the seating of official or diplomatic dinners, but the rest depends on your social secretary. Generally, you deal your guests out first right and then left from each end of the table. The guest of honor sits at your right and the ranking lady at your husband's right; the next couple in order of precedence go on your and your husband's left, respectively, and then you begin dealing from the right of the guest of honor and so on down the line, leaving the lower ranks to coagulate at the center of tlie table. This would he simple were it not for the fact that at every post to which a representative of the Holy See is accredited, the Papal Nuncio (who obviously must he a bachelor) outranks all other diplomats.

On the European continent, too, you must never forget the proper use of

the sofa after dinner. Steady, there! The post of honor is always on the sofa, to the right of the hostess, and the second post is on her left. Before the gentlemen rejoin you, you should seat the first and second ranking ladies to the right and left of you on the sofa, replacing them with the first and second ranking men as soon as they appear. The same is true of your automobile, although the rule has not been as rigidly formulated. In some places, it is legitimate for you to sit on the right of your own automobile but it is always safe to offer the right-hand seat to your ranking woman guest. A man must always sit on your left when motoring. If you sit on his left it implies that you are his chère amie. The expression "de la main gauche" is taken all too literally once you are cast of Cape Hatteras or south of Key West.

You will find yourself, in fact, caught in a sort of social strait-jacket: you will he trundled through certain motions. In the first place, you must remember that you are not an Ambassadress at all, merely the wife of the Ambassador, and that even he is not an Ambassador—confirmation by the Senate notwithstanding—until lie presents his credentials. There is one amusing tale told of the former American Minister to Roumania, William Culbertson, who was unable at first to present his credentials to King Ferdinand due to the latter's ill health. During this breathing spell before the King had made an honest Minister of him, he met one of his diplomatic colleagues at the golf-club but the latter refused to he introduced to the American Minister on the ground that he had not yet been accredited and therefore had no diplomatic existence!

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Your cue is, as soon as your husband has presented his credentials, to call on the doyenne of the diplomatic corps, that is to say, the wife of the Ambassador who has been longest accredited to the same post, and request her to arrange an audience with the Queen, the wife of the President, or the ranking official lady, whichever the case may he. After that you start on a round of official calls, under the guidance of the doyenne, which will last as long as you are at the post. You must call on the wife of the foreign minister and on the wives of those Ambassadors who outrank your husband. If you go to a Ministerial post it may he necessary for you and your husband to give a reception almost at once in order to avoid raising the question of precedence. In general, however, you call on the wives of the other Ambassadors, and the wives of the Ministers call upon you. Along with official calls, you can begin to take note of local society and to return those calls which your social secretary advises you to return.

Then there are national pastimes, sports and institutions which you must patronize. At Madrid, you should attend hull-fights; at Paris, the manoeuvres on the Champs de .Mars; at London. you should certainly go to Ascot, the Derby, the Grand National, and it would do no harm at all to engage in grouse-shooting after the sacred Twelfth of August or yachting at Cowes or riding with one of the better hunts. In countries where there are lotteries you should buy tickets and if you win should immediately give the proceeds to charity. You will he overwhelmed with demands for charity, ranging from mendicants who have slipped past your doorman to full-dress affairs under the patronage of royalty. You must patronize them with discrimination hut without meanness and thus make yourself persona grata.

It is not a cheap or an easy thing to be a great or even a successful Ambassadress. Such a figure as Mrs. Whitelaw Reid who, as pre-war Ambassadress at London, was a brilliant hostess without being ostentatious, or Mrs. Thomas Nelson Page who, as wartime Ambassadress at Rome, won the love, gratitude and admiration of the Royal Family, Roman society and the rank and file of the Italian people, is rare in any society.

I ruler the prevailing rules of American politics, you can persuade your husband to buy you a diplomatic post as he would buy you a Florida estate. If you get what you bargain for, it is up to you to see that it would not have been worth while for the American people to pay you not to go abroad as their social representative.