50 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -X 



was true of your last letter to me, and, without doubt, it 

 will be true of this letter. Can you imagine it? Think 

 of the moral turpitude of a creature employed to break 

 open private letters and to read them ! Can you imagine 

 work more degrading? What a dirty dog he must be! 

 how despicable, indeed, he must seem to himself!&quot; And 

 so Mr. Buchanan went on until he wound up as follows : 

 i Not only does this person read private letters, but he is 

 a forger : he forges seals, and I regret to say that his imi 

 tation of the eagle on our legation seal is a very sorry 

 bird.&quot; Whether this dose had any salutary effect on the 

 official concerned I never learned. 



The troubles of an American representative at St. 

 Petersburg are many, and they generally begin with the 

 search for an apartment. It is very difficult indeed in that 

 capital to find a properly furnished suite of rooms for a 

 minister, and since the American representative has been 

 made an ambassador this difficulty is greater than ever. In 

 my own case, by especial luck and large outlay, I was able 

 to surmount it ; but many others had not been so fortunate, 

 and the result had generally been that, whereas nearly 

 every other power owned or held on long lease a house 

 or apartment for its representative, simple, decent, dig 

 nified, and known to the entire city, the American rep 

 resentative had lived wherever circumstances compelled 

 him: sometimes on the ground-floor and sometimes in a 

 sky-parlor, with the natural result that Russians could 

 hardly regard the American Legation as on the same foot 

 ing with that of other countries. 



As I write, word comes that the present ambassador 

 has been unable to find suitable quarters save at a rent 

 higher than his entire salary; that the proprietors have 

 combined, and agreed to stand by each other in holding 

 their apartments at an enormous figure, their understand 

 ing being that Americans are rich and can be made to 

 pay any price demanded. Nothing can be more short 

 sighted than the policy of our government in this respect, 

 and I shall touch upon it again. 



