HALF HOURS WITH THE IDIOT
By John Kendrick Bangs
| A LITTLE BOOK OF CHRISTMAS |
| A LINE O' CHEER FOR EACH DAY O' THE YEAR |
| HALF HOURS WITH THE IDIOT |
HALF HOURS WITH
THE IDIOT
BY
JOHN KENDRICK BANGS
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1917
Copyright, 1917,
By Little, Brown, and Company.
CONTENTS
I
AS TO AMBASSADORS' RESIDENCES
"I am glad to see that the government is beginning to think seriously ofproviding Ambassadors' residences at the various foreign capitals towhich our Ambassadors are accredited," said the Idiot, stirring hiscoffee with a small pocket thermometer, and entering the recordedtemperature of 58 degrees Fahrenheit in his little memorandum book."That's a thing we have needed for a long time.[Pg 2] It has always seemed ahumiliating thing to me to note the differences between the houses ofour government officials of equal rank, but of unequal fortune, abroad.To leave the home of an Ambassador to Great Britain, a massivesixteen-story mausoleum, looking like a collision between a CarnegieLibrary and a State Penitentiary, with seven baths and four grand pianoson every floor, with guides always on duty to show you the way from yourbedchamber to the breakfast room, and a special valet for each garmentyou wear, from sock to collar, and go over to Rome and find yourAmbassador heating his coffee over a gas-jet in a hall bedroom on thetop floor of some dusty old Palazzo, overlooking the garage of theSpanish Minister, is disconcerting, to say the least. It may be as