Twenty Years as Military Attaché by Col. Thomas Bentley Mott

Author:Col. Thomas Bentley Mott [Mott, Col. Thomas Bentley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, World War I, Europe, Great Britain, General, Germany, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781787208162
Google: TtwuDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2017-07-31T03:04:24+00:00

XVIII—THE HENRY WHITES AND THE ROBERT BACONS

MR. HENRY WHITE quit the Embassy in 1910, all too soon to please the staff. Long experience had taught him every detail of the trade and he had a certainty of touch that was vastly agreeable in a chief. But if anyone could lessen our regret it was his successor, Robert Bacon. He and Mrs. Bacon gave a marked distinction to the Embassy and their daughter Martha, now Mrs. George Whitney, furnished reason and excuse for many gay parties. The Bacons were born and reared in the best sets of Boston and New York and their preferences tinned to people of the same tastes. This did not always help to make life easier for them in republican France or when facing the flood of visiting Americans. They had nothing to ask, nothing to gain, from anybody. They were serenely happy amongst themselves, and when young Bob would come over for a visit their cup was full. The desire to serve their country, help others, and live up to their own high standard of conduct and duty, marked out the path of their official journey.

Mr. Bacon loved horses. Riding to hounds was a vast enjoyment, but polo was his passion. Once he was starting for America for a fortnight’s visit and he asked me if I thought it would look absolutely foolish if he took over with him a few ponies. ‘I could count upon at least four games, he said; but I would hate to appear to be putting on side.’

‘Why should anybody know?’ I asked.

‘That’s true,’ he replied; ‘I can take that precaution.’ The ponies sailed with him.

He was very happy in his colonel’s commission during the war and he did hard and useful service as liaison officer with the British and as commandant of General Pershing’s Headquarters, only a short time before his death. He followed Roosevelt with startling suddenness in the latter’s untimely taking off, and within the space of a few months I lost two friends who, it seemed to me, had once been pillars of my little universe.

In 1912 Mr. Herrick succeeded Mr. Bacon. His first act gave me a taste of what our future relations were to be. I had been operated upon suddenly for appendicitis and a few hours after reaching Paris he came to the hospital. The magnetic charm that shone from his face, like a softly shaded light in some great room, won me on the moment. Seventeen years later, the day before that lamp was extinguished, it still filled his sick-room with undiminished radiance. French people began to ask whether American ambassadors were selected for their good looks. Mr. White, Mr. Bacon, and now Mr. Herrick were all men of splendid presence, and they dressed, for every occasion, with a perfect taste that completely satisfied one’s sense for the appropriate. And clothes in those days had some significance.

The Embassy was composed of Robert Bliss, Sheldon Whitehouse, Warren Robbins, Hough of the Navy, and myself. We all liked each other, the wives were congenial and life was most pleasant.

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