To Rome

On Christmas Eve, 1908, Alice Warder, socially registered in Washington, was taken to wife by John Work Garrett, Baltimore scion. Last week, as she was cruising through the Adriatic with a bald-browed, black-bearded man with a limp, things happened in Washington which made her the spouse of the next U. S. Ambassador to Italy.

Welcome indeed would she be in Rome, where she could help any man do his diplomatic duty. Baltimore and Washington, Berlin and Buenos Aires, Paris and The Hague knew her well--a woman of striking appearance, rich, gracious, restless, energetic, vitalizer of many a new "movement." She, more than any other, was responsible for the U. S. vogue of Leon Bakst (1866-1925), brilliant Russian artist and stage designer. She brought him to her Baltimore home, there set him to work designing a private theatre, decorating it in the modern Russian style. Bakst decorations spread to include other features of her home, some of her costumes. To her theatre at "Evergreen" she invited special guests, sang to them in a voice not professionally successful. Later, remaining childless, she turned to art as an outlet for self-expression.

Fortunate indeed would any diplomat be to have her for a wife. But residence in Rome as the wife of a U. S. Ambassador implied no domestic upheaval for Alice Warder Garrett. It was her husband, John Work Garrett, with whom she was last week cruising about Italy, that President Hoover had picked for this prime foreign post. President Hoover prepared to congratulate himself on filling another major post with a man of quality.

Grandson of the famed Builder-President of the Baltimore & Ohio R. R., Mr. Garrett, with his younger brother Robert, is partner in the banking firm of Robert Garrett & Sons, one of Baltimore's oldest and most trusted houses. He was graduated from Princeton in 1895. At 29, he entered the U. S. foreign service, served as secretary of legation at The Hague, moved on to the embassies at Berlin and Rome. In 1910 he was advanced to ministerial rank, representing the U. S. in Venezuela, later in the Argentine.

At the outbreak of War, the State Department sent him to Paris as special assistant to the U. S. ambassador there. He was placed in charge of the German and Austro-Hungarian civilian prisoners in France. In 1917 President Wilson made him Minister to the Netherlands, an important between-the-war-lines post. His last diplomatic service was secretary-general for the Washington Arms Conference of 1921. Proud is he of the 25 different occasions upon which he has acted as charge d'affaires ad interim, of the many minor treaties he has signed for the U. S.

And always these public services have been rendered with a private distinction which has marked "Evergreen" hospitality. There, a dinner menu elaborately inscribed on a gold-bordered card is set in a little gold holder before each guest, that he may gauge his appetite. And, dinner done, guests may wander through a library where tier on tier of precious old books are the envy of every bibliophile.

At Rome, Mr. Garrett, 57, will succeed Henry Prather Fletcher, U. S. Ambassador (professional), resigned, who sailed last week for the U. S. Mr. Fletcher was a victim of Rumor. When he personally conducted President-Elect Hoover down, across and around South America, Rumor chose him to be Secretary of State. When the No. 1 Cabinet job went to Henry Lewis Stimson, Rumor made Mr. Fletcher Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, largely because he had served 27 years as a career diplomat. After Charles Gates Dawes was chosen, Mr. Fletcher resigned. Rumor picked him up again and made him a candidate for the U. S. Senate, seeking the Pennsylvania seat not yet occupied by Senator-suspect Vare.