Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/232

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212
DRAMATIC MOMENTS

wired to delay it, because of high feeling among residents, but she had sailed, and pretty soon dropped anchor in the harbour without a comment.

Then the fates began putting some action into the piece. Señor Dupuy de Lome, a faithful servant, and a courteous diplomat, wrote a letter to a friend. Probably it was the mildest personal letter he had written for a year. It was his private opinion of the President's message.

"The message has been a disillusionment to the insurgents, who expected something different; but I regard it as bad. Besides the ingrained and inevitable ill-breeding with which is repeated all that the press and public opinion in Spain have said about Weyler, it once more shows that McKinley is weak and a bidder for the admiration of the crowd, besides being a would-be politician who tries to leave a door open behind himself while keeping on good terms with the jingoes of the party."

An enterprising journalist, whose zeal cer-