Pres. (solus)—What under the sun can I say to appease the pirates? This is what comes of the Peace of Portsmouth! It is this to be a world power with a contumacious province.
[Has had a bad half-hour.]
ACT II
The Same, August, 1907.
Pres.—Mr. Secretary, it is reported that the Japanese in Hawaii are rising.
Met.—You don’t say so! Why, it is hardly six o’clock by their time. They are early risers.
Pres.—I learn from Secretary Root that Admiral Togo’s battleships are coaling. Now, what can that mean?
Met.—Let us ask Dewey. [Enter, thoughtfully, Admiral Dewey.] Admiral, the President has learned that the Japanese battleships at Tokio are taking on coal. What, in your judgment as a sailor, are they going to do with it?
Dewey—Burn it.
[Enter Secretary Root.]