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The final touch was put on the nerves of everybody by Elim’s dragging his metraca about the halls. With howls of protestation he was separated from it.
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N. said he might possibly have arranged the matter except for the little Sub-Secretary, who had never met the President before, and who wanted, all during the interview, to prove he was very much of a man. Portillo y Rojas is away for the Easter holidays. At the President’s door a big, sullen Indian told N. he could not see the President, who was taking a siesta. As N. could not entirely follow the injunction about sleeping dogs, he compromised on a little tour, returning to find the President about to get into his motor. He asked N. to come with him, which N. did, sitting by his side, the secretary facing them on the strapontin. N. told the President he had something “very delicate” (“un asunto muy delicado”) to speak to him about. The President made one of his waving gestures, and the ball opened. Huerta said he would apologize for “the Tampico incident.” N. indicated that his government would not consider that sufficient. Huerta asked, squarely: “What do you want?” N. answered, “The salutes,” saying he might arrange the matter quietly, giving the salutes some morning at sunrise, for instance. The President began to ponder the matter; whereupon the secretary, thinking his chance had come, broke in upon the silence with the remark that it would be derogatory to the national honor to salute, and that there was no guarantee that the salutes would be returned, that Mexico’s sovereignty was in question, and the like. The President immediately stiffened up.—So can a nobody turn a nation’s destinies!
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There is talk of providing a neutral zone in Tampico during the fighting. Every time an oil-tank is damaged, not only are several hundred thousand dollars gone, but there is immense danger of the oil flowing down the river and being set fire to. You can imagine the result to the shipping in the harbor, as well as to the town.
THE SIESTA
It is now ten o’clock; the answer of Huerta has been sent off to the State Department and to Admiral Fletcher. Many newspaper men have interviewed Nelson, and he has gone up-stairs. These days of delicate negotiations—when a word too much or a word too little would make trouble—are wearying, to say the least. But so is fame made.... It seemed to me the only thing I didn’t do to-day was to buy an imitation devil, also representing Judas, of which thousands in clay, in cardboard, in every conceivable form, are offered on every street corner.