"'Have something here for the Minister,' said Eddie."
"The porter looked at him suspiciously, but he permitted the messenger to pass into the vestibule, which is perhaps six feet square. Beyond the vestibule is a passage that leads to the large central hall. The Minister stood in the hall. In one hand he held an envelope. It was addressed to the Secretary of State. It contained a request for the passports of the Minister and his suite. Señor Polo had personally brought the document from the chancellory above."
"When the porter presented the letter just brought by the Department of State's messenger, Señor Polo grasped it in his quick, nervous way. He opened the envelope and realized instantly that he had been outwitted. A cynical smile passed over the Minister's face as he handed his request for passports to 'Eddie,' who bowed and smiled on the Minister."
"Señor Polo stepped back into the hall and started to read the ultimatum carefully. But he stopped and turned his head toward the door."
"'This is indeed Jeffersonian simplicity,' he said."
"'Eddie' Savoy felt very badly over the incident, because he had learned to like Minister Polo personally."
"'He was so pleasant that I felt like asking him to stay a little longer,' said 'Eddie,' 'but I didn't, for that wouldn't have been diplomatic. When you have been in this department twenty-five or thirty years you learn never to say what you want to say and never to speak unless you think twice.'"
"Wherefore it will be seen that 'Eddie' Savoy has mastered the first principles of diplomacy."--N.Y. World.
A copy of the resolution by Congress was also cabled to Minister Woodford, at Madrid, to be officially transmitted to the Spanish Government, fixing the 23d as the limit for its reply, but the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs had already learned of the action of Congress, and did not permit Minister Woodford to ask for his passports, but sent them to him on the evening of the 21st, and this was the formal beginning of the war.
