The times., 1899-02-05

ont the knowledge of any man outside of
Washington, and known to only two men
here. that the contents of this train
reached Hongkong just before Dewey was
ordered out of that harbor. and that he
VAS thus supplied with ammunition for
his Gght at Manila. These statements sur
pIised Secretary Long when he read them,
and made him think that there must have
been some mistake. So he wrote to Wood
ford and asked him whether the report
was not inaccurate. This unexpected be-
havior on the part of the Secretary seems
to have given General Woodford shock
or something, and his latest letter is the
result.
He begins by saying that the remarks
attributed to him by the newspapers refer
to talk which he made at a gathering
of members of the Army and Navy Cub
and their friends; it was not public
meeting, but a gathering of club members
and their friends. General Woodford had
been told that no reporters would be pres
ent, and he did not see any person taking
notes; the committee of the club tod him
that no reporters were invited, and that
they did not see any person taking notes.
Certainly, he adds there were no persons
taking notes near him. General Wood
ford seems TO be occupied just here with
making remarks and then repeating them
TO be sure that they are all right. Most
of us have known the old lady who locks
under her bed before retiring to make
sure that no burglar is there, and tn II
looks again 10 make sure that she did not
see any burglar there. Somehow or ether,
General Woodford' 5 excellent literary style
cackling. But then, he says, if there had
been no reporters anywhere around it
would not have excused any inaccuracy in
his statements. but If there were reporters
present and they wrote out their matter
from hearsay or poor memories it would ex-
plain possible inaceuracy in the reports.
This is beautiful. We remand it 10 the con-
sideration of an old fashioned class in
parsing, for it is worthy of their best eff
forts.
But the gem of the letter is TO come;
and it is worth quoting verbatim:
In the published remarks find that am re-
ported as saying that February Is there were
not on American ships or in the ordnance depots
in the United States two rounds Of powder per
gun ar that time What | intended to say was
that / had been informed during February, 1895,
that on the 18th of February OF that year there
were not more than two rounds of ammunition
per gun and per man in the ordnance depots
and arsenals OF the United States.
II would not seem TO the ordinary mind
that there was much difference in these
two statements; but there is. and that is
diplomacy. General woodford was sue
cessful as a diplomat at the Court of Spain
because he said this sort of thing, and
kept everybody busy guessing what he
meant
But that is not quite all of it. The let
ter concludes with the earnest statement
that General Woodford meant no harm by
this speech. indeed he did not; he meant
to pay the Navy Department a compli-
ment, and nothing could be further from
his intentions than to criticise 1t in any
way. II must be disheartening for man
TO pay what he thinks is a compliment and
have the object of his iattery rise up in
"ldeh ana dCt lhsuiteu' ana General WOOL
ford will have the sympathy of all right
minded people. Meanwhile he viii do
well to lay aside the language OF diplo-
macy while sojourning in this country. He
might. some day, express his glowing ap-
probation of manly worth to some mus
cular citizen of the Republic, and then his
diplomatic language would be misunder-
stood and the results very sad for Gem
eraI Woodford