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hours before. Now, Ehrman cabled again:
    UPRISING OCCURRED TONIGHT, SIX. NO BLOODSHED. ARMY AND NAVY OFFICIALS TAKEN PRISONERS. GOVERNMENT WILL BE ORGANIZED TONIGHT, CONSISTING OF THREE CONSULS, ALSO CABINET. SUPPOSED SAME MOVEMENT WILL BE EFFECTED IN COLóN. ORDER PREVAILS SO FAR. SITUATION SERIOUS. FOUR HUNDRED SOLDIERS LANDED TODAY. BARRANQUILLA .
    Roosevelt sent at once for his top State and Navy Department aides. Hay arrived within minutes, accompanied by Loomis. Moody was still out of town, so his second in command, Charles H. Darling, came instead, followed by Admiral Taylor, Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, and two assistant officers. A crisis conference began in the President’s office.
    Ehrman’s “no bloodshed” was good news, and Arango, Boyd, and Arias seemed to be going about their business efficiently so far. But the presence of those soldiers in Colón was indeed “serious” (and would look even more so when Roosevelt found out there were five hundred, not four). The
Nashville
was so far the only American presence on either side of the Isthmus. Hubbard’s guns and Marines might, or might not, be enough to stop the government battalion from crossing over and quashing the revolution.
    All the more reason, therefore, to keep Tovar’s troops on the Caribbean side.But “reason” of a legal nature must be found in the treaty of 1846. Roosevelt was aware that early in his own presidency, the State Department had blocked a shipment of rebel arms along the railroad, on the ground that they might be used to prevent further transport of anything. Could the same scruple now justify blocking a shipment of government soldiers, whose only mission was to maintain the integrity of the Colombian federation?
    Apparently, it could. Roosevelt authorized a draft set of instructions for the Navy Department to set in cipher, and cable immediately:
    For NASHVILLE. Inthe interests of peace do everything possible to prevent government troops from proceeding to Panama [City]. The transit must be kept open and order maintained.
    Direct the ATLANTA to proceed with all speed to Colón.
    Also the BOSTON [to Panama City].
    Repeat all of yesterday’s orders.
    Remarkable in this document was its lack of any reference to the “strict neutrality” imposed upon American commanders in earlier Isthmian crises.
    By 10:30 P.M. , the specific order to Commander Hubbard was ready for transmission and signed by Hay. Further cables went to the other ships involved, although their urgency was largely symbolic. The
Atlanta
had to finish stoking up in Kingston before it could join the
Nashville;
the
Boston
had not yet cleared Honduras; the rest of the Pacific Squadron would need three more days to get to Panama City. At least the
Dixie
was nearing Colón, where Hubbard could doubtless use it.
    Up Pennsylvania Avenue, the stereopticon watchers were roaring, as result after result flickered onto the screens. Mayor Seth Low of New York City had conceded defeat. A Democratic rout was announced in Maryland. Especially loud cheers, around eleven o’clock, signaled a triumph for “Hanna Republicans” in Ohio.
    The White House conference broke up fifteen minutes later, after another cable from Panama City announced that a government gunboat had tossed five or six shells into the city, “killing a Chinaman in Salsipuedes street and mortally wounding an ass.” If that was the extent of Colombia’s rage so far, a tired President could get some sleep.

    THE BIG WORD
REVOLUTION crowded election results on the right-hand side of the front page of
The Washington Post
the next morning. Most other newspapers, however, treated the story from Panama City as if it were the final, entirely predictable installment of a serial that had begun well but lost its power of suspense. In any case, the New York
World
had given away the ending nearly four months before—even forecasting yesterday’s date. This temporary lack of interest (the story being by no means