_Pearson’s Magazine_ printed six years ago a fulsome life of Diaz. What General Diaz thought of it is told in an interview between Ireneo Paz, a Mexican newspaperman and the President who were friends for more than sixty years. Don Ireneo Paz asked the President: “I have been wanting to ask you if that interview which the papers published a few months ago was authentic; that one which is said to have taken place between yourself and one Creelman, an American journalist?” “What surprises me is that sagacious men like you should have been capable of giving credit to such folly (à semejante paparrucha),” replied Diaz. “Because I did not believe it, I asked you if it was authentic.” “It’s as true as a dead child. You know me too well to believe that I could stroll for hours upon the terrace of Chapultepec, exhibiting the white of my eyes and opening my nostrils excessively in order that the Yankee reporter may be able to give wings to his fancy. What happened was this: A friend of mine, a member of my cabinet, came to read me the article which was already manufactured (confeccionado) for an American publication. It didn’t seem bad to me, or rather it seemed very good, because without compromising me much it lent a lustre to my antecedents, and put me on a good footing for the future, so that it gave me all the facilities which I desired, whether to continue sacrificing myself for the Fatherland, or to shake off the dust thereof (zafarme) in time if things should blow into a whirlwind (à ponerse turbias). I acknowledge to you that I thought the writing was so well dressed up, so much in conformity with what are not but should be my profoundest thoughts, so seemly for our luckless proletariat, that I accepted it unhesitatingly as if it had been inspired by myself, not making more than a very few modifications on some entirely Yankee points of view which would have put me in a very ridiculous position, and I gave my consent to two things:--that it should be published in English and Spanish, and that it should be amply paid for.” “About how much was the cost of this work?” “Some fifty thousand pesos.” (Como unos cincuenta mil pesos.)[3]