Show SANTIAGO DE CUBA TN IN WAR TIME santiago de cuba aug 5 1898 1398 it would be hard bard to find an odder state of things than exist in this three century old town entirely un amerl ameri can in aspect and conditions its architecture as moorish as anything in morocco and its narrow crooked uphill streets reeking with vile odors and filth of every description it is at present about the most cosmopolitan city on the hemisphere soldiers are everywhere spanish cuban and american ami Amk rican and in the latter army all the nations of the earth axe are represented walk alk ing the distance of a block you may meet officers of every rank and art previous vi condition handsome young apollos in private uniform some of them the sons of millionaires titled spaniards Span ards sulky cubans lepers and beggars of both sexes and all colors and to encounter a corpse or two stretched across the sidewalk or lying on its face in a doorway is no uncommon occurrence the cadaver may lie there tor for hours before attention is paid to it not that people have become entirely lu indifferent dIfferent to death but because nod polled in these parts has always nad habit of sleeping in the sun consequently nobody notices when here and there among the wretched throng one enters the eternal slumber passing along waterside water side street at any hour of the day or night you may aee sea a thousand outstretched mo motion tion leas figures their rags rage drawn over their faces and should vou examine them closely you would doubtless lind among them some bodies tenantless of a soul As to the lepers let m tell you one little circumstance characteristic of the place everywhere in cuba lepers apers roam the streets without let or hindrance there are two or three hospitals for them in cuba but no law to compel their isolation about forty lepers however were corralled in san han alago hospital civil until after the battles of july and 2nd and when the hospitals were needed for the wounded 18 spanish soldiers all the sick who could crawl were ordered out into the st reelis 4 to make room for the victims victim is of zan war the lepers were evicted evi eted with the throne in the waterside water side street begging alms allu from passersby and receiving food from the red Cross Cros otten soften directly from the hands of our ladles in its best estate santiago lacked every sanitary feature and now after two months of siege crowded with the off ot of all the burrou surrounding ad region the sick the wounded the diseased and cargoes of rotting st stuff r being ipg dumped ashore from ships long decayed in the harbor the city Is a 8 veritable pesthole pest hole filed with stenches that absolutely stagger one decayed fruit dead dogs cats and mules all manner of filth and carrion lies wherever it r happened to fall festering tn in the sun a and rain to quickly become st a mass of living eving wriggling abomination A peculiarity of this hot moist ciliate is the rabidity with which takes fakes place and the certainty that without greatest care maggots will breed in diseased flesh a fact ands untold horrors to hospital work between military rule and a queerly mixed spanish I 1 ir als and american civil ad x estta I 1 on anti agos bu buttriss affairs t ar art r dec decidedly ideAr complicated most moo t of thi of the former TOV gov itt haye been retained to u unbounded indignation of abam cubans those ministers 4 they say were never chosen ly the citizens of santiago but bete forced upon them by the queen of spain they have been fighting this very thing for thirty years and after the victory ic tory they naturally expected an other government with officials of their own choo kAng still more dissatisfaction has arisen from the administration of port affairs which were never in a worse condition when spain held undisputed sway to begin with the same port officials are retained a cuban at the head who does not speak a word of english assisted by three spanish venues revenues rr officers therefore the american merchantmen merchantman merchant men who are un acquainted with the language find it extremely difficult to do business at all the harbor Is crowded with vessels filled wih american goods which can not be landed because the army has pre emptied all the wharves and lighters A fair sample of that phase of the situation is the steamer philadelphia on which I 1 came she expected to discharge her important commission commiss I 1 on at this port in three days time and be ready to return she has now been here nine days and will doubtless have to wait as many more before all her cargo can be taker taken ashore in the one lighter which she is able to occasionally secure for a few hours service in normal there are plenty of lighters in santiago harbor but just no now w the all powerful military are using them and to let one go whatever valuable cargoes may be si spoiling polling never was mortal man moze more unpopular than general e Ob chatter after afloat and ashore with both Sp ailish and american merchants the cal bains of all vessels that visit the port as well as with the intelligent citizens and the soldiers to a man the wonder is that some bullet aimed by a vengeful hand does not cut short his career in these lawless times as he rolls about town in his carriage or his great bulk is carried from camp to camp on a litter men are dying by hundreds because of criminal neglect and naturally to the chief officer on the spot is attributed a good deal that properly belongs to distant surgeon general sternberg among other things shatters action in regard to port chai clis is severely criticized it was behl U eved that when santiago became an american port the exorbitant duties ex exacted acted by spa spain 1 I n would be abo abolished I 1 people pe ople were perishing here for everything in the line of food and other rift ap of life what then was the surprise of the american merchants merchant who understood to supply a part of the demand to find when they reached santiago that they must pay an average of per cent ad valorem valoree on every the same old spanish charges which furnished lurnis hed the cubans with their main cause for rebelling the merchants ts appealed to gen shatter shafter and he told them in plain terms that they must pay the extortionate charges or leave the port without unloading end be d d quick about it too toot many did the latter and the few who reman remained cd found themselves encompassed by difficulties the captains tendered drafts in payment of the unexpected duties but the port officials rr fused the drafts and demanded american gold again was the mili military autocrat appealed to and again shatter upheld the spanish custom officials and in his usual pointed style becom mended the united states merchantmen merchantman merchant men 1 to a ilace that to la warmer if ned with the dolop do fira in this of course all al this interferes greatly with busine bus loeH and is a serious loss to many pea peopled bankers and wealthy merchants in baft r acs tiago who are willing to honor me the vi drafts of american houses to ax amount are at present unable to do sc go via han ing shipped shir ped their gold for safety to td ja pain and jamaica the local meri tl chants th ough eager to purchase the j american cargoes that axe are now in the na harbor hesitate to do so fearing the that aj when the old time duties axe are 7 dished the they y will have to clis pose of the goods at heavy lose lam p it slakes shakes the confidence ot of of the citizens in their american 3 friends at the outset they cannot un tit der stand why the united states should aid i maintain the same extortionate duties which led to the wax war against Spat alCy especially at a time when starvation v is abroad in cuba thus hundreds 44 families of the better class who axe are ss not yet destitute enough to seek char i ity are prevented by shatters action from supplying themselves with food fancy the steamboat passengers being beiner obliged unexpectedly to two or three weeks in this poverty t fever infested town those who desire to board on the vessel anc anchored bored a mile or two out in the bay may do so at the rate of 4 per din dayn as long as a s supplies holdout and may go ashore whenever they like 41 unless quarantine intervenes by paying Z the customary boat charge of so 50 centa 4 each way there are two swell clatos in santiago american and A where men may live if rich enough besides several tiendas tien das or low restaurants which demand ind high d prices tor for poorest food even the pst zens ze ns ordinarily so hospitable are tw A poor since ainee the long war to bo ente I 1 guests and therefore the travel without alenty of scrip in his pura eia f finds nd S himself in the condition of thoc I 1 son of man mam without where to lay jay lt hta head one of the philadelphian Phila PhIle delphias gers a huge joke on him Z self tiring of steamship fare ta kareha rehA h thought he would try a change ash ashore ax and aad said ald to his fellow sufferers Qs clemen I 1 am ain going to town to get a square meal who will join he fortun bitely for his pocketbook pockett book no body accepted the invitation having heard that the clubs were eapen expensive he did not patronize either of il but went to a modest res 1 l ordered such auch a mew ameial as would cost f the united states about 50 cents to sure some essentials were I 1 1 butter of course was not te and there was neither milk br bread e ad i rell relish sh of any sort he had a az broi a stew of odds imd and ends a ch chante chunte un in ba boiled led be beef e f possibly horse 1 adm d halt a pine pineapple apple and a c cup up 0 of fa bf afia 1 kl coffee with brown sugar and the to for this sumptuous repast was wr V 2375 I 1 your correspondent has met with ao such trials being safely housed in re cross headquarters miss B barton ao 1 her staff are comfortably e a lidai 1 in a picturesque well furnished ka casadone casa cas aone one of the linest in santiago alu owner a wealthy scotchman now irr lion europe kindly placed it at her joeal dosal I 1 here they sleep and eat bid their days from early bjorn morn till d A eve are spent in the store down dorwn near the waters edge albl r 41 slaves never work harder chiz ta these ladle ladies s an arid d gentlemen As aa body knows they not only give th the time and services without sal salary have abandoned positions of p proto nence ease and profit for phil i salce sake all of them have grown hotl lc thinner azid and paler I 1 bae bade th goodbye good bye last spring in havana an indefinable Inde Anable change of eap exp express apparent in their theft faces when a 1 il cloned it to miss barton she sami you ret at an old poem by c ewans about the death ol 01 rf the flow tw 9 I 1 have forgotten the exact title fehd even the words but after the kill ine frosts of autumn the last rose pose accounts for her changed appearance by saying that she has looked on death surely if horrible sights and sad experiences leave their impression on the human countenance these have reason for the alte alteration raton let me tell you a few unvarnished truths in the lowest fewest possible words surgeon burgeon general sternberg announced fe the beginning that he had no ae for work and tea tears and only the other day reiter doted that he be did not want any female nurses tn in the army therefore tie iiii has opposed the red bed cross in every way refusing to permit it to follow the amy his own plan of caring for sick and wounded soldiers may be well enough in theory to talk about in washington but for practical use on the me field of battle it has been woefully to be of no use whatever aam anargy army on the march in a strange country cannot carry along ample fa cumes for hospital work to be made v available alv callable mal lable when most needed during and d immediately after an engagement this Is the peaceful province of the red cross to follow closely in the rear r protected by the treaty from the bulf av metal of both armies and had it been aswed to do so in cuba thousands of lives might have been saved xe the Stern bergian berglan theory is directly re 1 for at least half of the r A which have occurred since july r aid to say nothing of the hundreds f jw dying from subsequent y hardship and exposure i although discouraged in every way 1 I the e heads of the army the red cross in following as closely as pos able and so thank heaven the sup state of texas happened to be biear when the first great battle oc aa ahmed a ered you have heard how our boys I 1 fight hungry haw the they f e fwu t into the y lay I 1 la in the trenches for two days almost fi without out food and how the wounded ordered to make their cp W er e afterwards ay to the rear as best they could if men with desperate wounds had to walk ke brawl awl perhaps a mile perhaps five t t ec alx mile in s some ome cases ten or fifteen ta S not over good smooth roads but v iffa a wild rough country where the r s were rendered almost impassible raft W aaby aily rains and heavy army wagons L 7 se who were ere least injured assisted r comrades and hundreds died by 7 taie wayside had not the Stem Stern bergian berglan been inexorable the red cross have dha been promptly on hand with J t Z U equipped with every con faience leace and the first hospital camp retold d have been close by the field of bisue e those of the wounded who lived teach h the place designated were at td to as rapidly and efficiently as ble by the half dozen army sur s w who ho had nothing at hand for awful work some of their inspru ka were in their pockets but anes ance acs ics band bandages es medicina medic ins and ana food fod J e rely lackin giand so insufficient the surgical force that numbers of wounded lay jay unattended for days w their turn came the soldiers lea were soaked with rain and stiff stife with mud from the trenches so they had to be removed before an atlon and could not be put on A men were taken from operating jes perhaps minus a leg or an arm bodies desperately torn by wr bullets and laid on the wet naked as the minute they were without shelter and in the ma of cases without even a blanket there they lay suffering dying ded without food or water and i long awful days to add to the foff that Got golgotha gotha it rained inana the be army hospital corps foolish virgena of the che scrip wi 4 tures had for gottne to provide oil so there was no light but that of the weeping skies and an occasional flickering candle by which to saw human bonas and to cut into quivering flesh without the blessed boon of chloroform when the little band of the red cross finally forced its way to the spot the ladies of the party wading waist deep in the surf to reach the shore and walking I 1 miles inland miss barton knew exactly what to do asking leave of nobody she directed fires to toe be built as quickly as possible with the rain soaked materials at handland han dand over them were put her big granite kettles filled with water in some of them good strong gruel was made and cans ol of condensed milk stirred into others plenty of oil and banters were provide dand with her usual wonderful foresight miss barton had brought along a quantity of cotton cloth this she tore into strips the length of a sheet and sent the men of her par party ty ahead with lights to cover the naked sufferings the women quickly followed each with a tin cup and a steaming bucket of wilk milk or gruel they found many of the soldiers unconscious others delirious or raving howling and cursing in agony kne Knee eling lang beside each the little band of workers lifted the poor heads in their a arms rm s and put be awen the parched lips the first taste of food they had had for days gradually consciousness returned to many who had passed almost beyond the border line ot of the unknown and the light of reason returned to eyes filled with frenzy thus hundreds of mothers boys were saved who in a few |