Show AVERY DAY LIFE IN SANTIAGO DE CUBA santiago sept 4 1898 we are not exactly taking boarders in the nurses home but our family has lately been augmented by two young soldiers it came about in this way one day a michigan corporal came to beg us to take into our house thi th i captain and lieutenant of his company he said 1 they ey were both very sick out in the camp whery they were lying on the ground jundef I 1 leaky aay pup tents with no atten attendance dae M but such as he was able to give them in his hours off duty with tears in his eyes he added that besides their bodily ailments which were serious enough both the officers ficerE of wore were so 60 honi homesick esick and despondent tha unless some dome change came speedily they would surely die if we would only give them shelter and the atmosphere oj a home for a week or two he would see ame that rations and a cook were furnished and a man detailed to take care 6 of the invalids when he himself was on oft duty well what would you have done lit in such a case the whole upper floor of our big casa with its several airy chambers wax was unoccupied as the nineteen nurses prepared to sleep below ti barrack Arrack fashion close together every instinct of kindness prompted the granting of the request but we re aided that hundreds of other meri men were sick unto death in the camps unable to get into the crowded hospitals it would never do to turn the nurses home into an asylum for sick soldiers would it be wise wide to set up a precedent precede nL vy by taking in these fortunately foi the feelings of all concerned it happened that two convalescents were out to be discharged from the water aide hospital the e captain and lieutenant were at once established in the vacated cots and made so comfortable under miss wheelers gentle ministrations that tooth both mended rapidly and in due course were discharged to make room for others apts this incident led to two things a pleasant acquaintance with the young Michl ganders thi the oldest of the trio tho to ia not yet 24 and an unquiet conscience concerning those spacious chambers of ours going goin 9 to waste so to say while ducle samuels boys in the pestilential camps were lying on the wet ground and dying for lack of comforts com fonts therefore we lent a readier ear when the little corporal came with another tale of woe this time he wanted shelter for his particular friend and chum whose story was as ail follows the boy was only 20 and ohp possessor of a fortune for turie so large that it amounted to about a month when whip the call for volunteers canie ie ha was traveling with his mother r and sisters in europe and came horns to enlist as a private he car tied himself well through the fight escaped without a scratch and nobody tyer heard him complain of the hardships ships of campaigning afterwards weeks of idleness in the dreary three miles from santiago he came cg met into town one day without the formality of bf a p pass a es of course this wa contrary to rule but is done every faw aay ay hu hundreds of soldiers eold lers and noth As about it unfortunately an officer 0 the company a grocery clerk arau teo Sr au ame michigan agapilo the town mouthful cher of ba a because 44 r 6 at 8 waa aversion wi ie baw aw nis pet aversion out without a pass and had him arrest ed the penalty inflicted was a I 1 severe one under the circumstances to work two weeks with the gan who were cleaning the streets of santiago the cleaning brigade is mostly made up of the off of the country i negroes chinese and cubans sneak thieves from the jails and criminals of all degrees and colors the puo poor r fellow began his punishment bravely enough but the shame of it the horrible stenches of the gutters and the charse prison fare soon made him ill his hands unused to labor became a mass of blisters and working in the heat of the day brought on fever A peculiarity of the local calentura calenture calen tura is that it goes to the head particularly when the patient is exposed to ib the noon daysun the officer however declared that the boy was only shamming or drunk and ordered him to the guard house there he lay several days al 1 shivering with chills and scorched by fever without food or medicine aad there he would probably have died had not his friend the little corporal sought him out and interested some higher power in his behalf when j the sufferer was released his wits seemed helplessly gone his hia friends nursed him as best he could out in i camp and after the fever subsided reason la in a measure returned but now the poor fellow brooded blooded upon his disi i grace and the dreaded mal de pias homesickness which has haa killed many a strong man was so strong upon him that he sank into a state of melan choly more dangerous to a mind diseased thap than the passing delirium of fever the little corporal himself looked like death between the care of the sick at night and doing duty by day he is a slender lad just of age who left a good position in a bank at a wary salary of a a month to serve uncle sam perhaps it was not the part of wisdom but motherly feelings prevailed and I 1 sad ad it if you will come too and take a few days rest you may bring your friend f and make yourselves quite at home in those empty chambers and so it came about permission from headquarters was waa readily obtained and happier boys you never saw than ahe the two who are our temporary lodgers the the worn out corporal took to I 1 his cot as soon as given a chance and for days hovered on the verge of collapse his morbidly sensa sensitive lve tive friend ashan ashamed ked of his hid soiled clothes and wretched appearance refused to come at all until nightfall like a poverty stricken for a week he lay staring at the ceiling all day mad and pacing I 1 the clor corridor at night neither eating nor I 1 sleeping to utterly miserable to respond I 1 to kindness and care the thing I 1 that first roused mused him was I 1 verily believe the sight eight of my old gingham apron I 1 had run up one moring with wirth a bowl of broth wilt without hout removing the big etchen apron he could not eat but presently I 1 found f him with a corner of the apron clasped in both hands and the tears rolling down his face 1 I have seen my mother wear one just like it he said and her hair j is gray like yours what higher compliment can be paid a woman than to be told by a alk boy that she reminds him of hla his mother thank heaven this wap wa unworn unworldly adly enough to cry like a baby the blue devils fled before a flood of hearthy tears and from that hour his roel covery was rapid the birot time the uru ame n down to dine with ath the theil wa a good to to adte on the n menu u but the usual red cross and army rations but it was neatly served and rendered attractive with light and cheerful companionship it is the first time we have sat down to a table in four months said one actually forks and spoons 1 I exclaimed thither the A tablecloth table cloth and imp napkins kins too chimed both together it was not noot necessary to explain that the tablecloth table cloth was the sheet of an army cot and the napkins improvised f from rom an aa old white cambric petticoat they served their humble purpose in making of a home as well as the finest damask could have done next to the young Michl MIchi ganders tim the happiest boy I 1 knew in santiago la Is wise he is only 19 but ha haft s been promoted for gallantry and nd goes north tomorrow true for a month km ha has been alternately burning and freezing with calentura calenture calen tura and looks like a walking skeleton but he explained to me how lucky it was that his bad day and that of his aide who also ban the fever happens to come alternately so that one can relieve the other yea ton can afford t 19 be happy I 1 said bald be cause you are going home of course I 1 am glad to go home he replied but I 1 would not have missed that fight with my men nor an all these experiences in santiago not it if f f I 1 had to leave my bones here Z perhaps the most interesting place in town is the red cross headquarters headquarter down near the landing I 1 report there theft every day and can gain more varlia varied ni formation there in an hour on an t manner of subjects than could b be found elsewhere in a week to get ma ins aerials tor for volumes one has only to H sit still and listen it is a big bodega or ti v warehouse fronting the wharves the lower floor used tor for stable and store rooms the upper utilized as an offices and retiring rooms for miss barton and her i I 1 aides from this place forty thousand people are fed daily and half as m many sick are gratuitously treated not by the actual issuing of food and medicine from this bodega but here is located the engine so to speak which keeps the whole machinery in motion here heft the impoverished and distressed corne come with their bar harrowing rowing recitals civilian and army officers to make requests and a thousand things are continually de manding attention in the proper dis trib ution of ship loads of food cloth 1 l ing medicines and supplies miss bar ton that wonderful woman seems never the least bit hurried ruffled nor har rattled but goes on her quiet unas suming and always eff efficient lelent way doing her appointed work with unerring wisdom and an executive ability which would be hard to match may she live forever for when she to is called u up higher there is none to fill the ph place which she herself crea creal frd Nd let me give you some examples es ag the odd things which are perpetu perpetually any coming up at red cros headquarter this morning one of our surgeons ft x calved a letter from a minor officer U i one of the camps near santiago f said for gods se sake send us same condensed milk I 1 i men are dying out here of intestinal 7 troubles with nothing to eat but beaz 3 and bacon which to them is as rai esaak poison I 1 write as man to man in ha bla man itys name if my appeal were aft I 1 known I 1 would be disgraced w A army surgeon came in and ahr threw himself down on a chair the picture oc ag despair said he miss barton do Y boxi 1 ever swear well you would if yaw were in my shoes I 1 have found a do men in my ward today just brought te from camp with maggots in wounds oh 1 I can get them out all rIg bt 4 said in answer to my horrified ex each tion but great Cel ceasar marl think 04 neglect which brought soldiers to 1 abow a another hospital doctor came beg sing fine miss barton to give him a hundred pajamas he said that his sick men w were ere fairly eaten up by lice and that there was nothing for it but to burn heir uniforms and keep them in pajamas till fresh clothes could be procured miss barton had not half the number of garments against the burning of the uniforms why what else can we do with them said the officer you can have no idea how bad they are every beam and crease and fibre fabre of the cloth swarming with nits aits and crawlers oh yes I 1 know all about it she replied and then she sat down and gave him an account of her exper experiences lences in the same line in the civil war at one time a branch of the army long in camp became so infested with vermin that men were actually dying of the pest but we burn up good uniform she said 1 I had great tanks made and filled with the strong salt brine from our corned beet beef made boiling hot the lousy clothes were put to in and thoroughly soaked and they oame came out good as new so far as vermin was concerned to be sure she added reflectively they shrank a little so that knees were inclined to crawl towards the seats of trousers trow sers and up waist lines toward the arm armpits pits but saved the clo clothes thes we there was just the sus suspicion dicion of a twinkle anwinkle in the officers eyes as he an cowered Ow we ered red well the fit nt matter so BO much as to get rid of the vermin but we any beet beef brine in cuba maybe seawater sea water might be salt enough hut but we have no kettle for heating beating neither have we any tanks ta to put it in materials to build them as you had baor united states I 1 dont donit see how U to t the he we could possibly apply your cure in santiago FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD |