The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-24
IN VERY DISTRESSFUL CUBA
HOW THERED CRoss oRPHANAGE Is
 COMING ON.
"One Touch of Nature Makes the Whole World Kin"-A Visit to Matanzas With the Senatorial Commission.

Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier.)
 Havana, Cuba, March 15.-Could you
 step into our new Orphanage this
 bright morning you would see some
 thing to bring tears to your eyes.
 Forty little waifs, lately rescued from
 starvation and not yet out of danger of
 death from suffering undergone, are
 blissfully happy over a few toys-the
 first they ever owned in their lives. It
 came about in this way: By Dr. Les
 sers order, each child who is able to
 sit up, is put out on the broad marble
 veranda which faces the whole eastern
 side of the house, for an hours sum-
 ming, after it's bath and breakfast.
 Being in charge a few hours the other
 morning, I was sitting out with the
 children-almost baked in the sum-
 bath myself-while holding in my lap
 a small girl-skeleton whose protruding
 bones could hardly bear the wooden
 chair-when stalwart young Ameri-, can sauntered up the path He
 proved to be an angel in disguise.
 Said he: T came up to say good bye to
 Miss Barton, as I am leaving Havana
 this evening; and finding her out of
 town, thought would come over and
 take look at the new Orphanage."
 It happened that I was boiling over
 with indignation at the recent action
 of the Spanish government in refusing
 to pass through the custom house
 box of childrens toys. which some
 kind soul in the north had sent with
 the more substantial supplies from the
 United States; therefore when the
 young man expressed a desire to do
 something for the hospital, I told him
 the story and suggested that he make
 his donation in the form of playthings for the patient little children who had
 to sit or lie all day long on their beds. The idea pleased him and he rushed
 away in true American fashion, saying that he would hunt the town and send up toys right away. Sure enough,
 that very afternoon big box arrived.
 which contained more downright solid
 comfort for the small folk, in the form of dolls and tin carts. etcetera, than
 was ever packed in equal space before. The name of the sender is MT. Butler
 Duncan, of No. 1 Fifth avenue New
 York, and I hope this paper may meet
 his eye, so that he may know how
 much good his generous gift has &C., complished. It was a sight to see those wan faces when the toys were
 distributed: the look of incredulous
 wonder, gradually merging into one of
 delight, slowly followed by an express
 sion of fathomless contentment when they realized that the precious articles
 were their very own! Even the tiny five-year-o boy with the big head
 and pipe-stem legs and face as aged as Methuselah's own, actually laughed when a small woody dog with black bead-eyes came into his possession. The little lad was found one morning in Los Fossos, lying on a dead wo- mans breast Although have watched him closely during the several days he has been in the asylum, I
 never before saw him smile or cry or
 exhibit the slightest symptom of dis
 like or desire. Hour after hour he sat
 motionless on his bed, apparently in
 different to sublinary things, but with
 great solemn eyes, black as sloes, talk ing note of everything going on, and the inscrutable expression on the
 sphinx on his old old face. The first
 human emotion he has been known to evince was over that woody dog, and last night he slept with it tightly clasped in his arms. This morning, when I stepped into the dormitory, in stead of the usual rows of silent, pa- thetic figures, with listless hands lying idly before them, waiting for-they knew not what, I was greeted with a chorus of shouts, mira Sonora! Mira Sonora! ("Look Lady') from happy children, eager to show their treasure to a sympathizing friend. My skeleton
 girl of the day before, who seldom re- piled to any question, however kindly put, and never spoke voluntarily ex- cept to beg a penny from passing visi- tors, Che begging instinct bred in the bone)-now lay, smiling on her pillow, with three small dolls, brave in red, blue and yellow, ranged In row beside her transfigured face. Even the swar- thy baby -brigand-a son of ruffian, if signs of heredity count for anything who erstwhile issued his frequent or | ders with an air of one used to com mand, and who disdained to obey any | regulations of the institution until re- duced to sort of armed truce by a reason of solitary confinement in an
 upper chamber-had temporarily lost sight of his own consequence in the su- perior merits of a red tin cart. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin'' Child nature is very much alike, | in palace or in hovel. From generation l to generation, among the richest and | the poorest, children make their dan
 delion curls in the sunshine, the girls choose miniature babies and the boys 1 noisy playthings, by instinct-as young birds build their nests without instruc- | ton, the first as perfect as the last.
 But do not send any more toys to the
 asylum, dear friends. Thanks to MT. Duncan, it is now well supplied in that line and the everlasting wrestle with the custom house may, for the present
 be averted. Let your generosity take 1 some other form. Just now, condensed
 milk is the thing in the greatest de- mand. It costs forty cents can in
 Havana, and besides the babies, there