The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-02

| back to Santiago-some falling and dy- | Ing by the Wayside, almost within sight | of the food that might have saved them.
 In an incredibly short time chaos was | reduced to order. Nobody knows how
 many thousands were fed during those | first few days, including our own hun gry army, the famished Spanish forces, | the destitute citizens of Santiago and starving people from all the surround | ing region. At present thirty-two 1 thousand people are receiving regular.
 daily rations, exclusive of the hospitals
 and what is being done for the soldiers,
 American, Spanish and Cuban. Thanks
 to the bounty of the United States, the | supply Is ample-tons of provisions of
 all sorts crowding the warehouses from
 floor to ceiling, and more constantly | coming. Things have now been thor
 oughly systematized The city Is divi- | ded into districts, each in charge of a | competent person, who causes a thor
 ough canvas to be made and each indt-
 vidual case looked into. Every appli-
 cant for charity is obliged to leave his | or her name and address,; the story of want Is then verified by personal in
 spection, the number of the family
 taken, and the account written on bit
 of paper, which the applicant must
 bring every day In order to receive his
 rations. Thus fraud is prevented and
 families of ten or dozen, or of two or
 three, receive quantities accordingly.
 It Is said that in some cases enterprise
 ing ''pobres," as the poor are called in | o% IAo o,,lt t,,or hn,J no
 and street stalls for the sale of Red
 Cross food; but if this was ever done | (which I doubt), 1t is no longer possible | under the rigorous system. It is said,
 too, perhaps with grain of truth, that | the poor of these countries will not work as long as they can get food with l out. American merchants who brought down provisions to sell, complain that 1 the Red Cross has entirely spoiled the | market for them; as why should the | people buy when they can get plenty of | good food for the asking. They say | also that they cannot get laborers, or
 stevedores or servants, because those
 who would do that kind of work for
 small pay if necessity compelled them, | now sit idly on the streets waiting for
 the next distribution of rations care 1 free as the lilies of the field, which | toll not, neither do they spin" | Doubtless this is true in some cases, but
 1t Is by no means general. The several
 houses maintained here by American
 money for the distribution of food and ] medicines the abodes of the nurses and
 other workers, are literally besieged by 1 people begging for work as teamsters, | cooks, lavenderas, seamstresses or in
 any other capacity; and Major Barber, | the gentleman who has undertaken to | clean and sweeten this dirty old town,
 tells me that he has no difficulty in re-
 cruiting his scavangers and street.
 sweeping brigades, though several | thousand men are reuired In this con-
 nection I may mention that a surprls-
 ing change has already taken place in l the appearance of Santiago, thanks to l Major Barber and his methods. The | fostering piles of garbage have been re- i moved, the gutters scraped and the | odors sensibly diminished The disin- | fectants have not yet arrived, but they
 are somewhere on the bounding pillows hastening Cubaward as fast as sails
 and steam can carry them, and there is | hope that by their use yellow fever and ! other diseases that have hitherto
 scourged the island may soon be abated. | That all Cubans are not embodied | lazness, know from personal observa-
 ton. I have many times seen men
 working about the Red Cross ware
 houses, wheeling trucks and staggering
 under heavy loads, who appeared
 scarcely able to stand from weakness, owing to past starvation.
 To see a man faint at his work from
 exhaustion or from on-coming fever is | a matter of daily occurrence, and the
 Red Cross physicians are always pre-
 pared for such emergencies. They tell | us that many citizens of the aristocrat-
 ic class remain shut up in their disman- l tied houses, hungry almost unto death, | but too proud to make their necessities | known, or to come with the rabble for | rations The lines of caste are more | sharply drawn here than even in our l own country, not only between black
 and white, but between descendants of I the grandees and hoi polloi. This is in-
 deed unfortunate on all sides of the question. We understand and appreci-
 ate their proper pride, but when the el-
 der sister republic has sent them aid l
 bestowed by ladies and gentlemen un-
 der the direction of the president of the United States, one would think that most sensitive feelings need not stand
 in the way of accepting the proffered
 kindness. Let me tell you one case,
 which is but sample of hundreds. The gentleman of whom we rented one of the houses-a fine-looking, elderly Cuban of courtly manners and evident l education-fainted one day in the midst
 of a business conversation. He was
 sent to his home in carriage, and then
 it was discovered that he had eaten
 nothing for two days, and his family were absolutely without food.
 They own one of the finest houses in i Santiago, but they cannot eat that. | Owing to the war their money is all
 gone There is no work in Santiago at 1 this time for such people to do, and too proud to accept charity, they simply
 sat down in their decayed splendor and waited, Macawber-wi for something 1 to turn up''-or for death, the kindly
 healer of all woes. The wife, the typi-
 cal senora of Spanish America and her slender young daughter were both in I their beds, too weak to rise when help came. It is needless to add that a gen.
 erous supply of provisions was at once | sent to the family and that they are