The times., 1898-09-25

count that this brave Rough Rider, of
whom New York may well be proud,
will not die though he may be perma-
nently disabled.
Although there is so little selfishness
among the brave boys who faced death
together, the hospital attendants say that
whenever a new lot of men starts for
home the sight of their exuberant happi-
ness has correspondingly depressing ef-
feet upon the stay-behinds raising the
fever pulse fully so per cent. The poor
fellows are homesick that ''mal de
piallas," as the Spaniards call Ii, has be-
come a distinct and often fatal disease
which medicines cannot touch.
"Home, Sweet Home"
Suddenly the strains of Home, Sweet
Home, invaded the silence of the hos
pital, and an electric shock could not
have produced a more marked and in
stantaneous effect. Every man who was
able sprang to his feet, and the dying
raised their feeble heads; tears coursed
unchecked down bronzed and pallid faces
and busy nurses and doctors paused,
speIlbound. in their weary rounds.
So. even from his grave, does the home
less poet still touch the hearts OF the
world with his. tuneful praise of home.
Under the circumstances, however, 1t was
thoughtless not to say unkind, in the
iubilant fellows headed for Gods coun-
try. to make that music within hearing
of their disappointed comrades.
The surroundings of the hospital are al
ways interesting, though never inspirit-
ing; vile-smelling, greenish water close
under its corridors; ships al anchor in the
harbor-transports, men-of-war, merchant
vessels, Spanish prizes; the seaward view
interrupted by the crumbling pink and
yellow walls of the old MORO de San
Jago. On the shoreward side an amphi-
theater of low. green hills, topped mere
and there by row dismantled Spanish
fort; in front. the gray, poverty-stricken
town, shambling up its steep declivity.
The Yellow Fever Suspects.
The suspect" pen-a smaller boathouse
few rods from our hospital. also built
out over the water and reached by anoth-
er long pier-continues TO send its fire.
quent eargoes OF yellow fever patients and
corpses to Siboney. Day after day, as
sit in our corridors-keeping the flies of
this sick man, reading TO that one, or
feeding another-I see the little boat, With
its tell-tale yellow flag, come up to the
stairs of the pen" i put myself between
il and my patients range of vision. but
though we both pretend to ignore IL we
know too well what is going on. Some
stiff, still shapes, dashed to planks. are
brought down the stairs and put aboard
the boat followed by mournful process
sion of soldiers sick unto death. If the
latter are alive when they reach Siboney,
Is miles distant, they will go into the
great yellow fever hospital. with perhaps
one chance in ten of recovery; and the
shapes are bound for cremation some
where down the river.
t,sH Fh.ar,
the rest, with grewsome suggestions of
exuberant yerdure, is faced on its water
side with the high adobe walls and mas
slye gateway of a Campo Santo. 1t
needs no funeral urns and carven crosses
TO indicate the purpose OF that lnclosure
the vultures that continually circle
| above ii, attracted by the odors they love
tell its horrible story of bursting vaults
and shallow. rented graves. from which
bones are evicted 10 make room for new
| tenants.
The Birds of Prey.
Nothing affects our sick men so un-
| pleasantly as the sight of these disgust
] ing buzzards. which abound everywhere
| in tropical countries, and have Increased
a hundreJfoId in Cuba within the last
three years. Impelle5 by their uncanny
instinct of approaching death. they often
| fly so low over the open corridors OF the
| nOSDltal tDaI one t4iiiOol AphNAA
| them with ones hand. and occasionally
! a gorged bird drops into our midst a
| reekfng chunk of carrion from its tired
claws.
Such is the soldiers horror of these
| most loathsome creatures of the air that
| a nearby glimpse of one will sometimes
! throw nervous invalid into commissions
And no wonder-for they have seen them
| on battlefieIds perhaps tearing al the
| faces of dead comrades.
/ have heard the men talk among
! themselves about the vultures, and tell
each other stories of personal experiences
| They all feel that the nausous birds form
| the chief horror of war, and know too well
| the meaning of their approach when the
| dead are lying in the underbrush. One man
, said that after the fighting at Baiqulri
he lay two days in the field, wounded IN
the thigh shooting at the buzZaros as
| they settled down TO their feast, and tha'
he believes another hour of 1t would nave
left him raving maniac.
Do YOU remember that horrible old pic
ture of the Jewish mother, beating on
the vultures from the bodies of her five
sons, hanged in a row? There is
wounded Rough Rider in the hospital
who looks the personification of courage
but who trembles and shudders whenever
ytilture is seen, even afar on like
black speck in the sky They say that
he fought like tiger in the taking oi
Santiago, and never flinched in the 1ac'
of Spanish guns, but afterward, when NJ
Law in the long grass with bullet III
his breast he went into hystericai n
when he saw the vultures coming, COVER
ing away from them and crying like
frightened child.
He knew that they would not moles'