The San Francisco call., 1898-08-22
LIVING SKELETONS
 CARRIED ABOARD
Correspondence of the Associated Press.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Aug. 9.-To- day the first of our Spanish prisoners were put on board the transport we have hired to take them home. Ten thousand of the men have been III camp for more than three weeks. just outside the city limits. They were much nearer to the palace than our own men. They were our prisoners ana we, one and all, avoided the roads thae led near their camps because ot the VIC odors that arose therefrom.
 To-day, as the Spaniards passed through the city on the way to the docks, we saw sights that brought tears to the eyes of men who are not readily moved to tears. Down on the docks. in the narrow strip of shade at a warehouse. some 200 Spaniards waited orders to move on to the lighter which would convey them to tn" much talked-of Spanish hospital ship Ali cante. These men were Of slckly pal lo- hollow w-cheeked, weak and thin.
 We are the men who have brought the sick into the town on litters,' they explained.
 Down on the wharf, being loaded on the steam lighter Bessie, were long lines of stretchers. each with It's pitt IT burden-faces that looked like death s heads, every line of the skull marked OIl lHe NGIlON Sn4Al, PAOeA S'NtANtS- NNS'-- over which lips would not close. one man grasped, in claw that had crush ed them. three American hardtacks. Others had food hidden under their scant covering Their weight was as nothing, yet four we'll men staggered under the burden of one stretche".
 Down the city streets came other processions of stretchers. Vanquished and sick moaning. staggering. they drifted into the town all day long.
 When the city surrendered the pros pective return to Spain brought Joy to many hearts. The tulnllment or the promise was sad.
 The American ambulances have been detailed to help carry those unable to walk, and We have erected tents on the docks where the sick can wait until the lighter is ready for them.
 Tt was not a camp out there" said Spanish officer, lit was a graveyard. Between two and three hundred went into the hospital daily. It was not hospital-there were no medicines. there was no attendance. Forty men were dying every day, and the trenches are full of the dead. We have saved you many a $20 for passage money to Spain. There are 5000 out there yet only a thousand came in to-day-but they won't last long. Dysentery-camp dysentery we call it. and 1t IS worse than the plague-is carrying them off.
 A white haired officer with stars and bands on his sleeves, but so thin and weak and pale that he looked more like a skeleton than a man, walked down the wharf, supported by his wife, who was as much in need of support as he was himself Over a loose board they both tripped and fell. There are two young children in the party who cry almost continuously. Finally they all got on board, the women to spend ten days on a filthy. horrible troop ship. There are many women going thus, wives of officers, who cannot pay for a passage.
 These Spanish troop ships bid fair to rival old-time slave ships in the mis- cry and sufferings that will be con- fined within their sides on the voyage back to Spain.
 Our own soldiers were sick, but the conditions of the Spaniards are many times worse than those of our men, who seem strong and healthy compared with them The Spaniards were not in this condition when they moved to their death camp just three weeks ago.
 Just how far we are expected to pro- vide care for a vanquished foe is a question now being discussed in this town Every one admits and has ad- nnitted that the Spaniard has been a good enemy, a good fighter, and the Americans who took off their hats to the Spanish on the 17th of July did so with true homage to brave men, As the pftiful lines of Spanish prisoners stagger through the streets or the city for the next week or so, feebly step ping out of the way of @edestrians. looking fearfully at rattling carts and in sad contrast to our strong men in brown, the Americans who see them will be inclined to again uncover their heads. prompted by the same feeling of