The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-28

uago. How she became a Red Cross
nurse is a romantic story.
The motherless girl is peculiarly de-
voted to her father, whom she calls
Sweetheart" She accompanied him and
her brother to Tampa and was daily seen
riding about the camps with them on
horseback. To be by her fathers side she
would gladly have gone into battle, but
since that could not be- she determined
to do the next best thing and go to the
front as nurse in order to remain as
near TO him as possible.
She met with strongest opposition on
every hand, but with the blood of 1.-The
fighting Wheelers" in her veins, Miss An
ME is not easily swerved from a good
purpose.
Gen. Wheeler earnestly protested
against the project, but would not oppose
command to the dictates of his daugh-
ter's conscience. Some of the heads of
the army absolutely refused her trans
portation to Cuba, and others denied her
permission to land when she finally ar
rived off Santiago. Only Gen Miles. after
recapitulating the dangers, which she
well understood, and urging her 10 return
to safety. lent his strong. helping hand
and enabled her to enter upon her chosen
path of duty.
Miss WheeIer's Work.
When she first joined Miss Barton
female help was very scarce in Santiago.
For a week she was almost alone in the
crowded water-side hospital, so far as
other women are concerned. There were
several male attendants, to lift the sick.
to bring in patients and carry out the
dead, besides an efficient steward and
two or three visiting physicians: and
now there are also four white and three
colored female nurses, under Miss Wheel
er's direction.
Early and late she tolls rising at 5 a. m.
and leaving the scene of her labors only
at nightfall, often walking unattended
through the darkened streets of Santiago,
but as safe as in her own parlor under
the all-protecting symbol of the Red
Cross. In the hospital she is as a ray
of sunshine, her slender figure dressed in
girlish white, in blue cambria with
snowy apron and 'kerchief, her curling
hair brushed neatly back and blue eyes
shining with earnest purpose; washing
sick mems faces, writing letters for
them administering food or medicine, and
taking the last messages of the dying.
No necessary service, however mental
or repellant, is ever shirked by her, nor
will she weary in well doing.
The old rule holds good, here as every
where else in this odd old world, that the
worst "kiehers''-who loudeSt bewail scant
army rations and lack of home comforts
are those who have been least accus-
toned to luxury. Miss Wheeler the child
of wealth and ornament of society, whose
Washington winters are spent in the lux
uriouS Arlington, has never uttered one
word Of complaint. She is a prayerful
girl, who begins and ends each day on
her knees beside her army cot-and only
Heaven knows how many times during the
long, hard days her soul is on its knees,
in the language of Hugo. The loved
father and brother have been ordered 10
the North and she alone, of all the
lighting Wheelers' remains in Cuba. But
she will not desert the work wherein she
was never more needed than today; and as
for protection, there is not soldier IT
our army who would not lay down his
life for her, If need be-
Hospital I'm a Boathouse.
| The hospital of which I write, though
created only a few weeks ago by the ne
| cessities of war, is by far the best in
| Cuba 1t is the boathouse of the swell
| American Club loaned for the temporary
| purpose. 1t is built directly over the bay,
| some rods from shore, and is reached by
a, long pier. Its great banqueting hali'
| whose latticed walls can be raised TO al
| NIT every vagrant breeze, is now closely
| set with army cots, and double rows OF
| the same are ranged along the enc1rchng
| verandas.
| The smaller apartments have all their
| special uses. and in a little ante-room
| several oil stoves are set, over Whlch
| beef tea matted milk, and cruel are pre-
| pared Not an inch of space is unniieo
| and were the commodious building ten
| times as big it would be equally crowded
| When | first saw the hospital, two
| weeks ago. the sick were lying on the
| bare floor. but now, thanks to the Rec
| Cross. they are amply supplied with cots
| and bedding Considerable army red tapt
| is suuandered in getting patients into THIS
| haven of refuge so that somemmes a
half-conscious man, brought in an OK
| cart or stretcher, lies for hours in the
sun at the street end of the pier before
an order can be obtained from the pal
ace mile uptown, for his admission te
| the hospital.
But when once inside, mans chances
| of recovery are wonderfully increased
| For example there have been but three
| deaths in this hospital in fortnight
| while in the fever hospital at Siboney
they are dying by hundreds, and In the
various field hospitals at an average rate
| of twenty per day. Out in the camps TN
sick men are yet lying on the ground
| under dog tents, alternately soaked witt
| rain. scorched in the monday sun, chilled
to the marrow at night, unattended ex
cept by their comrades, and with nothing
to eat but beans bacon, and bareback
| even for those dying of dysentery. M
wonder that fever is daily increasing
among them, and yesterday out of
whole regiment only two men were abb
to report for duty
Revelations of HerOism.
| I spend a few hours every day in tn
Waterside hospital, where mine is tn
unofficial and inglorious part Of cheerin
the convaIescents-chat awhile wit
| this man. reading to that one. feedin
another, writing home letters for other;
doing comparatively unimportant thing:
for which the busy nurses have no tim,
but which, so Miss Wheeler says ar
sometimes more useful than medicine
| Most of the men are very considerat,
realizing that the nurses are CONSTANT
on their feet, doing their best to meet
thousand demands.
send the tired sister on some trif1ing el
rand from one end Of the big building t