The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1898-12-17
Scores Of Boys Dying in the
Hospitals From Lack of
NOuriShment.
Men as Noble as God Ever Made
Doing Anything That Will
End Despair.
Petty Squabbles About Rank and
Precedence Preventing Good
Work.

HONOLULU, Dec. :, via San Francisco,
Dec. 15.-The United States transport
Scandal has arrived here from Manila,
from which place she left Nov. Is. She
brings a number Of officers, 81 dis
charged and f%urloughed men, and two
Red Cross nurses. She brings the
largest mail that ever left Manila, 2l3
sacks for San Francisco and n for
Honolulu.
The vessel will resume her voyage on
or about Dec. 10. Miss Schaefer, a Red
Cross nurse, who went from Honolulu
to Manila, arriving there Sept. Is, has
returned here. She makes startling
charges as to the way United States SOL
diers are taken care Of in Manila. Miss
Schaefer made the following statement
for publication:
Dying From Lack Of Nourishment.
"Scores of the soldier boys are dying
in the hospitals at Manila. just for want
of proper nourishment. They say the
government allows 60 cents a day for
each patient. You can save dozens Of
lives on five cents a day.
"Oh, the utter woe Of the hospitals,
the helplessness of them! Men as bright.
as noble as God ever made given up to
death. hoping for it. seeking it. taking
poison, doing anything that will end the
despair that comes upon them.
Seeing nothing before them but days
of pain and nights Of wretchedness.
without proper food. alone. with no one
to give them sympathy or cheer:
to write to their friends. to soothe
the aching brow or moisten the
parched lips. If by sheer endurance
or obstinacy of vitality they do get bet
ter, there is before them nothing but
the still more cherries period of con.
valescence with the probability of a re.
lapse and the old WEAKNESS Of despair
to be suffered again. No wonder there
are six or seven funerals a day. Nc
wonder the dead house is never empty.
Squabbles Over Rank.
And outside the hospitals and ever
in it such Indifference! Petty consider
alton of rank and position. squabble.
about precedence. lack of considerable,
in prescribing and preparing food, Will,
men are dying, not merely of heart hun
ger, but for want of nourishment.
Il have gone through the wards da,
after day, aud as l spoke to this one an,
that they poured out their woes-mel
who do not wear their hearts on thei,
sleeves. cried from the pure agony o
their loneliness and despair, made poign
ant and vivid by their own telling of it
Il got so l just could not 60 through
the wards. What could I do: l saw
the need Of care, of proper nourishment
of the most ordinary hospital treatmen
and was utterly helpless to do anything
just one cog in the great remorseles
grinding machine, whose material wa
noble men, and whose grist was death
Il do not mean that attendants of tn
hospitals are careless or Indifferent
Many are trying to do their best. Their
are a lot Of worthiness and unselfishnes
among the attendants at the hospitals
But there is so much inexperience. s
many clogs to those who would d,
much. To think of an attendant goin,
through a ward with a pail Of bee
broth ladling it out to the so or 60 pa
tients Unfortunately by the cupful
In the whole pail there was not enough
made Of good material. In a whol'
ward there is not more than one nurs.
with experience. and for helpers only
one or two awkward boys. who perhap
never saw a sick room before"