The record-union., 1898-12-15
Scores Of Soldiers Said to Be Dying
in the Hospitals,
Just for Lack Of Care and Want Of Proper
NourIshmant.
Startling Charges Made by a Red
Cross Nurse Who Has Just Re-
turned From Manila as to the
Treatment Of United States Sol
diers in the Philippines.

Treatment Of United States Sol
diers in the Philippines.
HONOLULU, Dec. Z (via San Fran
cisco, Dec. 1Q.-The United States
transport Scandia has arrived here
from Manila. which place she left
November 18th. She brings a number
Of officers, ninety-one discharged and
furloughed men, and two Red Cross
nurses. She brings the largest mail
that ever left Manila, 213 sacks for
San Francisco and one for Honolulu.
The vessel will resume her voyage on
or about the 10th inst.
Miss Schaefer, a Red Cross nurse.
who went from Honolulu to Manila,
arriving there September Goth, re-
turned on the Scandia. She makes
startling charges as to the way United
States soldiers are taken care OF in
Manila. Miss Schaefer made the fol-
lowing statement for publication:
Scores of 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. 1 could save dozens of
llV6S on . CenCS q DAY.
"Oh, the utter woe Of the hospitals!
the helplessness of them! Men as
bright and noble as God ever made,
giving up to death, hoping for it, seek
ing for 1t. taking poison-doing any
thing that will end the despair that
comes upon them. Seeing nothing be-
fore them but days Of pain and nights
of wretchedness, without proper care,
without proper food; alone, with no
one to give them sympathy or cheer,
or write to friends, to soothe aching
brows or moisten parched lips, if by
sheer endurance of nature or obStinacy
they do get better, there is before them
nothing but the still more cheerless
period of convalescence, with the prob
ability of relapse and the old weari-
ness of despair to be suffered against.
No wonder the deadhOuse is never
empty.
And outside the hospital, and even
in it, such Indifference Petty cOnSid-
Grafton of rank and position, squabbles
about precedence, lack of consideration
in prescribing and preparing food,
while men are dying, not merely of
heart hunger, but for want of nourish-
ment I have gone through the wards
day after day, and as I spoke to this
one and that, and they poured out
their sorrows, men who do not wear
their hearts on their sleeves cried for
the pure agony of their loneliness and
despair, made poignant and vivid by
their own telling of it.
Il got so l just could not go through
the wards. What could 1 do? I saw
the need Of care, of proper nourish-
ment, of the most ordinary hospital
treatment, and was utterly helpless to
do anything-just one cog in the great.
remorseless grinding machine whose
material was noble men and whose
grist was death.
Il do not mean that all in the hospi-
tails are careless or Indifferent. Many
are trying to do their best. There i:
a lot of worthiness and unselfishness
among the attendants at the hospitals.
But there is so much inexperience, and
so many clogs to those who would do
much. To think of an attendant going
through a ward with a pail of beef
broth, ladling out to the fifty or sixty
patients indiscriminately tin cup full
of it, In the whole pailfuI there was
not enough nourishment for one, even
if it were made of the best material.
But what it really was made of 1 shut
my eyes and refuse to imagine.
I'm a whole ward there is not more
than one nurse with experience, and
for helpers only one or two awkward
boys who perhaps never saw a sick
room before. Do their best, and what
can they do?
Let no one speak slightingly of the
women who have lately gone on to Ma
nila as army nurses. Any woman who
works as she will have to work If she
goes into the tents at all will deserve
the tear of the recording angel which
will blot out all she may have had Of
transgression in the past, or all she
may be guilty Of in the future"
Colonel George w. McFarlane re-
turned by the Coptic, and brings word
that the Comptroller of the Currency
has guaranteed to Perry S. Heath,
First Assistant Postmaster General,
and his associates, that he will issue
the charter for the new bank in which
James Campbell and himself are inter-
ested, as soon as Congress extends the
Territorial laws to Hawaii. That will
probably be very soon.
Meanwhile the Comptroller has
agreed to receive money to be depos-
tied to secure circulation, and to re-
ceive deposits of bonds for circulation
and Government deposits. and to re-
ceipt for them in the name of the new
bank. The places for the banknotes
will be prepared, and the banknotes
themselves be printed in advance. and
held by the Comptroller till the bank
is organized for business.
The only reason for not issuing the
charter at once is that technically the
Territorial laws have not yet been ex-
tended to Hawaii, which fact might
at some future time be raised against
the bank in litigation of Importance
But this will probably not delay mat
ters longer than January. at which
time it is expected to fully organize
and commence business. A place of
business will not be decided upon un-
til James Campbell returns.
The bank will have an authorized
capital of S1,O00000, of which $4,000
will be paid up at the beginning and
the balance as it is needed. The cap
ital can be increased at any time TO
meet the needs of the business, or TO
amalgamate with it or other national
banks that might be started.
The details of the Hilo branch bank
are being arranged, and advices con-
cerning them will he brought by the
next steamer. 1t is intended that