The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-14
STORIES FROM A ST0RERooM.
GIFTS THAT BREATHE THE SPIRIT
OF LOVING KINDNESS.

Gen. Woods stOreroOm at Santiago
Contains Offerings which Tell OF
Self-Sacrifice-A Florida Woman
and Her Daughters Send 100
Night Shirts, the Material for
Which Was Purchased with Their
Savings-ChrIstians, jews and
Atheists Vie in Charitable Deeds.
Correspondence Of the Associated Press.
Santiago, Cuba, Nov. lit is an inter-
esting and touching sight to go over Gen.
Leonard Woods storeroom, where are
kept the goods shipped by the Red Cross
Women's Relief, and other organizations,
as well as donations, big and small. sent
by private individuals for the use and
comfort of the sick soldiers and sailors
and others in need of assistance in this
hitherto unhappy land, where sickness and
starvation have brought so many thou
sands to the verge of death, where the
very luxuriance of the weeds cry out
against mankind for not using the earth,
for the benefit of themselves where the
nature and character of the Inhabitants
have been so blunted by contact with
their oppression that they have developed
all their vices, and added a cringing,
fawning, unreliable cvility that is not the
fault of the people themselves so much
the natural results of their birth and
surroundings.
The store room is a large place under
the custom house, and in ii you will find
a most unfsoa1la pao,,s aesortrnapf Of arti
cles of all kinds, including champagne
whisky, brandy, ginger ale, quinine, medl-
cal necessaries of all kinds, two muffs,
seven overcoats and one pair of shoes that
must evidently have been originally in
tended for the Klondike.
Yet it is not the grotesque nature of
some of the gifts that makes the lump in
ones throat hard to swallow, but the
beautiful and touching humanity express
ed in the gifts themselves which breathe
such spirit of pure be-
nevolence. loving kindness and
self-sacrifice that in that store
room you feel yourself in some sanctifed
spot If not in the very portals of heaven
itself.
Many of the gifts, especially the smaller
ones, are accompanied by letters express
ing the intentions of the donor These let
ters often give an account of the writer
that show the gift was purchased or made
as the case may be, at considerable sacri-
flee of money and time.
One woman and her two daughters in
Leon county, Florida, made and sent 100
night shirts, and the money for the ma
terial had been taken out of savings from
their chicken and egg fund, which gem
orally supplied them each year with cloth
ing If this year the dreams of that fam
lily are not quite as new and fresh looking
as those of some of their neighbors they
will have the proud consciousness that
theirs was a duty nobly, faithfully and
well done.
Another poor woman, widow in Maine,
who lives by washing the clothes of four
families, worked and sent fifteen house
wife's fitting, each with the necessary ar
ticles of that most useful institution in
the kit of a soldier sailor
From California came two dozen Jars
of orange marmalade, the gift Of another
widow, who owns an acre of ground on
which are few orange trees that are her
only source of income.
These are only a sample of hundreds of
such letters that have been received here
since the surrender of Gen. ToraI Chris
tians, Jews and Atheists announcing their
belief and unbelief have added their quota
to the whole, a common feeling of human
brotherhood animating seemingly the en-
tire community, breaking down all barriers
of caste and religion, the whisky dealer
and wine merchant vieing with the bishop
and the tract distributor to see who could
do the most
Little children have sent their pocket
money, Sunday schools have foregone their
annual excursion to send the money that
would have been spent upon il to aid the
sick at Santiago, Cuba, and the entire pop
ulation have given TO the world an object
lesson of human love that has never before
been equalized in the history of the world.
The Red Cross and Woman's Relief have
done a noble work and are stin engaged
in it. and the history of many of the gifts
sent through these sources must be even
more interesting in many instances tnan
those that have been sent direct.
1t would be like the play of Hamlet"
without the Prince of Denmark himself
to describe all this human love without
mentioning the man who is at the head
of this great distribution, namely, Gen.
| Wood, who since April, has proved him
self soldier, physician, administrator and
phianthropist, whose work in Santiago de
| Cuba had elevated the opinion the world
| had of America higher than ever before
| high as that was.
To Gen. Wood is due the good health
| of the city, its clean streets, its gradual
renovation' and the security that is felt
| by all classes. AS distributor of chart
table supplies, he had brought 1t to a
| system that renders it next to impossible
| for any to be Incorporated, and the
fervent wish of all the people here is that
no change will be made, even for Gen.
| Woods own advancement, a rather sell
| fish way of looking at it, but, neverthe-
| less, absolutely true.
-@-e-S-
RumOr Devoid of Truth.