El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-12-10
OUR CHRISTMAS SHIP.
St. Paul Sails With Cheer For
the Manila Troops.
MANY HOLIDAY GIFTS IN HER HOLD

a&ts Oh IEesthNS hhu ~ VI
Our Soldier Boys Forty Women
Nurses Are Bound For Service Over
the Sens.
The Christmas ship sailed recently
from San Francisco, followed by the
same merry din of whistles and the
same cloud of steam from water front
engines that have sped all the other
ships departing to the Philippines, and,
although there Is something of an anti
climax about transport that goes when
the war is done, there were much Of
military hustle and joyful anticipation.
But more interesting than the good
bys was the cargo. Across thousands Of
miles of sea the st. Paul goes to carry
Christmas cheer and holiday greeting
to men whose homes are shrouded in
snow, but who are themselves swelter-
ing under q tropio sun. In her hold arc
packed all imaginable good things
plum puddings and canned turkey and
fruit cake and oranberries in tins and
other good things, not the sort mother
used to make, but things that mother
actually made. There are home baked
cookies and gingerbread men, with raj
sins for eyes, where you eat first an arm
and then n leg-gingerbread men made
for those who once stood as little knick-
cred boys, their heads barely above the
table. and watched the hands WELD the
rolling pin and sprinkle the board with
-four, and, though the hands have
grown old and wrinkled since then,
they have not lost their cunning, and
they would not have surrendered for
any money the privilege Of making del
ioacies for the Manila boy. In thousands
Of homes all the way from New York
70 California women have said, HE
liked it So" and there are tears a-plenty
mixed with the Christmas cheer. All
over the west women will wait anxious
few men in Manila who will not have
some fragment of Christmas cheer.
The hold Of the st. Paul was filled to
the matches with packages Of all sizes
and shapes, from collar to piano boxes.
These were REINFORCED with strips of
tin and bound with rope. Messages were
scrawled ON the outside begging all to
whom they might come to see that the
packages reached their rightful owners.
There was one straggly message, printed
by baby fingers which said, "Please
give this to my papa"
From afar the Christmas ship pro-
claimed her gentle errand, and to a few
did 1t appear that there was some incon-
gruity in celebrating the festival of
peace OH earth and good will to men by
sending gifts to those engaged in the
trade Of war. The outward sign Of the
St. Paul's errand consisted of great fes-
toons Of cabbages, which draped her
from stem to stern and in the distance
looked like evergreens. There was also
q huge painting of Santa Claus. which
was left up as an awning when the
steamer sailed and which proclaimed
her mission to all who run and read on
the high seas. This was not the conven-
tional Santa Claus mbering over
snowy roofs and down hospitable chin
neys, but as no one would recognize
Kris Kringle without his frosty beard
and his reindeer. SO this melted looking
Santa Claus had his reindeer team wad-
ing through the ocean, and his sleigh
was a boat. In the Lohengrin boat were
all manner of good things, toys and
turkeys and Christmas trees, and espe-
cially good things to eat, for more and
more people are coming to understand
that one Of the important things about
Q soldier is his stomach.
No other transport. has carried pas.
senger list wherein women and men
were so evenly matched. There were
something over 40 Of eaoh-the MAORI
ty of the men in the Storage, all the
women in the cabin-that is, all of
them who are not confined to their
etaterooms. For this war is peculiarly
the woman's war. In the civil war wo-
men played no unimportant part, but
this time, though scorned and flouted
at the outset, they have come more and
more TO be important factors of each
campaign 1t was announced at first
that no women nurses would be allow
ed, inasmuch as men were superior and
more desirable, but it was not long be-
fore it was found that the male nurse
did not have that devotion to duty and
to his patient which a nurse should
have. The 40 young women who left
for Honolulu and Manila were all I'M
der the banner of the Red and White
Gross. Most of them were plain, and
most of them had reached years of dis
erection. In a few cases riotous little
ourls frolicked around white temples,
but most of the women looked quite
capable of taking care of themselves.
They were laughing and talking and
the four weeks of drift
ing to paradise ON even keel" One
nurse, Miss Wills. failed to materialize,
but the ninety and nine were all there.
1t was hours before the 30, 900 and
more packages were snugly slowed in
the st. Paul's hold. At last the signal
was given, and the real mourners came
down over the gangplank. Saluted by
the O'Clock din, the st. Paul slid out
into the stream. She will carry much
yood cheer to far Manila, but the best