Evening star., 1898-11-19
Mrs. Allis Tells of Conditions at
Camp Wikof.
CARELESS NURSES AND ORDERLlES
Capt. PIummer on the Transpor-
tation Facilities in Cuba.
MEN HAD ENOUGH TO EAT

NEW YORK, November 19.-When the
war investigating commission met today,
General Dodge, the chairman, announced
that the sessions in the city will probably
continue ten days. General Dodge declined
to give in advance the names of those he
expected to examine, but it was said that
invitations had been sent to Colonel Roose-
welt and other members of the Rough
Riders and to Colonel and Mrs. Downs, and
to all officers of the list Regiment.
Mrs. Edwin G. Allis of New York, who
went to Camp Wikoff September 8 to help
nurse the sick was the first witness called.
She told of the conditions prevailing there,
and said that some of the hospital wards
were overcrowded, while others We're entire
ly empty and shut up. In one ward, she
said the beds were so close together that
when the wind blew the flags of the tent
struck the beds in which lay men dying of
typhoid fever.
Mrs. Alls' statement referred principally
to the annex hospital and to the sick OF
the 18th Infantry. She complained that the
food was poor and badly cooked, that the
sanitary coLCitions were bad, and that as
a consequence the sick and the well suf
fered from plague of flies. She found the
men very unwilling 10 report sick ard go to
the hospitals, and spoke in the highest
praise of the sympathy and good feeling
evinced by the men for each other.
Poor Hospital Nurses.
Cross-examined by ex-Gov Woodbury.,
Mrs. Alis told of the carelessncss of the
hospital nurses and orderlies i'll attending
to the complaints of the sick. She could
not remember names, but she said she
heard one doctor diagnose 4 soldiers
trouble as simple intoxica tion," and the
soldier died of typhoid fever two days
lot hoI he
blackberry brandy just before he visited
the doctor. She saw a nurse give a man
an injection of morphine without any au-
thority froCt doctor.
Summing up her conclusions, Mrs. Allis
thought there were not enough attendants
in the hospital and that no care was taken
to separate the dying, the delirious and the
ccnvalescent patients.
In reply to a question from Gen. Wilson,
Mrs. Aihs said she had no previous exper-
ience in nursing the sick and mad never en-
tered a hospital before
Capt. Edward II. Plummer of the 10th
Cavalry, now an aid-de-camp on Cen Shat
ters staff, who was brigade quarteimaster
with the 9TH Army Corps al Shafter $ head
quarters nea- Santiago, told of preliminary
work in maSsing his regiment at Mobile
and the march to Tampa and the voyage to
Daiquirri. He explained that as brigade
quartermaster it was his duty to take food
to the front. He left Siboney June - and
went to SeVilla. On June 2S he went TO
HeduIu1IleG Il lew miles from SdntlaSO,
and or July i he started for the front with
wagons of rations.
Orders from Gen. Shafter stopped the
train because an engagement was immi-
rent. After the fight he saw Gen. Shafter
and obtained permission to follow the am
munition wagons and unload provisions suf-
ficient for all the men on the fighting line
early in the evening of July on the fiat at
the San Juan hill.
Transportation Was Limited.
Gen. Wilson asked Capt. Piummer many
questions as to the supply of wagons and
about their disposition. In reply to a di-
rect question, If the transportation under
his charge was sufficient and if the work
of transportation was satisfactorily accom-
plished, Capt. Plummer explained that the
transportation was limited but he did not
believe that more wagons could have been
used because of the limited facilities for
loading the wagons in Siboney and the
narrowness of the roads over which the
supplies had to be drawn.
The roads were bad that frequently
he could not send wagons and mules fast
enough to supply the demand. There were
times when he got hurry orders. From
motives of prudence, General Shafter or
dered that wagons should not go too close
to the trenches.
Was. there any serious distress among
the men in the trenches on account of their
inability to get supplies?'
Il heard of none. On the night of July
l l net some meh of my regiment and
asked them If they needed anything. They
wanted. Captain Taggart of the 9Th In
fantry told me that, on July 3. after the
fights, he had accumulated a days rations
ahead from General Kents division"