The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-09-04
PRESIDENT At W|KOFF
Mckinley Spends Five Hours in
the Hospitals.
WATER Is STILL SCARCE
The President Issues an Order Directing
the Regiments to Return to Their
Possible Talked to the
Infantrymen.

| camp Wlkon, Montauk Point, N. Y,
Sept. S.-President Mckinley spent five
| hours i'm the camp to-day, bareheaded
most of the time. visiting the sick in the
hospitals and inspecting the wells in
| their cantonments. He made a speech
to the assembled infantrymen, reviewed
the cavalrymen, expressed his opinion
of the camp to the reporters and issued
an order directing the regiments to re-
| turn to their stations east of the Mssis-
sippi.
With the president were Vice Presi-
| dent Hobart. Secretary of War Alger.
| Attorney General Griggs, Senator Red
field Proctor of Vermont. Brigadier
General Eagan, Commissary of the
| Army General Ludington, Quartermas-
ter of the Army Colonel Henry Hecker
| and Secretaries to the President Porter
and Cortelyou. The ladies of the party
| were Mrs. Alger and Miss Hecker, a
| daughter of Colonel Hecker. General
| Wheeler. his staff, and nearly every
officer of prominence in the camp met
| the president at the station, except
/ General Shafter. who is still in deten-
| tion. and General Young, who fell and
| broke his arm last night. After greet
| ings and introductions on the railway
platform, the president took General
Wheeler's arm and went to carriage.
| Colonel Theodore Roosevelt of the
| Rough Riders was among the group of
| horsemen nearby.
| Mr.. Mckinley saw him and got out
of the carriage to speak to him. Colonel
| Roosevelt hastily dismounted and tus
seled with a gauntlet for Is seconds, so
| that ungloved he might shake hands.
| The column of carriages wound up
| hill. escorted by the Sd cavalry reg~
ment and the mounted band of the
9Th cavalry The party paused mo-
| ment on the hill, and the president
looked out on the wide undulatng cape,
| water bounding each side, and whit
ened on the levels and hilltoDs by the
tents of $4,000 men. laid out in geo.
| metric lines. Mr.. Mckinley drove to
| General Skaters tent in the detention
| camp. The general who was flushed
and weak from a mild case of malarial
fever was in full uniform, sitting in a
chair at the door of the tent. He tried
to rise, but Mr.. Mckinley said:
Stay where you are, general. You
are entitled to rest"
The president congratulated General
Shafter on the Santiago campaign, and
after a few minutes rest proceeded to
the general hospital.
The soldiers recently arrived on the
transports and detained in the deten-
ton section of the camp lined up irreg-
ularly on each side of the road and
I
straw hat then. and scarcely more than
put it on for more than a minute or two
at a time during the remainder of his
progress through the camp.
Miss Wheeler, a daughter of the gen.
eral. happened to be in the first row
of the hospital tents, and she showed
the president through her division.
General Wheeler announced in each
ward: Boys, the president has come to
see you" or, Soldiers, the president of
the United States
Some of the soldiers slept unconscious,
some listlessly raised upon their elbows,
others feebly clapped their hands. Mr..
Mckinley gently shook hands with
many and at one cot he paused an
instant, and if he saw the sick man
looking at him he bowed in direct and
personal way.
In the second ward the president en-
tered, Sergeant John A. Alexander,
| Company ID, 1st Illinois, who had a
fever, was rather startled to hear Cen
eral Wheeler announce the president.
The sergeant half raised upon his cot.
! Mr.. Mckinley. attracted by the move
ment, took Alexander's hands and said ::
II am sorry to see you so sick. /
hope that you are getting better"
Thank you: 1 think / will get well. +"
do you wish for anything?" inquired
General Wheeler.
mo; I have everything good for me,
| I guess" Alexander replied wearily;
but / wish l were home"
Il hope that we may soon get you
there said Mr.. Mckinley.
He had many such bits of talk with
the men and rcen.ed to be in no hurry.
He almost outworo the patience of all
his party by his slow going through
ward after ward. When seemingly all
the wards of the general hospital had
been gone through, and the president
was about to get into a carriage. Attor-
ney General Criggs detained him.
Miss Wheeler has told me-" said ne,
"of a Lieutenant Prado, who is in a
tent back here by himself. in a dying
condition. Ho asked about your coming
and Miss Wheeler has promised that you
shall see HIM"
Certainly. let us go in to him." Mr..
Mckinley said.
The others of the party discreetly re-
manned outside the tent. The president
reappeared with the nurse a minute or
two later. His eyes were moist and
downcast.
AS il was inconvenient to go back to
the doors of the long tents, Mr.. Mckin-
ley would go through the framework
at the ends of the tents and jump down.
The general hospital is on a slope and
the height of the floor from the ground
is increased at each ward. At Ward F
the jump was nearly six feet. Mr.. Nc
| Kinley took ii. Vice President Hobart.
who is a bulky man, hesitated.
balk here. Can't go over this hurdle"
he said. Neither would Secretary Alger.
who had taken all the jumps until then.
But General Wheeler sprang lightly
I down.
The day was hot. Mr.. Mckinley wore
a black frock coat, with a waistcoat.
| The perspiration streamed from his face.
A glass of appollinaris was offered to
him, but he declined TO drink, saying
that he was too warm. He proceeded 10
the infantry plain. as il is called. The
men of the 9th Massachusetts,, the lst
Illinois. the sth Ohio. the 18th. 2lst, 22nd
and 10th regular infantry were assem-
bled without arms. About 5000 men
[ stood in close order.