The times., 1898-12-29
IN MANILA'S HOSPITALS
American Soldiers Dying From
Cruel Neglect.
SEVEN FUNERALS A DAY
Incompetency on the Part of the
Observation-Disclosures of the Attend
Poor - Nothing Proper for the
Sick-sIiss Schaefer's Interview.

According 10 the latest advice from San
Francisco. the American soldiers in the
hospitals at Manila are suffering as much
from neglect as did those who went to
Santiago and afterward starved to death
at Montauk Point and in other camps.
Miss Schaefer, a Red Cross nurse who
returned from Manila on the United States
hospital ship Scandia, tells story which
is OF interest TO the people everywhere in
the country and serves as additional evil
dence relative to the cruel neglect accord
ed those soldiers who are unfortunate
enough TO have been confined in the hos
pitfalls.
Her story is to the effect that she was
one OF the first Red Cross nurses 10 reach
the Cavite hospitals. She arrived there on
September &c.
Miss Schaefer was in charge of the sick
men on the Scandia. The brave little
woman, il is said, shows the effect Of her
hard service. The report says her pensive
face is expressive of the suffering she has
undergone, and as she looks at the ema
ciated forms of her patients she says with
a sigh: 'They were all strong men once.
/, too, was strong woman. Look at me
now! Iweigh fifty pounds less than 1
did when / arrived at Manila
Miss Schaefer condemns the Government
She scores the War Department She
scorns the incompetence of selfish ard
stupid commissaries and adds temper to
her adjectives with dashes of the cold
water of truth. Without hesitation she
said in a recent interview:
Scores of our soldier boys are dying
in the hospitals at Manila Just for want
of proper nourishment. They say the
Government allows so cents a lay or each
patient. / could save dozens of lives on D
cents 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. seeking for IT, .aking
poison. doing anything that will end the
despair that comes upon them
Seeing nothing before them but days
of pain and nights of wretcheancss, with
out proper care, without proper food, alone,
with no one to give them sympathy or
cheer, TO write TO friends Cor them, TO
soothe their aching brows or moisten their
parched lips. IL by sheer endurance of ma
ture or force of vitality they do get better,
there is before them nothing hGt he still
more cheerless period of relapse and the
old weariness of despair 20 lie suffered
again.
NO wonder there are six or seven fu-
nerals day. No wonder the dead house
is never empty.
And outside the hospital and even in
il such Indifference. Petty consideration
of rank position, squabbles about pre-
cedence. lack of consideration in prescrib-
ing and preparing food. while men are
dying, not merely of hunger, but for want
of noUrishment.
i have gone through the wards day
after day. and as / spoke to this one and
that 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. mado poignant and
vivid by their own telling of it.
II got so Just couldn't go through the
wards What could l do? saw the need
OF care OF proper nourishment, of the
most ordinary hospital treatment and was
utterly helpless to do anything; just one
cog in the great remorseless grinding ma
chine whose material was noble men and
whose grist was death.
Il do not mean that all in the hospitals
are careless or Indifferent. Many are try
ing 10 do their best. There is lot of
worthiness and unselfishness among the at
tendants at the hospitals but there is so
much ineSperience 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, lading out to the fifty
or sixty patients Unfortunately a tin
cupful of IL. In the whole pailful there was
not enough nourishment for one, even if it
were made of the best material. But what
was it really made Of? / shut my eyes and
refuse 10 imagine. In a whole ward there
is not more than one nurse With expert
ence, and for helpers only one or two awk-
ward boys, who perhaps never saw a sick
room before. They do their best, and what
more can they do?
Let no one speak slightingly of the
women who have lately gone on to Manila
ms 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"