The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-09

ais Hled With Wrath, hetdlueu py trumpet notes and wrapped about with awful glory, come knocking some fine day at our front door, slap, slay would go those same slowfeettoadmitthem.
 My family of nineteen includes Miss Annie Wheeler, a daughter of eX-GoV- ernor Packard of Louisiana, several ladies from New Orleans two Cuba mas from Key West, and several oth- CTS from various parts of the south, mostly immunes, recruited for the work by Mrs. Curtis, of Washington.
 As every moment of time must be spent to the best advantage where such an ocean of suffering is to be staid by few frail hands, we break fast at 5:30 a, m., and immediately ar rewards each goes on her appointed way to hospital, dispensary or consult tario, The dinner hour is set for 7:3O, but often it is S. or even p. m,, De- fore the tired ladies can leave their pressing duties to snatch a nasty meal, and then go straight to bed for a few hours needed rest If your im- agination is fertile enough, you may perhaps fancy some of the experiments I have tried by way of making a change in the daily menu with the materials at hand essaying French toast, of hardtack in condensed milk and fried in bacon fat; hash of canned beef minus potatoes and a chopper; corn bread, baked in frying-pan over an uncertain charcoal fire, and savory regents compounded of all the | odds and ends obtainable. Occasional l ly I ransack the city market in search of something new, and then my eXpe- riences are indeed varied and enter | tainng.
 | On such occasions I am accompanied | by one or both of the elderly hand | maidens who, in addition to their | trailing white skirts and silken shaWls, | wear each wide smile, which she | would fain make wider were 1t not for | the psition of her ears. Up and down 1 the steep and dirty streets we toll, | those everlasting slippers skipping the stones a few paces behind me until the market is reached, when they range alongside as a necessary guard | against importunate dealers. While yet obscured by intervening wall, the l proximity of the market-house is an | nounced by new smells of extra vile | ness, swarms of fat green flies and the slap, skipping of many canvas 1 slippers all toed in the same direction And such a market! What tales II | tells of native shiftlessness, poverty and greed. The house mother who ex- poets for a few dollars to purchase the ingredients of modest dinner may as l vel cuirass herself against disappoint- l ment. She may buy some measly po- l tatoes at the rate of medic (six cents) l apiece; eggs, warranted storage for | two dollars a dozen; coarse bread, l baked in Santiago, thirty cents the l loaf; a string of meat (animal un- | known, which may serve for stew though any well-bred northern dog would disdain it, $2,50 A handful of onions for disgusting the flavor of the stew will cost fifty cents; aguacates for salad, a dollar, and pine-apples for des- sert, seventy-fve cents apiece
 The first time I visited the market a woman pursued me from stall to stall
 chattering Spansh like a magpie. She only wanted to buy the clothes right off my back, beginning with my neck
 tie and ending with my shoes! This fe- male pawn broking business seems te l be a favorite method of raising the wind in Santiago. Every day we are | visited by mysterious women, some oi 1 them evidenty beonging to the better cass, who wish to buy sell or exchange all manner Of truck from a broken nosed tea-kette to a jeweled sword
 Yesterday young Jamaica negress | brought rose-colored silk shawl, mag
 nificently embroidered; price not stated
 Another female brought an ancient
 mandolin, made of tortoise shell, wha
 she said was dirt cheap at seventy five dollars. Maybe, but we are not in
 vesting in musical instruments jus
 now A third had an old wash tub
 one hoop gone, which she offered fo
 two dollars-and bought it. A tub WI
 needed badly, a new one costs in th'
 shops of Santiago from three dollar
 upward, and the extra dollar may g'
 into to-morrow's soup.
 There will be joy to-day in the nurse
 casal Just now the great commissar!
 wagon, drawn by six mules, rattled III
 to our door and delivered, besides tn
 usual rations of beans, bacon and hard
 tack, some canned tomatoes and bi'
 piece of fresh beef brought in the colt
 storage of some blessed ship from "th
 States" Said the blonde young gian
 in army blue who delivered it, "Afte
 this, ma'am, s longs this ere mea
 keeps I'll bring you a chunk ever.
 day" Bless the dear boy!
 Now I go to surprise my girls with ;
 real Yankee pot-roast.
 FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.