The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-11-23

Incorporated in his testimony.
Was the price paid for the onarter 6i, OF
those ships fair and reasonapie! asReu
DR.. Conner.
Eyes, think SO, generally" replied
Clyde and Mallory lines, the companies
said they could not spare the ships un-
less double the price . offered was paid.
Yhe ships were needed and the govern
ment paid the price asked. {"
Col. Kimballs said there was not
movement of any magnitude made to or
from this city which was not made as
the result of open competition. There
was much !. complaint sof lack of trans
portation.
.sNow, I want to know who is at fault?"
asked Dr.. Conner, ,fspeaking Of Montauk
Point.
'sYou refer to wagon transportation at
Montauk, and with that had absolutely
nothing to do. s That was furnished
through the auartermaster general and
ordered from various depots."
s.That's : -justsmy.luck, ''sssaid DIR. ECon-
nor. 'sI thought at last i had found the
man responsible. 81 sIsshayeabeen. going from
post to pillar for months and am still no
carer than .whens Isstarted.
In sreply to a question as 20 the COM
plants Of delay on the Long Island rail-
road, Col. Kimball said:
II know of no complaints except In the
case of an Illinois volunteer regiment
which was anx ious to get home. A new
local quartermaster did not know that
had planned to have the troops moved
on regular schedule. With the assis.
tance Of the colonel of the regiment, the
local quartermaster got the Long Island
railroad to bring tine regiment away from
camp, with the result that the men ar
rived in Jersey City 18 hours before the
Lehigh Valley road was ready to handle
them. A similar misunderstanding took
place the next day when an Ohio regi-
ment wished to be- moved.
Miss Mary G. Lowell, daughter of Sid
ney Lowell, said she studied nursing
last year for philanthropic work and
found it useful during the two weeks she
| spent at Camp WikoH. There was a
scarcity OF doctors and Miss Lowell con-
sidered many of the contract doctors care
less and indifferent to the men. She
| found one man with temperature of
l06 and reported to DR.. Thomas, who
said he would see to It, But when she
visited the man ID hours later the doctor
had not seen him.
Miss Lowell mentioned other doctors
who she said had neglected their duty,
and great suffering resulted from the ill
management Of the ambulance service. :,
| Miss Lowell said the condition or
| affairs in the general hospital was shock
| ing. She corroborated the testimony
| of the previous witnesses as to the lack
of sanitary precaution and the plague OF
| flies.
The Rev. Henry B. Bryan of the Gar
den City cathedral, said the publica-
tion of a statement Of Major Brown, that
all the bodies were decently buried had
| induced him to come forward to testify.
SIN his published statement" Mr.. Bry-
an said, major Brown said there was
no truth in the report that the bodies
were not decsntly buried. I believe
1>r,<
they were not carried out. I know per-
sonaIly of 30 bodies that were not buried
as the Major says they We're, and wonder
| what became of the clothing and of the
money paid for the embalming.
| 81 do not question Major Brown in
any way, he had not time to see that his
orders were carried out. Coughlin and
Kohler, who wore Bellevue hospital
badges, were in charge of the burial Of
the dead. My duties led me by the morgue
every day and stopped to see who had died
during the night. / saw the naked bodies
| of soldiers placed in bare pine collins and
the name of the man and his regiment
written on the lid of the coffin. OF course
the damp earth quickly obliterated these
marks and no further records were kept.
Sometimes the bodies were buried in a
night shirt, but they never took the
| trouble to button the shirt. 1t was gross,
| ly indecent. At the morgue the atten :
dants sat on the coffins with the bodies
| in them and chewed and smoked and told
| indecent stories rebuked them once.
but they were Bowery toughs and it was
useless to talk to them. "
edo you know who was responsible for
| the conditions you found?"
'"No, l understand that a Mrs. Roeb-
ling paid Colghlin and Kohler to go to
the camp aud take charge of the morgue.
| An autopsy was made on the body OF
| Barney Trie, and organs removed were
| left lying about until the attendants tied
them up in q towel and threw them
away. -
| After recess. Lieut.. Olin of Co. I. fist
regiment, testified that all the sick were
cared for as well as possible and none Of
them were neglected. Mr.. Olin said he
and his men were treated with every con-
sideration and courtesy at Camp Wikoff.
| Geo. Wallace, a lawyer of Freeport, l..
l., who had son and brother in the
war, testified that while at Camp Wikoh
looking for his son, he saw many soldiers
struggling along the roadway apparently
! too weak to move. Some of them told
him they had been discharged from hos
pitfalls as cured. He told of the regula-
| tions that compelled these men to hang
| around for hours before they could get
| transportation to their homes land he said
| that he came to the conclusion that the
handling of the men was careless and
Il
"I do not blame the war department,
but some one must have been responsi.
BILE for the brutal negligence. 1t was not
the head officers, but the officers charged
with carryin out the minor details.
| Col. Theodore Roosevelt came in at
| this time.
! Col. Roosevelt next took the stand. and
| in reply to request from Gen. Wilson,
| told of the equipment and mastering in
of the Rough Riders.
!, when we had reached. Tampa" Col.
Roosevelt said, sthere was a condition OF
utter confusion. We were dumped out
side mile away from our camp No ons
knew where the camp was. There was
no one to tell us where to go or what to
do. After waiting "a hours took the
law into my own hands and bought food
| for the men and their horses. Later when
we found camp We We're all right.
ssWere you reimbursed for your out
lay?"
III never asked it, 1t was personal
| matter entirely"
Col Roosevelt said great condition of
confusion existed at Tampa. Nobody
seemed to know anything and no ar
rangements were evident as to what trans