The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-08-09
ths facilitr Of these creatures in avotding

| the facility Of these creatures in avoiding
the boots and wheels that made the
road perilous TO them. No means of move
ment seems to have been denied them
they roll backward and forward or side
wise, upsid down or rolling like cart
wheelQ-and according TO the haste they
are in, they use all these helps to locomo-
| ton at once. then, clinging toa bit OF
rock or cactus stem, turn and look at
| you in blank astonishmant. At night. in
the tents. they grew more familiar, and
walked on your chest, or spread their
| claws out upon your face. A soldier told
me of waking and watching in astoash-
ment and fascination while one of these
| creatures scampered, looking for a place
| to bite, up and down the body of Rough
| Rider from Arizona. The Rough Rider
| felt it, opened his eyes, exclaimed:
| Hello, my old friend"' caught the crab.
and, showing it under his blanket, re-
marked: Now III have something bet
| ter than sowbelly for breakfast" In Ari
| IONA men eat land-crabs, bua doubtless
in Arizona land-crabs do not, as here,
J feast on man.
| Parts of the road were corduroyed to
admit the passage Of artillery, and parts
were so soft that the sapplings cut 10
| harden it sank into bottomless mud
Three rather deep streams crossed it,
These you fordede safely enoug except
| after a rain, when your horse would sniff
and paw the bank in apprehension, and
would sometimes be carried down a piece
| by the tide. There were deep cuts, where
you would have to ride out in the bush to
allow an ammunition wagon or hospital
train 40 pass, and tire were a few hard,
smooth stretches where you could spur
TO gallop; and always there were stray
glers, Cuban deserters and raggy refugees
and rafting land-crabs; and in the early
days of abe campaign there were besides
the manned and the bleeding, and from
the tops of royal palms Spanish sharp
shooters potted, with fatally good aim,
at whoever passed, wounded or others. On
a high level beside the road was the field
hospital well back from the front, and
here one day you stopped to inquire who
were the worse off and who were recover
ing verywhere there seemed to be human
blood, and torn human flesh and pain IN
sufferabe, and scenes Of dying. But
"there was lack of woman's nursing,
there was breath of womans tears" How
many columns had been printed months
before of young women who had volun-
teered as nurses in Cuba? Their pictures
were in the newspapers and their praise
was on many tongues. Yet in the San
tiago campaign I saw but three women
nurses.
There was one young woman. who
came to live in the field with her husband
and do what she could in ministering TO
the hurt and sick. She was pretty and
clever, and had style, ard was like q bit
of Twenty-third street in the shopping
saason-and 1 think Twenty-third street
offers fairer show of fine women than |
London's Rotten Row, or the Cascine in |
Florence, or the Corso in Rome. You |
may may imagine what a pleasure It
was simply to see her about, ca ting al a !
board table, with a tin tobacco box as |
a coffee cup, and whitfield stick as a |
spoon for her canned blueberries. Prob |
ably the gayest moments Of the ,encamp- /
ment along tht Siboney road were those |
when the campers were trying to make |
the best of what they had TO eat-poor |
and scarce as II was-and ahere wire |
moments that brought out character. |
1T seems TO me-" remarked b. one even |
ing when supplies were few and there |
we're only timed consomme and timed |
peaches, that the dessert comes rather /
soon after the soup" Somehow thought |
OF that good-humored speach several days |
afterward when I saw r. disabled In his
hammock, throbbing with the fever"
no nurse near. and little medicine and |
only the dirty, infected walls OF a Span
ish blockhouse for shelter. yet cheerful /
and absolutely accomplishing IN the
midst Of it all must add that this e..
this thoroughbred, was a correspondent. |
There were thOroughbreds among the
soldiers. too. you may Believe. For IN
stance in the middle Of TIE fight at San
Juan, one OF the officers leading regulars
was struck. at short range. in the cheek.
and, according 70 the habit Of Mauser
bullets. this one made a small clean hole.
and came out through the victims nose
He did not seem 70 know ne was hurt
untn another officer. seeing his face bleed
ing. said, chafingly. Why man. you're
wounded; MORALLY wouneed-look az the
blood, ! DONE know but what you're
killed already-look az the hole IN your
cheek and the hole IN your nose, You'vt
got four nos;rls man. = you dor't get
plugged up you'u be going about breath-
ing Ike p8-poise~ With that Re Jed
h-s oomrsde OF % ths hospital, % cor
vince him that Re vas disabled by holding
a mirror 20 his face
Ssboney road - borde-ed a. Intervals
vita mounds thiniy covering from the
buzzards and the Ian4--craas ths ns-
slain IN the advance upon santiago
Recoll@ctions q !f are necessarily sad
colored- ny own are fewer and per-
hzps Jess trag5caI tasn iAsss % oshsrs.
and they end wita a tr51zapsaI r.ds n
ths dusk back from TIE su-7esee- % re
city. were me who.s zsy nearly xzs
ansd with enthusiastic ps--Iee % aclss era
Besides ne Tne1 burseA along & cssa 20
@pie11g6ly that ne grevousaeez % taelr
tate Is modified ard tie nslrne wlth EAzs
q, stands foT. e Al Inspiration.
&c
Asst - Ria