The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-20
LETTER FROM MISS HASSON.
NEW LONDON NURSE TELLS OF HER
 YORK WITH SICK SOLDIERS.

nGH LONDON ~ UhSE IELLS UT HEN
 YORK WITH SICK SOLDIERS. She Was Sent Out by the Mary Clap
 Wooster Chapter, ID. A. R. of This
 City-Is on the Hospital Ship "Relief'
 Denies Stories of starvation-Maga-
 zines and Periodicals Very Accepta-
 ble by the Sick Men.
 Following is copy of letter re- ceived from Miss Hasson, a nurse on the Hospital Ship Relief" Miss Has son was sent out by the Mary Clap Wooster Chapter" D. A. R., of this city:
 To Mrs. Henry Champion, Regent:
 am so sorry that I have been una ble to write to you oftener, but under the circumstances litter writing has been next to impossible. We were so tired when we were off duty that we could think of nothing but bed. I will try to make up for past delinquencies by sending you full account of our two trips to Porto Rico. The first was the more trying, as all of our patients were very i'll men. Out of the two hun- dred and sixty, one hundred and fifty were "typhoids." I have always been rather fond of nursing typhoid, but must confess I never want to care for them again in droves
 It is impossible to do justice to them. It was a great comfort, however, to know from their own lips that they were much more comfortable than in the Porto Rico hospitals. We lost fif- teen patients on the way north, which seems a rather large per cent, but when the severity of the cases is taken into consideration it is really small. All of our typhoids had very high tenn peratures, some running up to 1O7 and many reaching 106 every evening. Of course they were nearly all dellrtous and required the closest watching, and they were all ravenously hungry and begged for food morning, noon and night. We could not make them under stand that we did not give them food because 1t was not good for them, and some were highly indignant because the convalescents had it while they were only given milk and broth. We were all very glad to reach New York, and after we landed all the patients I was too tired to even think of coming up to New ondon to see mother. I just want ed to be quiet and take long rest, and the others felt thesame way.
 Our last trip was not quite so bad. We only had four deaths; the cases as a rule were not so severe. I think it a great mistake to send us men in the second or third week of typhoid, the fa tigue of transporting them is too great. We landed all our last cases in Phila- delphia last Monday night and sailed for New York, arriving Wednesday. -dajor Torrey gave us all leave to go home and remain till summoned, as the date of sailing was uncertain. We hope to go to San Juan next time; both of our trips so far have been to the southern coast of Porto Rico and most of the time spent at Ponce. We were able to go on shore twice and found it very pleas We touched at Maya guez for patients, but were too busy to leave the ship.
 All these places are full of our sol diers, and although there is a great deal of sickness, must say they are as a class strong, well-fed men. I am con- vinced from what l myself saw and from what our patients told me that the sensational stories about the men being straved, etc., are all newspaper inventions. When we reach port and get the papers am so furious I wish could spend the rest of my life at sea. Of course the Relief comes in for her share of blame, and one would think we were merely going on a pleasude trip and incidentally brought up few ill men. In reality two of our women nurses have resigned because they could not stand the hard work and the dreadful strain, and two of our men nurses are at present quite i'll. AS for the hospital corps think they will need a new one before long, as most of the men are broken down from hard work. We women nurses were all in one ward on the first trip, but after our return from Cuba the doctors asked that we be detailed for duty in all the wards.
  large wards, and one in the officers ward, which is much smaller. The other nurse attends to the diet depart ment.
 I am head nurse in Ward No. 2 and have one woman, graduate Of St. Luke. New York, two men nurses and two hospital corps men to help me- I have entire charge of the nursing, and as there are sixty beds in the ward it is not an easy position to fill to the satis- faction of every one. Of course the doctors are very busy and much is left to our discretion. My assistant is very capable woman, her one fault is that she Is seasick. I am not, for which I can never be too thankful The only thing on the Relief which has not been a success Is the laundry; it has been trial from first to last.
 At first the army physicians were much opposed to having women on board, but now I am happy to say they would take twice as many if they could only find quarters for them.
 Major Torney returns to his duties at West Point and Major Bradley takes command of the Relief. We like him, brE no one can quite take the place of M jor Torney.
 Esp you think you could collect some raaslipc rnatter for the shin? The men