The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1898-12-22
FOR WANT OF FOOD.
Scores of Sick Soldiers Dy
ing at Manila.
HOSPITAL SERVICE VERY POOR
Petty Omcialism and Jealousy Overr,d.
All Other Considerations-More
Skilled Nurses Needed.

Honolulu, via San Francisco, Dec.
i6.-The United States transport
Scandal has arrived from Manila, which
place she left November l5. She
brings a number of officers, 81 dis
! charged and furIoughed men, two Red
Cross nurses and the largest mail that
ever left Manila, 213 sacks for San
Francisco, and one for Honolulu.
The vessel will resume her voyage on
or about the 10th inst.
Miss Schafer, Red Cross nurse.
| who went from Honolulu to Manila.
arriving there September 90, returned
on the Scandal. She makes startling
charges as to the way the United States
| soldiers are taken care of in Manila.
Miss Schafer made the following state
, ment for publications:
Scores of soldier boys are dying in
the hospitals at Manila just for want
/, of proper nourishment. They say the
government allows so cents day for
+, each patient. could have saved doz-
! ems OF lives on cents day. Oil the
utter woe of the soldiers, and the
| helplessness of them. Men as bright
and noble as God ever made, giving up
to death, hoping for it, seeking for it.
taking poison, doing ANYTHING that will
relieve the despair that comes upon
them. Seeing nothing before them but
days of pain and nights of wretched-
ness, without proper care, without
proper food. alone with no one to give
them sympathy or cheer. to write to
their friends, to soothe their aching
brows or moisten their parched lips, If
by sheer endurance of nature. of OBJ
stinacy Of vitality. they do get better,
+, there is before them nothing but still
more cherries period Of a relapse of
convalescence. with the probability of
relapse and the old WEAKNESS of despair
| to be suffered again. No wonder there
are six or seven funerals day. No
wonder the dead house is never empty.
'And outside of the hospital, and
! even in it, such Indifference. Petty
consideration of rank and position,
squabbles about precedence. lack of
consideration in prescribing and pre-
| pairing food, while men are dying, not
merely of heart hunger, but for want
of nourishment. have gone through
the wards day after day, and as spoke
| to this one and that one. and they
poured out their sorrows, men do not
wear their hearts on their sleeve, cried
for pur agony Of their loneliness and
despair, made pregnant and vivid by
! their own telling of it.
81 got SO just could not 60 through
!, the wards What could ! do? saw
need of care, Of proper nourishment, of
/, the most ordinary hospital treatment,
and was utterly helpless to do any
thing; just one cog in great, remorse-
less grinding machine, whose material
was noble men and whose grist was
death.
81 do not mean that all in the hos
| pitfalls are careless or Indifferent. Many
are trying to do their best. There is a
lot Of worthiness and unsel6shness
among the attendants at the hospitals;
but in whole ward there is not more
! than one nurse. only one or two awk-
ward boys, who, perhaps, never saw
sick room before
Colonel George w. McFarlane re-
turned by the Coptic and brings word
that the controller Of currency has
guaranteed to Perry s. Heath. FIRST
assistant postmaster-general, and his
associates that he will issue charter
/ for new bank in which James Camp
bell and himself are interested az soon
as congress extends the territorial laws
to Hawaii. The bank will have an
| authorized capital Of 81, 500. 900.