The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-25

| for practical use on the field of battle, | it has been woefully demonstrated to | be of no use whatever. An army on the
 march in a strange country cannot car ry along ample facilities for hospital work to be made available when most
 needed-during and immediately after | an engagement This Is the peaceful province of the Red Cross. to follow | closely in the rear, protected by the l treaty from the bullets of both armies, and had it been allowed to do so in | Cuba thousands of precious lives might | have been saved. The Sternbergian theory is directly responsible for at | least half of the three thousand deaths which have occurred since July 2, to
 say nothing of the hundreds now dying | from subsequent unnecessary hardship and exposure.
 l Although discouraged in every way
 by the heads of the army, the Red
 Cross persisted in following as closely
 as possible, and so-thank Heaven-the l supply ship "State of Texas happened I to be near when the first great battle occurred. You have heard how our boys went into the fight hungry, and how they lay in the trenches for two | udyS dlfltOSt WllllOuJ lOOu, anu lloW lllG wounded were afterwards ordered to
 make their way to the rear as best they
 could. Men with desperate wounds had | to walk or crawl-perhaps mile, per-
 haps five or six miles-in some cases | from ten to fifteen miles-not over good, smooth roads, but over wild, rough country, where the trails were rendered
 almost impossible by daily rains and
 heavy army wagons. Those who were | least injured assisted their comrades,
 and hundreds died by the wayside. | Had not the Sternbergian theory been | memorable the Red Cross would have
 been promptly on hand with ambu- | lances, equipped with every conven- | ience and the first hospital camp would have been close by the field of battle. l Those of the wounded who lived to l reach the place designated were att l tended to as rapidly and efficiently as
 possible by the half dozen army sur | geons who had nothing at hand for l their awful work. Some of their in- 1 struments were in their pockets, but | anesthetics, bandages, medicines and food were entirely lacking, and so in- sufficient was the surgical force that
 numbers of the wounded lay unattend- 1 ed for days before their turn came. | The soldiers clothes were soaked with | rain and stiffened with mud from the | trenches so that they had to be removed before an operation and could not be put on again. Men were taken from the | operating table, perhaps minus leg or an arm, or with bodies desperately torn | by Mauser bullets, and laid on the wet ground, naked as the minute they were born, without shelter, and in the major | ity of cases without even blanket.
 And there they lay, suffering, dying, | unattended, without food or water for | two long, awful days. To add to the horrors of that Golgotha, it rained in- cessantly and the army hospital corps, | like the foolish virgins of the Scrip | lures, had forgotten to provide oil; so | there was no light but that of the weeping skies and an occa sional flicker | ing candle, by which to saw human l bones and cut into quivering flesh with out the blessed boon of chloroform When the little band of the Red Cross | finally forced it's way to the spot, the l ladies of the party wading waist deep in 1 the surf to reach the shore and walking miles inland, Miss Barton knew exactly what to do. Asking leave of nobody, | she directed fires to be built as quickly as possible with the rain-soaked mate- | rials at hand, and over them were put | her big granite kettles filled with water | In some of them good, strong gruel was made, and cans of condensed milk stirred into others. Plenty of oil and lanterns were provided, and with her 1 IJc, fnracioht Mice 1 had brought along a quantity of cotton cloth. This she tore into strips the l length of sheet, and sent the men of l her party ahead with lights to cover the naked sufferings. The women quickly followed, each with tin cup and | steaming bucket of milk or gruel. They | found many of the soldiers unconscious, | others delirious or raving, bowling and cursing in agony. Kneeling beside each the little band of workers lifted | the poor heads in their arms and put between the parched lips the first taste
 of food they had had for days.
 Gradually consciousness returned to many who had passed almost beyond | the border-line of the Unknown, and | the light of reason returned to eyes | filled with frenzy. Thus hundreds of | mothers boys were saved, who in few hours more of Sternbergism would have been beyond mortal aid; and the last | moments of others were soothed by the knowledge that they had not been ut terly abandoned by God and man. No | wonder that bearded men wept like
 children and blessed the Angels of Mer-
 cy as they passed. All night and all
 day, and another night and day, the | devoted little band worked unceasingly, without thought of rest or food for themselves and to-day many a mothers
 boy is in the land of the living, who but for the unwelcomed Red Cross would be sleeping the long sleep in that modern Golgotha.
 FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD. |. ARMY AND PULPIT IN FRANCE.