The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-09-05
HOSPITAL LIFE IN CUBA.
TIE WORK OF GEN. wHEELER's
DAUGHTER AT SANTIAGO.

inns of yellow Jack - The Quick
and the Dead-Pathetic Scenes and
Incidents.
Santiago Correspondence St Louis Globe
Democrat.
Miss Annie Wheeler, youngest daughter
Of Gen. Wheeler of Alabama fragile
e;r1 Of "a years-has charge of the female
nurses in the army hospital of Santiago.
HOW she became a Red Cross nurse is a
romantic story. The motherless girl is
peculiarly devoted to her father, whom
s7e calls her Sweetheart" She accom-
named him and her brother TO Tampa.
and was daily seen riding about the camps
nith them on horseback. To be by her
fathers side she would gladly have gone
into battle; but since that could not be,
she determined to do the next best thing
and 90 TO the front as a nurse In order
80 remain as near 70 him as possible.
She met with strongest opposition on every
hand. but with the blood of the fight
ing Wheelers'' in her veins, Miss Annie
Is not easily swerved from a good pur-
nose. Gen. Wheeler earnestly protested
AGAINST the project but would not oppose
q command to the dictates of his daugh-
ter's conscience. Some of the heads of
the army absolutely refused her transpor-
tation to Cuba, and others denied her per-
mission TO land when she finally arrived
off Santiago Only Gen. Miles, after re-
cqpitulating the dangers, which she well
understood and urging her TO return to
safety, lent his strong helping hand anu
enabled her to enter upon her chosen path
OF duty.
When she first joined Miss Barton fe-
male help was very scarce in Santiago
For a week she was almost alone in the
crowded Waterside hospital so far as other
women were concerned There were sew
eral male attendants to lift the sick, to
bring in patients AID carry out the dead
besides an efficient steward and two or
tbree visiting physicians; and now there
are also four white and three colored fe-
male nurses under Miss Wheeler's direc-
tion Early and late she tolls, rising at
5 a. m. and leaving the scene of her la
bors only at nightfall often walking unat-
tended through the darkened streets of
Santiago, but as safe as in her own par
lor under the all-protecting symbol of the
Red Cross. In the hospital she is as Il
raw of sunshine, her slender figure dressed
in girlish white or in blue cambria, with
srOwy apron and 'kerchief, her curling
hair brushed neatly back and blue eyes
shining with earnest purpose; washing
sick mems faces, writing home letters for
them, administering food or medicine, and
taking the last messages of the dying. No
necessary service, however mental or re-
penent is ever shirked by her, nor win
she weary in well doing. The old rule
holds good here, as everywhere else in this
odd old world, that the worst 'kickers"
who loudest bewail scant army rations
and lack of home comforts-are those who
have been least accustomed to luxury.
Miss Wheeler, the child of wealth and or
nament of society, whose Washington
winters are spent in the luxurious Ar
lingtOn, has never uttered one word OF
complaint. She Is a prayerful girl, who
begins and ends each day on her knees
beside her army cot-and only heaven
knows how many times during the long,
hard days her "soul is on its knees" in
the language of Hugo. The loved father
and brother have been ordered to the
North and she alone of all 1.-THE fighting
YVheelers'H remain in Cuba But she wilt
not desert the work, wherein she was
never more needed than to-day; and as
for protection, there is not a soldier in our
army who would not lay down his life for
her If need be.
The hospital of which I write, though
created only few weeks ago by the ne
cessities of war, is by far the best in Cuba.
1t is the boat-house of the swell Amerl-
can Club, loaned for the temporary pur-
pose. 1t is built directly over the bay some
rods from shore, and is reached by a long
pNi IlS great DauQu3llHB Hdlly WllOSS ldl-
tlced walls can be raised to admit every
vagrant breeze, is now closely set with
army cots, and double rows of the same
are ranged along the encircling verandas.
The smaller apartments have all their spe-
cial uses, and in a little ante-room sever
al oil stoves are set, over which beef tea,
matted milk and Cruel are prepared. Not
an inch of space is untitled, and were the
commodious building ten times as big 1T
would be equally crowded.
When I first saw this hospital, two weeks
ago, the sick We're lying on the bare floor;
but now thanks to the Red Cross, they
are amply supplied with cots and bedding.
Considerable army red tape Is squandered
In getting patients into this haven of ref
uSe, so that sometimes a half-conscious
man. brought in a mule cart or a stretcher,
lies for hours In the sun at the street end
OF the pier before an order can be obtain
ed from the palace, a mile uptown, for his
admission TO the hospital. But when once
inside, mans chances of recovery are
wonderfully increased. For example, there
have been but three deaths in this hospital
IN a fortnight while in the fever hospital
OF Siboney they are dying by the hundred,
aud in the various field hospitals at an aV-
erage Of twenty per day. Out in the camps
the sick men are yet lying on the ground,
under dog tents, alternately soaked with
ram, scorched in the MONDAY sun. chilled
10 the marrow at night, unattended except
ny tiler comrades, and with nothing 10
eat but beans, bacon and bareback, even
for those dying of dysentery. No wonder
That fever is daily increasing among them,
and yesterday out of a whole regiment
only two men were able to report for duty.
l spend a few hours every day in the
Waterside hospital, where mine is the un-
Official and inglorious part of cheering
me misunderstanding awhile with
TINS man, reading to that man, feeding
another, writing home letters for others
DONG comparatively uuimportant things
LOT which the busy nurses have no time,
out which, SO Miss Wheeler says, are
something more useful than medicine.
Most of the men the very considerate,
realizing that nurses are constantly on
Vhelr feet, doing their best to meet a
thousand demands. OF course, there are
querulous ones who send the tired sister
on some trifling errand from one end of
the big building to the other, and who
are never suited with anything that is
done; but they are very few, and never