Omaha daily bee., 1899-07-27
THE FIRST lNSTALLMENT

THE FIRST lNSTALLMENT
The campaign of hypocrisy and dema-
gogy is on. The first installment of Phar-
isee jercmiads over the returning vetcr-
ans from the Philippines has been put
forth by the p%opocratic walters, whose
lamentations are paid for out of the Coin
Harvey contribution fund. And the bur-
den of their first song is the horrible
neglect and m"altreatment of the invalids
returning from Manila on the hospital
ship. The tale of horrors expressly pre-
pared in the most emotional and sensa-
tional style, dished up as a special dis
patch from San Francisco by the popo-
cratic organ for political effect, is char
acteristic. 1t starts out with a broad
side at the army officers and a poisoned
arrow at General Shafter in the follow
ing fashion:
San Francisco has witnessed one of the
war horrors which have made this nation
sick at heart. Once more the army officials
showed themselves utterly heartless, as well
as utterly incompetent.
The hospital ship Morgan City came into
port with 500 sick and wounded fighters from
the Philippine war. On board of it were
men who had fallen on the firing lines or
succumbed to fevers and wasting diseases
of tropical morasses. They were weak and
wan. Some could not leave their beds. The
hospital ship was locked at the fremont
street wharf. There orders were issued to
transfer the stricken heroes to the Preside
hospitals. These were the orders Of the
hammock campaigner, General Shafter.
Hammock campaigner, forsooth! Cen
eral Shafter is every inch a soldier. AL
though SO years old when he directed
the forces at San Juan and Santiago,
and under medical treatment, he UNI
tiinchingly shared the fortunes and hard
ships of the volunteers in a campaign
that eliminated in the surrender of o.
600 S%paniards. Where was there any
wrong committed by him in issuing an
order that the invalids on the hospital
ship be transported to the Preside hos
pitfalls? What else could he do but issue
the order?
Having fired the malicious shaft at
Shafter the popocratic campaign rain
maker dips his. pen in vitriol and goes
off as follows:
For three hours these invallds were kept
on the wharf, with hardly room to stretch
in. Not a nurse was sent there to soothe
the brows of pain. Men who needed most
careful attention were left to shift for them
selves. All General Shafter did for them
was to issue his commands. They wanted
medicines and he gave them orders. People
about the dock grew highly indignant.
Murmurings arose, but murmurings brought
no relief to the pale and trembling men who
had to help themselves or not be helped at
all.
How does the popocratic bushwhacker
know that the men wanted medicines?
Were there not army surgeons and stew
ards on board the hospital ship? Did
not they know what was wanted and
whether the men were in condition to be
transferred from one boat to another?
OF course the men were pale and posi-
bly, some Of them may have trembled,
but the chances are that the fakir has
conjured that lurid picture from his fer
tile imagination, to which he gives vent
in the following outburst:
The landing of the men was a sight never
to be forgotten. There was not a jaunty
step in the entire cowd; not a face which
bore the evidence of health. Down the gang
plank strewed the enfeebled fighters. They
came with canes and crutches; some with
their arms in sings; some went down the
plank leaning on shoulders of harder COM
p%anions; some were carried down on stretch
ers. More went down on the backs OF their
fellows, held on from the rear by others,
and then when they reached the dock there
was no resting place for those who were
unable to stand. No chairs, no couches, no
settees-nothing but the rough planks of the
wharf and four w~hitewashed walls of the
shed that covered 1t.
Do men with a jaunty step and
healthy complexion come back from war
hospital boats? Is there anything
out of the ordinary course of war in the
fact that crippled and wounded soldiers
back on crutches and on stretch
ers? How could the imaginative re-
ried the stretchers were invalids or men
detailed for hospital duty? How could
these men come down from the ship ex- |
cept by the gang plank and where was
there anything cruel in landing in a roof
covered wharf while they were waiting
for the transport to take them to the
Preside?
This lurid picture of the horrors of
war is only the prelude of what is IN
preparation for the popocratic campaign
ers when he First Nebraska lands at
San Francisco. Then we may expect
paintings modelled after Dante's Inferno. |
There seems to be much undue nerv-