Evening star., 1899-03-10
F1echt & Company, 5l3=515 Seventh Street.

lieving that we We're instrumental in saw
ing the lives of many Of the wounded men.
''Cn the third day of the fighting / was
| in charge of the brigade hospital. which
was a little back of the firing line. so
many wounded men were brought in that
| We began to run Snort of supplies. start
| ed back to procure more and when l had
proceeded a short distance | was struck in
| the head with a Mauser bullet from the
| gun of one of the Spanish sharpshooter5
| lodged in the palms. Some one picked me
! up and when | came fairly to my senses
| hOstilties had ceased and / was back in
| New York on the high road torecovery.
Il able to resume my duties as sur
| geon in the hospital at Montauk Point, but
| il has only been within the past few days
| that | found time to look after my dis
| charge from the volunteer service. ! shall
! never enlist as q volunteer surgeon again,
| as I vastly prefer the duties of an officer
| OF the lire in case of actual hostilities."
This question of expansion is one to
| which 7 have given a good deal OF thought
without coming to any particular conclu-
| sion" The speaker was J. II. Lipscomb Of
New York. at the Metropolitan. II am a
| great newspaper reader and subscribe to
| two papers. a morning and an afternoon
! daily. The morning paper is an expansion
| ist sheet-violently so-and the afternoon
| paper as violently anti-eXpansiGnist. So
! IlillBS the forenoon l am an cSDanSipnlSl
| while in the afternoon and evening l re-
| pent my radical ana acrimonious views.
But seriously. | am inclined 30 think
| that the whole matter makes very little
! difference either way ii is decided. If We
| let these foreign people go we will retain
| a certain ascendancy in their affairs and
! their condition will be much better than it
| was year ago, If we retain them We will
| govern them, l have no doubt wisely and
! will benefit ourselves materially by their
| commerce.
My greatest fear in the whole matter is
| that we will be too much distracted from
our more important affairs at home by the
| business Of our foreign dependencies.
| ''To me the whole affair OF expansion is
not SO important as the troubles that have
| grown out of the management of the late
| war Without entering into the right or
wrong Of the questions at issue. the whole
| affair of investigating committees and war
| boards ought to be put stop to. We are
| magnifyinS petty incidents to such an eX-
| tent that We are doing our own good name
| and honor great HARM both at home and
| abroad, and l. for one. consider the man
| who glories in this scandal business that
| the yellow journals are raking up is much
| less of patriot than the man who opposed
| the ratification of the peace treaty"
The old military road from San Juan 10
Ponce is hedged by eighty miles of the most
| beautiful scenery in the world" said Mr.,
! Daniel Warren. an American citizen who
mans from fllcO, AT lne fnSSS.
is a broad nlacadamized stretch. running
/ right across the island. and its surface is
| as smooth as the asphalt streets of Wash
| ington. On either side of the entire length
of the road the grass is knee deep all dur
| ing the winter and the palms and other
vegetation native to the island seem only
| to grow more luxuriantly during the sea-
son that the people OF the states are suffer
| ing from the cold blast and inclemeHt
| weather of the winter season. Right nov
! the citizens OF Porto Rico are sleeping uu-
| der mosquito nets and enjoying the fresh
vegetables and other luXuries of the garden
| which grow there the year round in great
abundance. In my opinion the whole island
| is the most enchantingiy beautiful spot in
| the world. and 1 expect to make San Juan
my home henceforth.
I'm company with my wife I visited Porto
| Rico in the early fall of last year. At
| first l had intended to go into the mer-
, camille business there, but | soon came to
| the conclusion that just now there is little
money TO be made in that line in the island.
The natives have their own peculiar style
of dress and of cooking and will take "a
lcng time to adopt the American fashions
in either of these lines. In fact, the good
people of the, states have little idea of the
actual conditions in the islands, and some
viii probably be Mortified when they learn
that most of the small black and mulatto
children of both sexes even in San Juan
wear no other clothes than nature has
provided. They strike one as being ridicu-
fously funny as they run Ground and play
like so many little brownies. | am told
that in certain portions of the interior this
same custom applies with the erown-up ma
tivcs of both sexes: but Gen Henry, who is
proving a very wise and intelligent gov
erEor, has recently issued an order against
this practice and everybody in Porto Rico
viii henceforth be obliged to wear some
clothes.
Il that Gen. Grant has recently or
dered that all the advertising signs which
are stuck on lamp posts throughout San
Juan shall be removed by the merchants
While this order has excited considerable
comment there can be no doubt of It's wis
dom. this mode of advertising not only
Blocked the streets, but disfigured the city
horribly. Expansion may prove a tough
proposition in Cuba and the Philippines but
II is working all right in Porto Rico. The
natives there are tinfid and easily guided
and American rule will prove a great boon
to them.
II would advise capitalists to go slow at
present in investing their money in Porto