The San Francisco call., 1899-01-15
RED CROSS
WORK In CUBA
Continued From Page Seventeen.

the Red Cross as a godsend. The Gu
ban hospital was better furnished with
beds and bedding and other appliances
than the one they had just left. 1t
! had been a regular army hospital un-
| der the SpaniardS, and on their QUICK
retreat they had left nearly everything
intact So these patients were In
much better condition. But petter
| is only a relative term.
The place was foul to the eyes and
to the nostrils. The surgeons In charge
begged that the ladies of the Red Cross
| should wait a day until the place had
been thoroughly cleaned. Red Cross
nurses. however, are trained in school
that makes the annihilation of dirt its
! first principle.
So, early the following morning, they
appeared with pals, scrubbing brushes,
soap, whitewash and disinfectants. and
| the way in which they went to work
| elected the admiration and astonlsh-
ment of all who saw them. Before
nightfall the patients had been care
| fully bathed, put into clean clothing
and then into clean, sweet smelling
beds, which, like all the rest OF the
furniture and even the walls and the
floors, had been thoroughly washed and
disinfected.
New C1amors From the Men.
And now the transformed Cuban hos
pital presented such a notable contrast
of peace, cleanliness and comfort to the
suualor, negligence and suffering in the
United States hospital that loud
clamors arose among the American SOL
diers.
what kind of people," they cried.
"are these Red Cross folk, that come
down here and give the best OF every
thing to the Cubans and pass by our
| hox,o v1yho ara diving for the want OF
these very attentions?"
| The clamors were only intensified as
! they were turned to other quarters by
the explanations of the Red Cross peo-
pie that they had first gone to the
United States army surgeons with prof
! fers Of assistance, which had Deen
unanimously declined.
"Why?" was tie inquiry that arose
1 everywhere.
No satisfactory answer was forth
coming The clamors grew in force
and volume until in day or two the
army surgeons deemed 1t best to allay
! further irritation by general accept
ance of whatever was needed in the
way Of Red Cross stores or personal
assistance from its representatives.
AS a result the American hospital
was soon made as comfortable as the
Cuban From that time on to the end
of the war the army surgeons and the
| h6Q CTOSS WOThtQ III pcIlcCI iliOliy
and with mutual respect and admira-
tion A Red Cross hospital was opened
at Siboney and immediatel filled to
it's utmost capacity with American sol
diers and Government employees. Red
Cross surgeons were given operating
tables In the army hospital and on the
field and with the aid of the Red Cross
nurses rendered incalculable service in
the bloody days that soon followed.
AS General Shafter pressed forward
with his troops and the fighting became
more severe, and his chief surgeon, Col
onel Pope, appealed to Miss Barton for
aid to be sent out to the front, she
responded by Immediately leading a
party in person, which went forward
in army wagons and on foot. over an
execrably bad road. They soon had
their tents up and their kettles boiling
and for several days they devoted all
their time to relieving the sufferings
of the wounded on the field. They
found many of the poor fellows lying
on the field, where they had been left
after their wounds had been dressed
often without adequate clothing, and
with no shelter save that afforded by
small trees and shrubs against the al
formations Of intense heat in the day
b and uncomfortable ohilliness at night