The times., 1899-06-11

streets. The charitable people have done
as well as they could in the way of or
| phanages-often wonderfully well, consid
ering their own impoverished condition
but they seem to have no idea of SANTA
| ton, and We usually find state of things
that has hurried more victims to the grave
than hunger. The first move is always to
take suitable house, as far removed from
| the centre of population as possible, and
with as much ground as can be obtained;
| to thoroughly scrub, clean, disinfect, and
| whitewash the house, equip 1t with cot
| beds, kitchen utensils, and simple furni-
| ture (mostly homemade from provision
| boxes, and to prepare the land for plant
! ing. Then the children pass under the
| scrubbing brush, their cutaneous diseases
are anointed, and in most cases their hair
| has to be cut short or shaved TO rid il of
abounding vermin. Then, if ready made
clothes are at ahnd, they are dressed in
clean garments; If not, they are PUT to bed
until new dresses and trousers can be
made. We bring plenty of cotton, calico,
and denim in the piece, and invariably
! the ladies of the town assist W. their
needles and sewing machines. Being thus
clothed and in their right mind, in neat,
well-regulated home, with certainty of
! care, protection, and enough TO cat, tae
children are put to work. Books, states,
I
ganized, and all are given at least the rud-
/ iments of education. Meanwhile the older
! girls do most of the work of the house,
4 cooking, scrubbing, sewing, ETC., thus MT
/ ting them for usefulness when by and by
/ they go out into the world to maintain
| themselves; and the boys attend to the
gardening. Already the first crops are
| growing. In a few months they will be
! eating their own potatoes and vegetab es,
] oh tFa=f m
! ought to be almost self-supporting. In
/ every town and village yet visited, be-
I sides the efficient help of the men, the la
dies thereof, young and old, have organized
! themselves into clubs to assist the Rcd
/ Cross work, assuming the care of the or
| phanage after we are gone ard going every
| day in detachments, turn and turn about,
/ to instruct and oversee the children. Thus
the good cause becomes sort of boom
! erang, rebounding to the bsneht of ali en-
/ gagged in it by rousing the people from
/ the lethargy of sorrow and despair.
! Thus, on the same plan, we have estab-
| lished a dozen homes, large and small,
besides those before mentioned in these
( columns. At San Nicolas, seven leagues
4 from Guines. on the Matanzas Railway we
collected forty children and supplied them
with all things needfuI. At San Antonio
| de las Vegas-where before the war was
prosperous population of 5000, after
I ward increased by the addition of 8 600 re-
/ concentrates. now reduced TO 1900, all
told-we opened an orphanage and staid
| long enough to see it in good working or
/ der. AT Jicola, in the same district We
| asylumed fifty orphans, all Under twelve
! years of age. At Santo Domingo we OBJ
| tanned house, rent free, with twelve acres
I OF ground. which the owner plowed and
planted; we filled the house with homeless
] lIFwv IL
! lied, and left them with an abundant sup
I ply OF food and clothes. At Bejucal, a
well-built town OF stone houses and the
7 centre OF a judicial district which for
merly had a population Of 10 900 and now
4 has less than half that number we found
! the sanitary condition surprisingly good
/ for Cuba. Its old-time civil hospital has
/ only twenty patients-and these all suf-
fering with diseases incident to impover-
lshed blood, from long continued hunger.
Here some Catholic sisters have collected
most OF the orphans into 4rouse and are
/ caring for them, besides maintaining a
! small school. So well are these dear sis
4 ters doing that we did not interfere with
/ them, beyond assisting with needed food
supplies, beds, and clothing We noticed
/ that every orphan, without exception, was
/ afflicted with the itch, so badly that its
/ fingers stuck out stiff like stuffed gloves:
and we added to our gift a gallon or two
/ OF sulphur ointment, with directions for its
! use The public park OF Bejucal has a
/ beautiful statue of justice in the centre
( cut from native stone by an artist of the
/ town. Cultivation of the fields is becom
/ ing general In this section, by the United
States Government assisting the people to
| get upon their financial feet by furnishing
rations; and when the good times come
that all the men find work to do, in the
/ ilelds or elsewhere, hard times will have
( passed away.
Batabanco, in the same judicial district.
/ Is the southern port from which one en-
barks for the Isle of Pines. 1t is exceed
| ingiy dirty and comfortless little burg.
and so very unhealthy that we decided TO
/ remove ITS orphans and distribute them
/ among the various asylums rather than
I leave them in that death trap of a pIace
before the war the place had a popula-
1 tion OF 5000 afterwards increased bv sew
/ eral thousand recOncentrados; and now
/ there are barely 1850. The neighboring
village San Pablo de Bainao suffered as
terribly, Its population being reduced from
! 5000 to 500, or thereabouts 1t should he
remembered that these figures gathered
ON the spot in a land where the census is
! seldom taken, are not given as absolutely
accurate but approximate
Asuacate is another shady little railway
/ village, which three years ago had about
4,oO0 people and now has half that num-
ber. OF the 1000 reconcentrados ouartered
here after Weylers infamous order, nearly
all died of starvation. Calabazar, once a
favorite watering place, is reduced to
l.5OO; but there is light ahead. for tobacco
/ cultivation now furnishes work for the
/ remnant of its citizens
There is neither orphanage or asylum
here, but, fortunately, few are sick and the
| orphans can be cared for elsewhere. Rim
/ con-a desolate town, with an abnormallv
( large graveyard and only few hundred
living residents-had fifty or more orphans
all In anaemic condition, with no hos
I pital or other refuge. We supplied the
children with all things needful until they
can be removed TO a permanently estab-
lished orphanage, but unless help comes
/ quickly TO the adults the big graveyard
will swallow them all. There is neither
physician nor pharmacy, and the sick
whose friends cannot afford to send them
! TO San Antonio or Calabazar are simply
left to die and the quicker they accom-
Dlish it the better for themselves and all
! concerned
Later in the same week We founded a
! new orphanage in Santa Clara. chief city
of the province of the same name, assisted
another in Cienfuegos and another in Sa-
qua la Grande. But those large cities he
gin another story too long for this letter.
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.
AMERICAN SALT PRODUCTION.