The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-17
Tells of the Work Of the
Christian Commission

Gen, 0. o. Howard told last evening,
at the Old South church, of the good
work of the Christian commission in
the army and navy during the recent
war with Spain. On the platform were
seated President w. H. Lewis of the
local Christian Endeavor union, Vice
President E. T. Chaplin and Rev. o. E.
Mallory of the Dewey Street Baptist
church
Gen. Howard began his address by
giving brief account of the work for
the poor families in Cumberland Gap.
A university known as the Lincoln
Memorial university has been estab-
lished in what was formerly a famous
summer resort. He solicited financial
aid for the movement, and taking up
the subject upon which he was an
nounced to speak, he said in part:
"Confdentially, I wanted to go to the
war. That may seem a strange desire
for me as a Christian, but you must
remember that war is my profession.
and it is wonderful what an attraction
a mans profession has for him after he
has followed it for 40 years. And l be-
lieve this war was utterly righteous.
But say some 1T was prompted by re-
Venge for the blowing up of the Maine
Well, wasn't 1t time that we did some
thing when one of our finest battleships
on a peaceful mission was deliberately
blown to pieces. No it was not revenge
1T was intervention. No wonder we
remember the Maine Always relnem-
Der the Maine. (Applause)
7 1af4
defend my country against all Corners,
and / propose to do so until l die.
(Applause.) But l have no malice. !
hope none Of our enemies have gone to
the bad place. The time had simply
come to stop them and We stopped
them.
Il offered my services five times, and
was refused each time; the law for
bade it. congress would not approve of
1t. The congressman had friends of
their own they wanted to get into the
army. At that time was feeling sore,
and when Mr.. Moody wrote me to &c
with the Christian commission, teIe-
graped back that 1 would 60"
Referring to his meeting with Gener-
al Wade in Tampa, Fla, General How
ard said: HE is now on the commits
sion to prove that the beef wasn't en-
balmed." The remark wds greeted with
laughter on the part Of the audience.
At Knoxville he paid a visit to the
regiment Of Colonel Brown, a regular
army officer. OF his visit there. the
speaker said: Everything was in per-
feet sanitary condition. The officers
all knew their business. All this trou-
Bile over the condition of our camps
has arisen from the fact that by SONS
strange accident, officers were placed
in command OF some Of the camps who
didn't know their business. They say
that only rs regiments were affected
by this fact. In the hospital service
the same thing occurred. In one case 8
, surgeon who could not be graduated
from college of surgery, was sent into
the service on the provision that he
would simply deal out medicine, yet
that man a few weeks afterWard was
practicing surgery in -4i army hos
pital.
'1ncompetency caused all the trouble
! in the management OF the war. Algel
! isn't to blame for the whole of it, ever
if they did hiss him in Boston today
for which l am very sorry
Among the points visited by Genera
Howard in his work were Mobile, Tam
pa, Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago
Knoxville and Key West.
On the Niagara he went to Guanta-
namo, where he was put aboard the
Vixen by Admiral Sampson, and went
up to Santiago harbor. There he met
Clara Barton and her workers. Return
ing to Key West on board the Yucatan
he was held up in quarantine, but flu
ally succeeded in getting to New York
In closing, Gen. Howard said: THAT
is in brief the record of the work OF
the commission during the war We
didn't do so much, but / believe that
God has blessed the work of the sum-
mer."
Gen. Howard spoke Under the aus
pieces of the local Christian Endeavo1
Union