Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-26
MODEST HOSPITAL HERO
Touching Stories of a Soldiers Devotion
to Duty.
HERO
Medal Denied Him Because yaIor
Was Not Displayed ..Ia Face
of the Enemy

The law of the. land awards medals of
honor to soldiers who display bravery and
heroism in the face of their countrys
enemy
Frank Martinez. cymbal player in the
18th Infantry Band, was detailed to hos
pital service at Santiago. and from July
10 August Il last helped the surgeons in
the amputatins tents and saved many lives
of men whom he faithfully and tenderly
nursed through yellow fever
The War Department II is said re-
fuses to give Frank Martinez a medal
of honor because he was not reg
ularly enlisted solder displaying bravery
''in the face of the enemy as it is liter
ally construed. The records according 10
the statements of the officers of his regi-
ment show no drawer man in the Unit
ed States service during the war with
spain, and the graves of the hundreds who
died in Cuba are mute witnesses to the as
sertion that the yellow jack was an enemy
+ more remorseless and deadly than the
Spanish forces.
His Patients Tribute.
More eloquent and convincing than mere
argument is the following accounts of Mar
tinez's herofsm. Youths Companion of No
'Si'f'ca w ldSt nline1 the CdptlOn y Hero
of the Fever Hospital says:
"A war correspondent, Mr.. James O'Don-
nell Bennett, who was sent to the yellow
fever hospital near Siboney. Cuba. tells in
his paper, the Chicago Journal, the story
of a brave boy he found there
To him., Mr.. Bennett writes, L am sure
l owe it that 1 am a home that I am alive
and able to acknowledge nay debt He
goes on:
- I shall not soon forget that little swar-
thy, smiling Italian, who, despite his ma
uvity, is as good an American as eyer
lifted his hat to the flag. Frank Martinez
is his name, and when he is not busy saw
ing lives he plays the cymbals in the band
of the 18th United States Infantry.
When the yellow fever broke out at
Siboney, an isolation camp was established
some two or three miles back in the woods
Thither we who had the fever We're taken
and thither went Frank Martinez. There
were between fifty and sevcnty-five of US,
and he was our only nurse. Without him
| do not know what We should have done:
and yet he was such a little chap and he
had never had the fever, and he was play
ing with his life in coming near us.
He was always awake; always near
at hand; always responsive to the faintest
whimper of a sick man. There was no cot
for him to sleep on and no room for il I'm
the tents if there had been one. So he
passed the nights on box of hospital
stores. under a tree. | say he passed the
nights, for i do not see how he could have
slept. He was never caught sleeping by
any of that sleepless, restless crowo. who
wanted something every hour.
His Simple Heroism.
HE helped us to wash our fevered
bodies, he built the fires and prepared the
condensed milk and buried the camp offai.
and ditched the tents, and carried live Goals
to the smokers and water to the thirsty.
He cheered US up with his merry laugh
and his radiant face, and he fetched and
carried and ran in rain and shine in dark
ness and dawn.
He never thought of himself; he would
work for hours in dripping clothes, and
when We begged him to strip and Wrap up
in a blanket he would say: NO, l am too
busy; soon the sun will come and ii will
dry me. Then he would rush away to
build fire or raise the walls OF a tent 50
that a breath of clean air could reach US.
and we could hear the water chugging in
his shoes.
- When I was released from the Camp
he threw his arms around me and. for an
instant. held me in his grasp. Then he
blessed me in the beautiful Italian man.
ner and l went my way As the train
slipped down the grade he stood in front
of tent waving goodbye.
. Il could not him plainly then for
the grateful tears blinded me: but as the
days pass by can behold him clearly He
stands there on the green hillside. lii. e
and WEAKNESS under his eyes his face
pinched and his hands shaking from loss
of Sleep That was my last sight of Frank
Martinez. / do not know whether he is
living or dead. but know If he still lives
he is doing good "
Other Eloquent EuIocies
Another newspaper, concerning this little
hero. says:
Correspondents of various newspapers
in their dispatches from Santiago have
praised particularly the work of a man
named Martinez in the hospital at Siboney
He is of Mexican parentage and is an i'm
mune. When the 18th was ordered north
the surgeons begged that Martinez should
be left with them. He was sent for and the
situation explained.
" Where do you want to be, Frank he
was asked.
{" Wherever I can be Of the most use.'
he answered, promptly.
They need you here. he was told
- Then here / stay, he said.
" 1t may mean death, and you need not
stay he was told
" Here L stay he replied. and he did
stay"
The lives of Capt. Hughes. Capt. Goe
Lieut.. Harris, Lieut.. Reed and of other |
officers of the 18th. who were i'll with vel
low fever. were saved by MartineZs nurs- |
ing When Maj. Ellis fell wounded at San |
Juan Martinez carried him to the rear and |
nursed him to health again There was |
only death in the hospital where he |
was.
If the United States will not award Mar
tinez a medal of honor all the officers of |
the 18th Infantry Will subscribe and have |
testify TO their own appreciation of his |
simple but conspicuous heroism. |
FOUR PAIRS OF TWINS |