The Republican journal., 1899-06-15

/ dition, we decided to abandon it altogether.
A large house in the outskirts. with con
siderable land adjoining, was secured
fitted up with fresh cots and bedding, and
generous store of simple food supplies
laid in. And then the children-thorough
ly cleaned from top to toe, for perhaps
the first time in their lves-and dressed
in new clothes, were installed therein,
under the care of competent matron and
/ two assistants. The ground was plowed,
garden seeds planted; and in twenty four
hours we felt that our work in Madruga
was well completed i at least for the
present.
To go into details concerning all the
places visited might make some tiresome
chapters. The work is always about the
same-dirty and mismanaged native asy-
lums to be reconstructed, and the poor.
little Jetsam of war gathered in from the
streets The charitable people have done
as well as they could in the way of or
| phanages, often wonderfully well, consid-
ing their own impoverished condition; but
they seem to have no idea of sanitation
and we usually find a 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 rs possible and
with as much ground as can be obtained;
to thoroughly scrub, clean, disinfect and
vhitewash the house, equip it with cot
beds, kitchen utensils and simple furni-
ture, (mostly ''home made from provision
ooXes), and to prepare the land for plant
ing. Then the children pass under the
| scTubbing brush, their cutaneous diseases
are anointed and i'll most cases their hair
has to be cut short or shaved, to rid it of
Astounding vermin. Then, if ready made
clothes are at hand, they are dressed in
clean garments; if not, they are put to
bed until new dresses and trousers can be
made. We bring along plenty of cotton,
calico and denim in the piece, and invari-
ably the ladies of the town assist with
their needles and sewing machines Being
thus clothed and in their right mind,'
in neat, well regulated home with GER
tainty of care, protection and enough to
eat, the children are put to work Books,
states and pencils are provided, classes
are organized, and all are given at least
the rudiments of education. Meanwhile
the older girls do most OF the work of the
house, cooking, scrubbing, sewing, ETC.,
thus fitting them for usefulness when by
and by they go out into the world to main
the gardening. Already the first crops
are growing. In few months they will
be eating their own potatoes and vege-
tables, and in two years time each insti-
tuition ought to be almost self-supporting.
In every town and village yet visited, be-
sides the efficient help of the men, the
ladies thereof, young and old, have Or
gained themselves in clubs to assist the
Red Cross work, assuming the care of the
orphanage after we are gone, and going
every day in detachments, turn and turn
about, to instruct and oversee the chill
dren. Thus the good cause becomes a
sort of boomerang, rebounding to the
benefit of all enga Led in it, by arousing
the people from the lethargy born of sor-
row and despair.
Thus, on the same plan, we have estab-
lished dozen homes, large and small.
besides those before mentioned in these
columns. At San Nicolas, seven leagues
from Guines, on the Matanzas railway, we
collected forty children and supplied them
with all things needful. At San Antonio
de las Vegas-where before the war was a
prosperous population of six thousand,
afterwards increased by the addition of
three thousand reconcentrados, now re-
duced to nineteen hundred, all tOld-we
opened an orphanage and staid long
enough to see it in good working order.
At Jicola, in the same district, we asy-
Tuned fifty orphans, all under twelve
years of age. At Santo Domingo we OBJ
tanned a house, rent free, with twelve
acres of ground, which the owner plowed
and planted; we filled the house with
homeless children, saw the ladies' club
duly organized, and left them with an
abundant supply of food and clothes. At
Bejucal, we'll built town of stone houses
and the centre of a judicial district, which
formerly had population of ten thou
sand, and now 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 those all suffering with diseases Incl
dent to impoverished blood, from long