The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-06-19

best intentions, to get into an extricable
 snarl, with each other, the orphans, the
 government and all concerned. It was to straighten this tangled web that Miss | Barton's kind offices were so earnestly solicited, Arrived at Sagua, after a long days railway ride we were met
 at the station by a rousing delegation
 of citizens, headed by the committee of
 twenty, and escorted to the best house
 in the city-that of the wealthy young
 banker, Larrondo. I wish I had time to
 tell you of that beautiful Cuban casa,
 it's airy, marble-hoored rooms and
 splendid furnishings brought from
 France and Spain; but we must hurry
 on to other things Senor Larrondo
 and his wife have lived much in New | York, Philadelphia and Washington ss
 well as In Europe, and know how to dispense the most elegant and gracious hospitality.
 Next morning we drove out to the
 Asilo del Patrio, as the reconstructed
 Beneficiencia is called-passing, by the
 way, through a wide and handsome
 street named Clara Barton," as lamp
 posts and corner signposts show The
 orphanage occupied the top of breezy
 hill in the outskirts of Sagua, it's sev-
 eral low, blue painted wooden buildings
 ranged around three sides of a garden,
 it's entrance decorated by a sky-bue
 signboard lettered in black, which in-
 forms the beholder that the inmates are
 orphans de la Patria, sustained by pri-
 vate charity. There are 316 of them all told, but the larger ones are domicied
 in a separate dwelling some blocks
 away. All who are old enough to work
 are kept religiously at it, rolling cigar
 cites, manufacturing shirts and under-
 garments for sale, embroidering, mak- ing paper flowers to adorn the clutches, and in other ways, demonstrating that
 in this case, so-caled, begins at
 home" The large boys and girls are farmed out to whoever will employ
 them, and in the sewing room a dozen machines are constantly busy. A Gu ban woman is in charge, with her cous- in for assistant, and the older orphans do all the housework for the big family of 316, while the cousin instructs in sewing and holds school three hours a day. She is not a very competent teacher, and the children create small bedlam, all studying aloud at once, la boriously learning to misread simple les sons
 This asylum was first established by SenOr Francisco Machada, then the au- tOnomist governor of Sagua, a most ex- cellent man and personal friend of Miss Barton. Nowadays it unfortunately happens in most of the asylums of Gu ba that politics and religion are at war with anntbGr and baUp well -nlrrnt superseded the cardinal vrtue which
 "suffeGeth long and is kind.' The re- suit is about as bad as can well lie
 imagined, The present alcade is q very different man from Senor Marcnado
 and the sleepy old town has rung with scandals concerning himself and the good looking grown up orphans. For some tune the institution has bean as sisted by the United States army ra- tiors. and when the Catholic sisters left in q body it was alleged (untruthfuily) that the reason of ther departure was because they could not eat the rations but pined for the peppery fleshpots of Cuba. I noticed in the store-rooms more oatmeal and cereal foods than anything else. When will Uncle Sam learn to send the right things to these people? Oatmeal is not only bad for the climate, producing rash and hives, but is extremely distasteful to all Gu bans, big and little, and nothing but the bangs of starvation will induce them to eat it. Certainly 1t is palatable to nobody without milk and sugar, and as the asylum furnishes neither of these trimrlin's" the cereals are wasted. Rice is what is wanted everywhere in Cuta and condensed mlk-rice always with some cornmeal, and beans galore. If cne tenth-of the money that is put into oatmeal and other useless things were Judiciously expended for ioJds suited to the climate and the taste of the people, the cost would be less and the result infinitely better. So, too. with canned tomatoes. Uncle Sam seems to have an enormous lot on hand which he is determined to work off on the Cubans. While tomatoes are un- doubtedly good in their place, they can not be recommended for small children and hospital diet, If you do not De- lieve it, cook some in an old rusty pan that nothing else will clean When you see the tin or iron come out from the tomato-b bath shining as if it's inner coat ing had been peeled by acids, reflect if you desire to serve the delicate lining of your stomach in this fashion A pre- vailng complaint in Cuba, affiicting young and old is akin to gastritis, and can be worse for it than to- mato acid-to say nothing of babies and dysentery patients who are expected to feed on it.
 A lot of dried peaches in the Benefi- cencia store-room was rapidly prepar- ing to wriggle, because nobody knows how to prepare them for food None | of these children have any undercloth- ing Whatever-only a cotton dress | apiece, or blouse and trousers, accord | ing to sex. Beds and bedding are also badly needed, often as many as three | and sometimes four little ones sleeping on the same narrow cot. Besides a | generous gift of clothes and beds, Miss | Barton wisely decided to help the insti- | tuition by permitting it to help itself in other words by removing the or phans who do not belong to Sagua. | Fully tWo-thirds of the 316 were gath l cred during reconcentrado days; and 1 if these are now sent to their respec- tive villages and put into orphanages l there, Sagua can easily care for her own.
 The Hospital Civil is another group of large buildings, in a high and pleas