Evening star., 1899-04-15

NhiIe on nv recent tour of inspection in
Cuba and Porto Rico said Inspector Cen
eral ]. G. Breckinridge in conversation with
several gentlemen shortly after his return,
was the vaccine farm of Surgeon Ames
near Coamo. Porto Rico. After it was de-
cided to vaccinate the people of the island
vaccine points were imported from the
United States. but, for some reason, the
virus did not take. The people began to
think that vaccination was a failure and
they began to lose confidence in all Ameri-
can institutions.
Surgeon Ames decided to start vac
cine farm of his own and. with a view of
getting at the probable cost of such an
establishment, talked with several of the
landed proprietOrs in the neighborhood
about securing the cattle necessary for the
propagation Of the virus. To his surprise
the farmers instead of offering to sell the
animals proposed to lend them to the sur
geon long they were needed provided
they were returned in good health.
Surgeon AmeS obtained eighty cows and
began work at once. There were I0,UW
people to be vaccinated and he only asked
the government for $3.50 to do the work.
His methods may be primitive, but they
are meeting every requirement. A cow is
driven up to ordinary table turned on
edge Her horns and feet made fast
to the top OF the table and when the word
is given two or three stout men turn the
less The virus is quickly injected into the
skin on the stomach after the hair has
been removed by shaving and the operation
is over.
The surgeon has a large number of men
to whom he assigns certain territory every
day. They receive lot of vaccine points
every morning and go in all directions
cinating dozens of people before they re-
turn to the farm. The work was well
der way when | left and the surgeon eX-
poets to finish his big job in fifty-nine days.
The people seem to like being vaccinated
and many of them firmly believe that by
that method they are being made American
Citizens
x
Admiral Dewey is a famous man, you'll
admit said a resident of Northeast Wash
ington the other day, as be stood on the
front platform of a Columbia cable car.
But hasn't it struck you as very odd that
although everybody has a picture of him
and his likeness is being used indiscrimin-
ately to help advertise nearly every kind of
commodity. all these portraits seem to
have been copied from a single photo
graph?
It's different, though. with Hobson and
SchIey and Sampson and Roosevelt and
Shafter, and all the rest of the heroes of
the late unpleasantness. We have almost
every conceivable kind of portrait of them
with and without uniforms, front and
side views. sitting down. standing up,
aboard ship horseback, in trees, on litters,
and every other way. Not so with Dewey.
All We have Is that same old half-front
view of his head and shoulders. I presume
the reason is that before going to the
other side of the Pacific he did not count
on becoming so famous, and consequently
had only one style Of photograph taken.
Now. there Is a gripman on of these
Columbia cable cars whose face is almost
perfect reproduction of that photograph.
7 L.
up beside the admiral himself you would
say there Is any marked resernblance be-
tween the two men. but his face is so like
that portrait of Dewey that it doesn't re-
quire a very great stretch of the imagina-
ton. when see him clad in a blue coat
and cap sailing down New York avenue on
the front of his car, to think We are in
Manila bay watching Admiral Dewey on
the bridge of the Olympia"
x
The medical and surgical history of the
Spanish war. when it is fully written" OBJ
served an army surgeon 10 a Star reporter.
will again demonstrate the experience of
other wars that the medium-sized makes
the best soldier; that is. the soldier who is
best suited for the hardships of a cam
paign- The tall. long-jointed man proved
TO be the worst soldier, for he played out
long before even the short, slim man. The
medium-sized man, by this mean in height
and weight as well, who was short coupled
wore better. taking all things into consid-
Grafton than all others. What are known
as big men. heavy weights, as we'll as ex-
tremely large in every other way, proved to
be, as in the civil war. the poorest
soldiers. They We're the men who first
needed the attention of the surgeons and
began to fall with diseases. almost before
they got fairly into the campaign. Another
thing was pretty we'll proven, l think, and
that was that city-raised men made better
soldiers than country-raiSed men, though
the latter We're better workers. as far a
hard work, manual labor, was concerned.
Contrary TO my previously formed opinion
on this subject light-haired men proved to
be less susceptible to camp diseases Heavy
meat eaters did not stand it we'll as
those VINO ate OF meat Sparingly, leaving
out of consideration all questions as to
whether the meat served to the soldiers
was good or bad. There is no doubt In my
opinion that pork meat is not proper food
for soldiers in a campaign. it matters not in
what form 1t is furnished or in what man
ner IL is cooked The soldiers who sicxen-
ed themselves in the early part of the war
when the Men Were congregated about in
large camps, by indiserimnate eating of
pies, cakes, ice cream and the like, were as
rule country raised men, who seemed
ready to eat at all times and who displayed
no sense OF discretion whatever to what
or how often they ate. The city-raised men
offended in this respect much less than
their cOu9try-raiSed associates. In previous
campaigns it was proven that black haired
men were tbs stronger, but in the Spanish
wal lile scales Iipltd IN IdNOr OF blondes
red-haired men standing the warm climates
exceedingly we'll"
y
THE professional decorators have never
had such run Of business as during the
past six months" observed the manager of
a decorating firm who is in the city look
ing up business in connection with the ap-
preaching peace jubilee, TO a Star reporter,
''and there is steady demand for them
even yet in nearly every section of the
country. The returning soldiers are enthu-
siastically welcomed everywhere. and in
many cities and towns these welcomes have
been of the most elaborate description.
Our firm has a welcome arch which has