The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-05-10
MONUMENT FOR EBEN BREWER
He Died While Organizing q Postal
Service i'm Cuba.

va sSAAAAA$ - K-O1Sak
Service in Cuba.
The Listener" in The Boston Transcript
notice with interest that the postor-
nee department at Washington has per-
mftted a subscription to be taken up
among men connected with the postal
service, to raise a monument to Eben
brewer, the man who, at personal sac
rlflce, and purely as a volunteer, went to
cuba with Skaters army to organize the
postal service there, and died Of yellow
fever at Siboney on July a. 1893 Any
newspaper man who was In that cam
paagn could relate pleasing incidents oil
BreWer, who was a gentleman and a man
OF parts, and was really undertaking q
work from public spirit and patriotism
which smaller man could have done as
well In all its mechanical or official
features; but such anecdotes are probably
not desired here. Brewer stuck to his
work IN Cuban shanty at Siboney-that
reeking hole in the edge of a mountain
Where the CRASHES earth swarmed with
singing red ants and hideous land crabs
and gave off noisonle odors; where
wounded and mouldy soldiers crawlcd
: nliserably to the tent hospitals; where the
little yellow fever train ratified out daily,
carrying its toy flatcar loads of haggard
men and ringing its cracked little bell
IKE a kneil; where the knots Of "uuit.
ters gathered on the Uttered beach and
watched with hungry eyes the transports
tossing out on the blue waves of the Car
fbbean. Brewer stuck to his work in the
Snanty that had been assigned to him
mere, OF went up into the camps to do
what he could to help people get their
letters, till he came down with the fever,
ana was carried off ON the toy train IN
his turn, and died. Such a man certain.
~ ought to have some sort of a memorial
linton Scolard, by the way in a poem
printed this month in The Youths Com
pan1on, has celebrated the deed; I can't
help quoting the verses:
Hear the story of Eben Brewer
Never Drawer soul and tFuer
In the plunge of the shot and she'll
Never nobleT meFcy-doer
hen Santiago fell!
Not against the proud Castflfau
Went this citizen-civilian
With the dreams of conqueror;
He was simply a man of the million
Caught in the net of war
To and fro from grim Daiauiri,
over the treacherous trail and dreary.
- bearing news from the motherland
rolled he, gallant and Stanch and CHEEKY
Lending lifting hand.
Holding the troplc heat trife
Where the troopers strain and stihe.
In the rush of the forward track,
Out of the range of the deadly rifle
Bore he the wounded back
Then i while the weary soldiers slum-
He. where the crowding cots were cum
bered,
Ceaseless. followed his high behest;
And through the days and nights he
numbered
Never an hour of rest
Is it strange that the mortal reaver
Swiftly swept him-the fatal fever
Out of his self-forgetful part?
TO the breast of the Great Receiver
fastened his hero heart.
Such as he, with no thought of booty,
Draining the stirrup-cup Of duty,
Though the dregs be as bitter gall
Halo their lives with a veil of beauty;
Let us honor them all!
Brewer was a Vermont man by birth;
he was a Dartmouth college graduate.
and well known to many people in Bos-
ton. He had been admitted to the bar
and worked as newspaper editor, and
had Travelled quite extensively He was
just fifty years old when he died C. c.
Dewstoe, postmaster of Cleveland, O.. is
receiving the contribution for his monu-
ment.