The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-08-06

WHEEL:
criticisms Of the way In hichithe sick
men we're treated. especially IA the. past
month. There wns considerable found
alton for them, no doubt. Mr.. Burlett-
gcoutts, member OF the foise ot
commons. has written series OF yarti-
Giles, in which he arralgns IN screening
terms that department OF .he British
government whose duty It IS 10 look az
ter the hospitaliworls. It;has baen sail
In England that he wrote these. articles
for the sake Of the sensation they
would make, and chat he Is a man who
Is fond OF a sensation, but / came from
Cape Town with Mr., Burdett- Coutts.
and I Will say that be seemed very
honestly Indignant of what he had seen
IN Africa. Perhaps i might have felt
tho sc.ne had fsie same lnterest IN tbs
men and their treatment. but 1 was
there solely on Humanitarian grounds,
and 1t was not to be expected that /
would take the matter to heart quite
as keenly as the. member OF the house
OF commons. Yet I saw many things
which were not quite what they should
( have been. l seemed to me that the
government had not been prepared for
the great outburst OF sickness. The
epidemic of typhoid and enterIc r.:
ivers had not been foresaen, hence
there were not the supplies necessary
for the treatment Of tn sick men, nor
the hospital corps to take care Of
them. 4
lion the other hand the reason for
their neglect in certain Instances may
have been that more attention was
iglyento those who remained we'll, with
the object OF isaeptug them on their.
feet, whereby the sick suffered from
neglect. did not go to the Spanish
American war as 1t was soon ended,
but from what have heard and read
OF the treatment ortthe msni at SAINT
ago, I imagine the British government
has the better of the argument. I be-
Glleye 1t Is generally understood that
the sick ard wounded were shnmcfuiiy
neglected at Santiago.
Soldiers Well Cared For.
.'Probably they were in Isolated cases
kin,south Africa, but on the whole, they
were IS well taken, care of as was 10.
be expected. when allthe circumstances
are taken into confederation. OF course,,
however, Great Britain, which has
been atwar more or less for many years
back. should have been batter pre-
pared for such a crisis than country
which has for more than a quarter OF
a Century has enjoyed an undisturbed
peace, to be plunged into war suddenly
at the end OF It. *
"The weather found there was de-
llghtful. 1t was very hot in the md
die OF the day and cold at night. did
not enjoy that SO much. but the 5atmos-
pherc WAS US dry as a bong. SO that the
heat was not too oppressive During
nearly all the time was there I was
on the top OF Z high plateau, on which
lies the Orange Free State. 100 70 5000
feet above the sea level. 1t Is n dry,
arid country. with little spurs OF noun
tains cropping up here and there, with
an occasional hill rising from The
ground all aIonu, sugar-loaf In shape.
There is little vegetation. ard as have
said, not much water. On the whole.
1scnjoyed myself very much. had
always wanted to see a campaign. j
like the life. and took pleasure in II.
Il did not see Lord Roberts. Hcwas
a good ways off from Lord Mc.hueE's
division. and did not get into the
Transvaal very far l covered the
Orange Free Stale pretty extensively,
and penetrated a few miles into the
land OF the Beers. but not to Pretoria,
which was deserted by its former own
ers without fight, SO that Lord Rob-
eris had I peaceful entry. While We,
did not see any big fighting. we saw
the way AN army is managed In :ha
field. with come diminishing along the
line, which gave US an occasional pa
ticnt in the hospital * 80 -:a.,,
Mr.. Van Alien made q few detouts
from his hospital TO taka i view OF
things of interest on one side or ar
other, but the greater part OF bIs
sleeping hours were taken up with the
management OF the hospital he had Mt
ted up for the government He waa
asked whether he should 50 to. China 20
help out In the mix-up there. Hr
said: 4 S. \. q
May Go to China. III
u should like TO very much, but as
yet cannot say what 1 shall. do.
Things are so unsettled over there at
present. that It Is Impossible to tell
what turn affairs may take The war
may be a long or n short une, ISIS
almost useless to .pruphssy, aboutlf the
length OF modern wars, so many3thl:ga
may occur to bring them TO close, SUD
denly The jealousy OF the nations OF
one another, the lack OF any ,comntln-
Z der of the allied armies. and the DIM
Guilty OF settling that problem will all
tend to proions the disturbance, ,nnl
help the Chinese cause. There is
such q cosmopolitan army, Including,