Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1901-09-04
blinds, behind which in his darkeusd

blinds, behind which in his darkeasd
room reclined the languid patient.
THAT will drive him simply rabid, =
said the doctor to himself, and pre-
pared a professional smile with which
to tell the glad tidings that he should
be borne forthwith to higher regions.
He had left Stuyvesant peevish,
fretful, but otherwise inert, asking
only to be spared from intrusion. He
found him alert, intent, eager--his
eyes kindGng, his cheeks almost
flushing. The instant the doctor be-
gan to speak the patient checked him
and bent his ear to the sound OF soft
voices and laughter from without.
;''I've fixed it ALL" whispered the
medical man, reassuringly. Wen
move you in minute-just AZ soon
as can call in another man or two"
and he started for the door, whereat
his erratic patient again uplifted q
hand and beckoned, and the doctor
tip-toed to his side and bent his ear
and looked puzzled, perturbed, but
finally pleased. Stuyvesant said that
thinking it all over, he guessed" he
would rather stay where he was.
And then. when the doctor was
gone, what did he do but take brace
in his chair and bid the attendant go
out and say to. the officer on the
veranda, Lieut.. Ray, that Mr.. Stuy-
vesant would be very glad to speak
L: - L., In
in, whereat the soft laughter sudden
ly ceased.
There was q sound of light foot
steps going in one direction and a
springy, soldierly step coming in the
other. Then entered Mr.. Sanford
Ray, with outstretched hand, and the
attendant, following and peering over
his shoulder, marveled at the sudden
change that had come over his mas
ter.
Three days later, when the City OF
Sacramento was pronounced ready to
proceed and the officers and Red
Cross nurses en- route to Manila were
warned to rejoin the ship, Lieut..
Stuyvesant "shook," so to speak, his
civil physician, persuaded the army
surgeons with the fleet that sea
voyage was all he needed to make a
new man of him and was carried
aboard the Sacramento and given an
airy stateroom ON the upper deck,
vacated in his favor by one of the
ships officers - consideration not
made public, but Claus Spreckles e.
Co., bankers, had never before re-
ceived such deposit from this very
able seaman in all the years he had
been sailing or steaming in and out
of Honolulu harbor.
And now retribution overlook the
invalid. The Red Cross had made a
marvellous name for itself in San
Francisco and was already organized
and doing wonders at Honolulu. It's
ministrations had been gladly accept
ed by the scores Of officers and men
among the volunteers, to whom the
somewhat bare and crude conditions
of camp hospitals were doubtless
very trying. Women of gentlest birth
and most refined associations donned
it's badge and dress and wrought in
ward, kitchen or refectory. 1t was q
noble and patriotic purpose that in
spired such sacrifice.
It was a Joy to the embryo soldiery
to be fed and comforted day by day
with the delicacies of the Red Cross
tables; but there were military mag
mates and martinets who dared to
question the wisdom of such prepa-
ration for the stern scenes of cam
paigning ahead of the volunteers, and
who presumed to point out to the Of
ficers of this great and far-reaching
charity that, while they were most
grateful for such dainties for the in
| valids of their command, the daily
spectacle of scores of lusty, hearty
young heroes feasting at the tables
of the Red Cross, to the neglect of
their own simple but sufficient RAJ
tions, prompted the query as to what
the boys would do without the Red
Cross when they got into the field
and couldn't have cake and pie and
cream with their coffee.
The Red Cross, very properly, took
umbrage at such suggestions and
branded the suggestors as horrid
| The Red Cross had done such wide
spread good and was ready to do so
much more that criticism of it's meth.
DDS was wellnigh unbearable. And
now that it had obtained the sanction
of the government to send out to
Manila not only supplies and dainties
of every possible kind, but dozens OF
it's members to serve as nurses to
the sick and wounded, it scored tri.
umph oyer rival organizations, nota.
bly, the Patriotic Daughters of Amer.
lea, whose vice president, the austere
Miss Perkins, first bombarded the
papers in vain protest and denuncia.
ton, the Red Cross being her main
objective, and with abuse of the com
manding officers in camp; then called
in person on the same officers to de-
mand transportation to Manila with
the next expedition. ,
The Red Cross held it's head very
| high, and with reason. It ruff1ed its
feathers and resented any slight. II
sometimes mistook courteous protest
against it's lavish gifts to such sol
diers as were in no wise needy as vi
cious and unhallowed criticism, ant
occasionally - only occasionally il
! grievously enlarged and exaggerated
4 IL