The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1901-09-27
proceed and the officers and Red


Stuyvesant SHOOK" so to speak, his
civil physician, persuaded the army
surgeons with the fleet that a sea
voyage was all he needed to make
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 &
Co., bankers, had never before re-
ceiyed such a 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
noble and patriotic purpose that in
spired such sacrifice.
It was 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 ra-
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 well-nigh 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 over 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
handing 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 its head very
high, and with reason. 1t ruffled it's
feathers and resented any slight. 1t
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, and
| occasionally = only occasionally i it
grievously enlarged and exaggerated
| alleged Sights received at the hands
of luckless officials. And then even
| those soft and shapely hands could
develop catlike claws and the sooth-
ing voices take on an acid and scath-
ing intonation. and the eyes, so ready
to moisten with pity and sympathy
at the sight of suffering, could shoot
spiteful little fires at the objects of
such divine displeasure, and poor Stuy-
vesant's petulant words, wrung from
him in a moment of evaporation and
never intended to reach the fair
| band of sisters of the cross, were
piled high with additions, impolitic,
| impolite, discourteous, impudent, in
tolerable-yes, even profane and bias
phemous.
Eleven of the twelve Red Cross
| nurses, packed three in room
aboard the Sacramento, swore they
would not have anything to do with
Mr.. Stuyvesant. The twelfth, the one
| soldiers daughter in the band, said
| nothing at all.
ITO Be Continued