The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1902-11-20
Capt. Charles J. SymmOnds, U. S. A.,
Delivers an Interesting Address
Before the Mems Club.
THE GREAT WORK OF THE ARMY.
Cubans Will Never Forget the Happy Days
More to Reconstruct Than Conquer.

''Our army worked hard and faith
fully and no one knew better what had
been done than the Cuban people.
They will never forget it and IN their
homes they will often refer to those
happy and prosperous days of the
American occupation
This is the way that Capt. Charles ].
Symmonds summed up the work Of re-
construction by the American army in
Cuba in his address before the Mems
Club of st. Matthew's Parish at Guild
hall Thursday evening.
Capt Symmonds was the guest of
honor at the meeting and he made a
splendid address to the men of the city
on the faithful work that the soldiers
under the Stars and Stripes had done
in reconstructing the island of Cuba
after the carnage and bloodshed of a
war which had lasted for nearly CEN
fury.
The bravery of American soldiers
has never been questioned, but Capt.
Symmonds brought out in his address
a new feature in the life of the soldier
which showed that he was as great
civilizer and constructor as he was a
fighter
The reconstruction of Cuba will go
down in the history of the world as
one of the greatest works ever COM
pleted by any army either in peace or
war and the address of the Captain
placed a new light on the subject for
the people of Kenosha who were so
fortunate as to hear it.
In short time Captain Symmonds
gave full history of the peaceful in
vasion of Cuba by the members of the
army who had beaten their swords in
to pruning hooks and who had taken
the brooms from the camps and put
them on the streets to sweep away the
filth which had accumulated under the
decades of Spanish rule.
Captain Symmonds had the honor of
being an officer in the first of the
American troops which took part in
the reconstruction, and he was landed
at Nuevitas on Nov. 10, 1893. When
the army reached the little port they
found no relia BILE charts and the Span
ish gun boats which were in the har-
Dor at the time gave them no friendly
welcome. But with the coming of the
commander of an American army the
Spanish officials took new cue and
showed the Americans every courtesy.
There was no objection to the work
of the American army and in a day
after the first of the men had landed
the great work of cleansing the cities
in the neighborhood began. Neuvitas
was one of the smaller cities in this
part of the island and in few days
the army hurried on to Puerto Principe
a city of 10000 people, which the filth
of the decades had made almost unin-
habitable. Capt. Symmonds spoke of
the crude methods ia vogue in the
Spanish army and the food that was
furnished for them. He spoke of the
insufficient railway facilities of the
island and the poor management that
made this one railway Of little value to
the people of the island, of the block
houses and armored cars which still
remained as an evidence of the great
struggle for Cuban independence.
The conditions In Puerto Principe
were described in vivid language The
army found the streets of the city al
most impossible on account of bar
racades, bitches and the accumulation
of rank vegetation, and heaps of refuse
and filth. The streams were polluted
with the great mass of refuse that had
been poured into them for years, and
the only scavengers-the buzzards-
still remained in great focks over the
city. Churches, converts and hos
pitfalls as we'll as prisons and private
dwellings were reeking with filth and
not fit for the occupation of human
beings. There was no sewer system
in the city and the water supply was
secured in the crudest possible man
ner.
There were no tools to use, for dur
ing the days of war the OK cart had
been turned into fuel for the fires, and
the OK had gone to the slaughter to
provide food for a starving army.
Many of the inhabitants of the city
were still in The field with the Cuban
army.
These we're the conditions which the
American army faced when it marched
into Puerto Principe, but with the
touch of the wand of the. fairy, in
short time the filth was being removed.
Cuban soldiers under an American pay
master had taken up the scoop and
the broom and before the great crowds
of men the filth and vermin was being
removed and in its place sanitary
sewer systems, paved streets and clean
and modern hospitals we're going up.
Ali was being done at the expense of
the American government while the
Cuban army was marching into the
city under the flag of peace.
Capt. Syrnonds spoke of the laying
down of the arms of the Cubans and
the happy reunions which followed the
receiving of the first pay that the
Cuban army had known in years.