The Opelousas courier., 1903-01-31
NURSE IN PHILIPPINES.
MARY KENNEDY's EXPERIENCES
IN CARING FOR WOUNDED.
Hardest of All Hurts tt Mend Are the
Ugly Gashes Made by the Rolomen
The Strange Loss Of Reason That

Ugly Gasf1es Made by the Rolomen
The Strange Loss of Reason That
Affects Many Soldiers.
Miss Mary J. Kennedy is an army
nurse who has just returned to this
city after sixteen months Of service
In the Philippines.
She left New York on the United
States transport Fitzpatrick, in Novem-
Der, 1900, in company with a deputa-
ton of nurses under uncle Sans pro-
lection. Part of Miss Kennedy's SER
vice was in the Manila Hospital, but
!he was for a longer period on duty on
Corregidor, a small island in Manila
Bay.
Both hospitals were spacious and
airy, being divided into pavilion
wards. The nurses were pleasantly.
luartered; their abode in Manila was
the confiscated residence of Admiral
Montejo, a. beautiful dwelling in the
finest location.
Miss kennedy's duties, of course,
kept her on the outposts. Army
nurses are seldom on the field of bat
tie. Corps men are detailed to that
first glimpse of war is when the poor,
broken lives are carried in where her
ministry may help to mend them.
Hardest of all hurts to mend, says
Miss Kennedy, are the ugly gashes
made by the bolomen. The bolomen's
weapon is a knife-like affair, with a
blade perhaps eighteen inches long,
and two and one-half inches wide at
the centre. The peculiar twist with
which a dexter1ous native hurls one
of these bolos causes it to gouge out
great pieces of his victims flesh in
the most shocking manner
Another sort OF hurt that came to
Miss Kennedy for healing was the
dread cholera, at it's worst during the
latter part of her stay.
THE death rate" she said, was
more terrible than figures announced,
because of Filipino indiscretions. The
natives had a religious dread of burn
ing. the bodies OF their dead. When
eve possible they dragged their sick
away in secrecy and when death en-
sued buried them in the underground
Or in the river"
Miss Kennedy spoke of the strange
loss of reason that has affected some
Of u soldier. lads in the Philippines.
"it is not nearly" she said, $50
prevalent a condition as is supposed.
The few cases that came under my
notice took the form of intense mel
ancholia. 1t is considered incurable,
and is attributed in part to the eli
mate and perhaps partially to extreme
inconsistencies.
The general rations were about what
one would get at q provision store
here. Everything was canned, of
course. Meats and butter are import
ed from Australia. There are native
vegetables, not very different from
our lettuce and tomatoes, and a va
riety of sweet potato. During the
cholera epidemic all vegetables and
fruits were excluded from the rations.
The sick diet consists of liquid foods,
eggs, milk, ETC., just as anywhere
else"
There are $50 beds in the Corregi-
dor Hospital, and these were filed
throughout Miss Kennedy's stay.
Apart from the horrors of illness
and war she expresses herself as
thoroughly delighted with the islands
and convinced that they are a valu-
able acquisition. The natives she
thinks can learn and will learn. The
rude shacks in which they live are
cleverly constructed considering the
erudity of their tools. A native
dwelling always stands several feet
above, the ground.
THE uprights and heavier parts are
of mahogany, mortised so that bam-
boo can be set in and laced with
strips of rattan. Nipa or matched
grass forms the roof. The erection of
one Of these better class dwellings
requires the labors of four men for
nearly a year.
Instead of grass the thinly split
shells which lie thickly on the shores
are used for windows, fifty or sixty
pieces of shell being required for each
window. No nails are used in their
buildings; everything is tied to-
gether."
Nearly all the fabrics used in the
islands are of tough vegetable fibre,
either from rice stalks, pine
apple, or cocoanut. No more delicate
materials could Withstand the laundry
method Of the Philippines, which con-
sists of numerically beating the soil
ed garments between stones, with a
running brook for a washtub.
s'They have imbibed the notion that
everything white must be %starched,"
said Miss Kennedy, "and the first
sheets they washed for the hospital at
Manila were fearful and wonderful.
Their brooms are made of rice
grass, with a grass handle, shaped like
the snath of a scythe. Their kitchen
utensils consists of a clay stove, in
which a charcoal fire is burnt, and an
earthen pot in which they cook their
chou
""The caribou is the native beast of
burden. Some interesting carving is
done by the natives on the horns OF
these beasts, as well as on the various
hard woods Astounding on the is
lands"
In Manila and other provinces Miss
Kennedy describes the churches as