Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1920-03-05
Q 4. O @ o q o g @ @ @ @ @ 9 {
LEONARD WOOD
THE BUILDER.
An Intimate Tale of Real (
American.
(By Tom Killian.)
@ o O @ 8 @ % a. "a A a a d
, Q o o Q . . @ o o Q 9 g
CHAPTER V.
A Modern Hercules.

A Modern Hercules.
Leonard Wood was told that he
! was to become military governor
Of Santiago. He went to work the
next hour
You must know the horrible con-
ditiOn of all Cuba to understand
the task which Governor Wood
faced, Century after century of
ruthless Spanish resident rule had
worn the country to a pale shadow,
II was almost wrecked impover-
iShed, its people fearful of them
selves and their fellow men.
But the first thing for Wood was
not restoration of morale--that
/ could come later. Lives must be
saved before spirits were uplifted,
in this case, at least Santiago
Rad little drainage system, its
water came over rickety 1f-inch
carrier and supplied Il fraction of
what the people needed each day.
Yellow fever, the horrible death
dealing disease OF the tropics and
Uear-tropics, touched with its
burning hand the people in every
part of the city. They died in the
streets and whole families were
found dead in their shacks. Huge
piles of filth accumulated in the
streets and apparently there was
no one left in Santiago who could
or would under the task of restor-
ing the semblance of order.
/ As always, Wood called his help
ers together, told them what there
was to do, and outlined their vari-
Gus duties. He told them that
smallpox, yellow fever. bubonic
| p,ague, typhus and tetanus were
Iamong the chief dangers to the
| Ieople He selected in his organi-
triton men who knew how to han
die the different problems of the
stricken city in the cool. efficient
| American way which is typical of
| the men we breed, et..
This was the job Wood started
in his thirty-seventh year and
which he carried out through all
its details of administration and
organization. More than a quarter
Of the inhabitants were i'll with the
feVers and there were several
thousand soldiers siclt-between
10000 and $4,000 sick in a popula-
zion Of 10000 to 10000, civil and
military
in the streets piles of filth and
open drains were mixed with the
bodies of dead animals" Sears de-
scribes it. Houses, deserted be-
cause of death, held their dead
men, women and children-whom
no one removed and no one buried
All along the routes approaching
the city bodies lay by the roadside,
the living members of the family
leaving their dead unburied be-
cause they were too weak and
could only drag themselves along
under the tropic sun in the hope
tnat they might~reach their homes
before they. too, should die"
Food for the living and burial
for the dead were the first essen
tials. The siege had caused a near
famine in food. Wood got some
however, by raiding hordes of
Spanish autocrats. There were so
many dead that he found it neces-
sary to pile bodies by the hundreds |
in great pyres and cremate them.
That was the only way--there |
weren't men to dig graves and no
one to claim and identify the |
bodies, in most cases, for whole !
families We're wiped out. time after
time.
Then Wood started to clean with |
fire the dirt and filth of the city. |
The entire army OF occupation" /
was busy caring for it's own sick
and transportation and quarters, so
IL was necessary to impress into
service the natives. Everything |
that could he used for transporta-
ton and hauling was requisitioned. |
II a native sullenly refused to |
work he was forced to do so, but |
Wood allowed no injustice-he saw
that the man was we'll fed and that |
nc received q just wage. /
Gradually order came from chaos.
The city began to brighten under
the kindly hands of the invaders.
Streets and alleys which had not
been cleaned of their layers of I
filth in centuries, actually, were
scraped bare and flushed and |.
washed clean. Naturally disease