to be obtained as to the real condition of the island, except that which was strictly military in character. There was public comment that certain important matters were never brought to the consideration of General Brooke, as Governor-General of the island. The incident of the Red Cross distribution of provisions in Santa Clara seemed to confirm this. And it may have been because of this system, thorough enough for ordinary military procedure, that General Brooke asked me to call on him after I had made a trip through the island, so that, as he said, he might see the situation through eyes that were not military. I found him eager for information, desirous of responding to every need of the island, and, if he was not in direct touch with the details of all that was going on, it was because along the pathway of military red tape certain things were turned aside here and there, where they were blocked completely.

In one respect Santa Clara stands pre-eminent above all the cities in Cuba: it has a hotel that is really clean. It is said to be the only one in Cuba. It certainly was. the only one I found, and if it is any advertisement to the establishment to make mention of the fact, it deserves it freely. The place-it is the only hotel of importance in town-was absolutely clean from front to back; there was no second story. I examined every part, and the shocking things that may be found in any public house. in Cuba, if one looks far enough, were entirely absent. The court-yard was beautiful, but what was of more importance, the bath-rooms and closets were entirely clean and in a wholesome sanitary condition. Dirt of every kind seemed eliminated from the place, and bad smells

simply could not exist there. Such a unique manifestation of cleanliness in Cuba merits wide publicity, and the city of Santa Clara should be proud over this distinguishing characteristic.

T

CHAPTER XIII

CONDITIONS IN SANTIAGO

HE United States was fortunate in many of the

men it sent to fight the skirmishes and other en

counters with the Spanish forces near Santiago in June and July, 1898, and it was even more fortunate in some of the men left there to reconstruct the city and province. The chief one of these men was Leonard Wood, who went to Santiago as colonel of the famous Rough Riders, was made a brigadier and then a majorgeneral of the volunteer army for military services there, and who was appointed military governor of the province. He was unknown to the country when Theodore Roosevelt asked that he be made colonel of the Rough Riders, so that Mr. Roosevelt, who was to go out as lieutenant-colonel of the regiment, might learn more soldiering than he knew at that time under Wood. Up to that time Wood was known among his immediate friends as a modest army surgeon of great strength of character, undaunted courage, excellent executive ability, and towering common-sense. The country soon came to know him as a magnificent fighter, brave as he was modest, and his words, "Don't swear; shoot," were one of the pithy sayings of the war that will live.

Brave as Wood was as a fighter, it was in a semi-civil capacity that he did his greatest work in Cuba and set a standard which will not only be a monument to him and a lasting credit to the United States, but which will be the model, so far as efficiency and results go, for the government by the United States of extra-territorial regions which may come under its jurisdiction. His will be the proud distinction of having set the pace in honest, efficient, economical government by this country in a foreign land. Disregarding "pulls" and politics of every kind, he governed with subordinates selected solely for merit and with the one purpose of benefiting the people of whom he had charge. It was on July 20, 1898, that General Wood was ordered by General Shafter to take command of the city of Santiago, to clean it up, maintain order, feed the people, and start them at work. There were probably 120,000 persons of all kinds, soldiers of two nations included, and of all degrees of health, in the city at that time. Pestilence was stalking about with starvation as a companion. Poverty was on every side and filth was supreme. Courage in soldier or civilian had practically. fled. The dead were lying in houses or on the highways by the hundreds, and sick and dying could be found wherever one might turn.

The full military occupation of Cuba as an island and a country by the United States did not occur until nearly six months after General Wood had taken charge of affairs in Santiago. During those six months his work attracted more attention than it would have done, probably, had other men been grappling with similar

problems to his in other cities in the island. In a few days the country knew that it had drawn a prize again. in General Wood, and he was allowed to go on with his work for several months practically undisturbed by those in authority above him. He cleaned the streets, buried the dead, grappled with sickness and disease germs, fed the poor, set the idle at work, opened the schools, established order, used the money received in customs duties on public works, taught the people something about the rudiments of proper self-government, subordinated the military side of American control, organized a native police force, abolished useless offices, consulted with the representative citizens on all important moves, and, in short, made American occupation of the city and province a blessing to the people.

One of the first things that General Wood did was to establish a Sanitary Department, at the head of which he placed Major George M. Barbour. The work of cleaning the city was begun the day after Wood was made governor. The soldiers rounded up men out of work, and they were set to entering deserted houses, removing the dead from them, and in cleaning out breeding-places of germs. Few men wanted to do that kind of work, but it had to be done. When the natives found that it meant not only food and drink to them, but wages as well, it soon became easy to get them to work. Houses were broken into wherever there was a smell to

justify it. In 68 days Major Barbour removed 1161 dead persons and animals. Most of them were burned. It was necessary to use fire to destroy fever germs. The bodies of men and beasts and the heaps of garbage,