orized and wholly unequipped hospitals, one of which was occupied
by the Cuban sick and wounded, and the other by our own. No attempt had
been made to clean or disinfect either of the buildings, both were
extremely dirty, and in both the patients were lying, without blankets
or pillows, on the floor. The state of affairs, from a medical and
sanitary point of view, was precisely as the correspondents had
described it to us, except that some of the wounded of General Wheeler's
command had been taken on board the transports _Saratoga_ and _Olivette_
during the day, so that the American hospital was not so crowded as it
had been when Mr. Howard saw it the night before. The army surgeons and
attendants were doing, apparently, all that they could do to make the
sick and wounded comfortable; but the high surf, the absence of landing
facilities, the neglect or unwillingness of the quartermaster's
department to furnish boats, and the confusion and disorder which
everywhere prevailed, made it almost impossible to get hospital supplies
ashore. All that the surgeons could do, therefore, was to make the best
of the few medicines and appliances that they had taken in their hands
and pockets when they disembarked. The things that seemed to be most
needed were cots, blankets, pillows, brooms, soap, scrubbing-brushes,
and disinfectants. All of these things we had on board the _State of
Texas_, and the officers of Miss Barton's staff spent a large part of
the night in breaking out the cargo and getting the required articles on
deck.

Early the next morning, Dr. Lesser, with four or five trained nurses,
all women, and a boat-load of hospital supplies, landed at the little
pier which had been hastily built by the engineer corps, and walking
along the beach through the deep sand to the American hospital, offered
their services to Dr. Winter, the surgeon in charge. To their great
surprise they were informed that the assistance of the Red Cross--or at
least their assistance--was not desired. What Dr. Winter's reasons were
for declining aid and supplies when both were so urgently needed I do
not know. Possibly he is one of the military surgeons, like Dr. Appel of
the _Olivette_, who think that women, even if they are trained nurses,
have no business with an army, and should be snubbed, if not browbeaten,
until they learn to keep their place. I hope this suggestion does not do
Dr. Winter an injustice; but I can think of no other reason that woul