on a tray over the
ship's side and eating them alone on the pier was rather humiliating at
first, and made me feel, for a day or two, like a homeless tramp
subsisting on charity; but when General Wood, the military governor of
the city, and Dr. Van De Water, chaplain of the Seventy-first New York,
came down to the _State of Texas_ one afternoon to see Mrs. Porter and
were not allowed to go on board, even for a drink of water, my
self-respect was measurably restored. Dr. Van De Water had walked into
the city from the camp of his regiment, a distance of two or three
miles, in the fierce tropical sunshine, and was evidently suffering
acutely from fatigue and thirst; but the _State of Texas_, where, under
the Red Cross flag, he naturally expected to find rest and refreshment,
was barred against him, and he had to get his drink of water, as I got
my daily bread, over the ship's side. The quarantine of the steamer
against the shore would perhaps have been a little more consistent, as
well as more effective, if the officers who superintended the unloading
and storing of the cargo had not been permitted to visit every day the
lowest and dirtiest part of the city and then return to the steamer to
eat and sleep, and if the crew had not been allowed to roam about the
streets in search of adventures at night; but I suppose it was found
impracticable to enforce the quarantine against everybody, and the most
serious and threatening source of infection was removed, of course, when
General Wood, Dr. Van De Water, and the vice-president of the Red Cross
were rigidly excluded from the ship.

While I was living at the Anglo-American Club and boarding on the pier
of the Juragua Iron Company the deserted and half-dead city of Santiago
was slowly awakening to life and activity. The empty streets filled
gradually with American soldiers, paroled Spanish prisoners, and
returning fugitives from Caney; shops that had long been shut and barred
were thrown open under the assurance of protection given by the American
flag; kerosene-lamps on brackets fastened to the walls of houses at the
corners of the narrow streets were lighted at night so that pedestrians
could get about without danger of tumbling into holes or falling over
garbage-heaps; government transports suddenly made their appearance in
the bay, and as many of them as could find accommodation at the piers
began to discharge cargo; six-mule army wagons rumbled and rattled over
the rough co