command. All were paid a fair amount for their services, partly
in money, partly in rations, but all worked; some in removing the
waste refuse from the city, others in distributing food. Much of the
refuse in the streets was burned outside at points designated as
crematories. Everything was put through the flames.

"In the Spanish military hospital the number of sick rapidly
increased. From 2,000 when we came in, the number soon ran up to 3,100
in hospital, besides many more in their camps. Many of the sick were
suffering from malaria, but among them were some cases of yellow
fever. Poor devils, they all looked as though hope had {113} fled,
and, as they stood in groups along the waterfront, eagerly watching
the entrance to the harbor, it required very little imagination to see
that their thoughts were of another country across the sea, and that
the days of waiting for the transports were long days for them."
[Footnote: _Scribner's Magazine_.]

A yellow fever hospital was established on an island in the harbor.
The city was divided into districts and numbers of medical men put in
charge, their duty being to examine each house and report sanitary
conditions, sickness and food situations. As a result of these reports
Wood issued orders for action in each district so that the food, the
available medical force and the supplies of all kinds should be used
and distributed to produce the greatest results in the shortest
possible time. In one district alone just outside the city there were
thousands of cases of smallpox in November. The streets were filled
with filth and dead and wrecked furniture. The wells were full of
refuse. The task seemed almost hopeless. Yet, under Wood's system of
detailing squads to undertake the work in certain sections {114} with
the system of centralized reporting, the epidemic was checked in a
month, the district cleaned and scrubbed from end to end with
disinfectants and the small pox cut down to a few scattering cases. In
this district of Holguin the plan was adopted of vaccinating two
battalions of the Second Immune Regiment. These men were then sent
into the district to establish good sanitary conditions and clean up
the yellow fever. The work was done successfully without the
occurrence of a single case of smallpox amongst the American troops.
No better demonstration of the efficacy of vaccination was ever given.

Thus the first task of feeding the starving population and cleaning
the ci