came in, as
illness decreased, as law became fairly administered by the Cuban
officials themselves, a certain awe {117} and veneration grew for the
invaders and their big, hardworking head. It was a revelation,
unbelievable yet true, unknown yet a fact, which opened up to the
minds of these long-suffering, incompetent people the first vision of
an existence which has since through the same agency of General Wood
become a fact throughout the whole island, so that Cuba is to-day a
busy, healthy, self-governing state.

Parallel with the feeding and sanitation work General Wood put into
effect a certain system of road building where it was necessary in
order to keep the people at work and allow them to make money and at
the same time to produce necessary transportation facilities. Five
miles of asphalt pavement, fifteen miles of country pike, six miles of
macadam were built and 200 miles of country road made usable out of
funds collected from the regular taxes which had heretofore gone into
the pockets of the Spanish government officials. The costs varied
somewhat from the old days, as may well be guessed. A quarter of a
mile of macadam pavement built by the Spaniards the year before along
the water-front had cost $180,000. Wood's {118} engineers built five
miles of asphalt pavement at a cost of $175,000.

At the same time a reorganization of the Custom House service was
instituted which increased receipts; jails and hospitals were
reorganized under the system existing in the United States; and
perhaps in the end the greatest work of all was the establishment of
an entirely new school system based on an adaptation of the American
form. Teachers had disappeared. There were none, since nobody paid
them. School houses were empty, open to any tramp for a night's
lodging. In a few months this was changed so that kindergartens and
schools were opened and running.

In fact the work was the making of a new community, the building of a
new life--the repairing of the tottering wing of the old, old house.

All this, as may be supposed, did not take place without friction,
obstruction, and without at first a great deal of bad blood.

Wood's methods in dealing with disturbances were his own and can only
be suggested here by isolated anecdotes and incidents. When an
official who had the Spanish methods in his blood {119} did not appear
after three invitations he was carried into the commanding officer's
presence by a squad of sold