orning the
supplies were landed, taking advantage of the smooth sea between four
and nine o'clock, as later in the day the high surf makes it extremely
difficult for landings. There were six tables in the operating-tent and
eight surgeons. In twenty-four hours the surgeons had operated upon and
dressed the wounds of 475 men. Four Red Cross sisters, trained nurses,
assisted the surgeons. They were Sister Bettina, wife of Dr. Lesser,
surgeon-in-chief of the Red Cross; Sister Minna, Sister Isabel, and
Sister Blanche. Their knowledge of surgery, skill, and nerve were a
revelation to the army surgeons. These young women, all under thirty,
went from one operating-table to another, and, whatever was the nature
of the wound or complication, proved equal to the emergency.

"In the Red Cross Hospital, across the way, Sister Anna was in charge
of the sick men, turned over to the Red Cross two days before, when army
surgeons with troops were all ordered to the front. With 475 wounded men
to feed there was not a camp-kettle to be found in which gruel could be
prepared, coffee made or anything cooked, not a kettle of any sort to be
furnished by the army. The whole camp outfit at Tampa in the way of
cooking utensils must have been left behind.

"But there was an overruling Providence when the 'State of Texas' was
loaded for Cuba. So far everything needed has been found in the hold of
this old ship, which deserves to have and will have a credit page in the
history of the war in Cuba. There were kettles, charcoal braziers, and
cooking utensils carried over to the Red Cross Hospital. To prepare
gruel, rice, coffee, and various other proper and palatable dishes for
forty or fifty sick men by the slow process of a charcoal brazier,
tea-kettle, and boiler is by no means easy cooking. But to prepare food
for 475 wounded men, some of whom had had nothing to eat for twenty-four
hours, cooking over a little charcoal pot is something that one must
take a 'hand in' to fully appreciate.

"There was the feeling as if one were dazed and unnatural to hear
American soldiers, men from comfortable homes, literally begging for
'just a spoonful of gruel.' The charcoal pot burned night and day,
gallons of gruel were made and quantities of rice cooked until the
greatest stress had passed. It was no time to stand on trained service,
and everybody, man or woman, was ready to lend a hand.

"A striking feature of the first day's engagement was the number of