In the Trenches 193 



As soon as the surrender was assured the refu- 

 gees came streaming back in an endless squalid pro- 

 cession down the Caney road to Santiago. My 

 troopers, for all their roughness and their ferocity 

 in fight, were rather tender-hearted than otherwise, 

 and they helped the poor creatures, especially the 

 women and children, in every way, giving them 

 food and even carrying the children and the burdens 

 borne by the women. I saw one man, Happy Jack, 

 spend the entire day in walking to and fro for about 

 a quarter of a mile on both sides of our lines along 

 the road, carrying the bundles for a series of poor 

 old women, or else carrying young children. Finally 

 the doctor warned us that we must not touch the 

 bundles of the refugees for fear of infection, as 

 disease had broken out and was rife among them. 

 Accordingly I had to put a stop to these acts of 

 kindness on the part of my men; against which ac- 

 tion Happy Jack respectfully but strongly protested 

 upon the unexpected ground that "the Almighty 

 would never let a man catch a disease while he was 

 doing a good action/' I did not venture to take so 

 advanced a theological stand. 



VOL. XL I 



