1898 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
649 
Diary of the Week. 
President McKinley spent five hours at Camp 
Wikoff, visiting the hospitals and reviewing the 
infantry and cavalry. The sailors and marines 
from the warships now at Boston paraded in 
that city and were reviewed by Gov. Wolcott. 
Bids were opened at the Navy Department for the 
supply of 1,000,000 pounds of smokeless powder, 
Saturday, September 3. 
Troopship Roumania arrived at Montauk, with 
600 men. Seven died during the voyage. The 
Unionist also arrived from Santiago with 360 
men, chiefly teamsters and carpenters. There 
were eight deaths in the hospital to-day. There 
are now 1,180 patients in the general hospital. 
The steamship Comal, carrying 1,000,000 rations 
issued by the United States Government for the 
relief of starving Cubans, has been denied admis¬ 
sion to Havana. The Anglo-Egyptian forces, 
under the Sirdar, Sir Herbert Kitchener, routed 
the Dervishes at Omdurman, and the British flag 
now flies over Khartoum. The Khalifa fled, 
after the capture of his sacred standard, and is 
being pursued into the desert by camel squads. 
This battle, in which extraordinary heroism was 
displayed on both sides, breaks the power of the 
Mahdi, restores the upper territory of the Nile 
to Egypt, and destroys the stronghold of the 
African slave trade. Continued heat increases 
the mortality in New York; -12 deaths reported 
from this cause, Sunday, September 4. 
The War Department has ordered, in view of 
the outbreak of typhoid fever at Camp Black, 
that no more New York regiments shall be or¬ 
dered there. Col. Byrne, Chief Surgeon of the 
East, traces the typhoid epidemic in Camp Black 
to polluted wells in the vicinity. Camp condi¬ 
tions are excellent. Dr. W. G. Thompson, visit¬ 
ing physician of the Presbyterian and Bellevue 
hospitals, found in them 17 typhoid fever pa¬ 
tients who had been sent from the camps at Mon¬ 
tauk and Chickamauga. Apart from the suffer¬ 
ing and danger to the patients, there is risk of 
spreading the disease broadcast by thus ship¬ 
ping the sufferers from place to place. Two hun¬ 
dred Cuban soldiers entered Santiago, laying 
down their arms, and asking for food. High tem¬ 
perature continues, breaking the record of pre¬ 
vious years; 47 deaths from the heat reported, 
Monday, September 5. 
The young Queen of Holland enthroned at 
Amsterdam. Transport Chester arrives at New 
York with 1,210 men from Porto Rico. More 
Cubans entered Santiago to lay down their arms. 
Spain asks aid in the protection of her subjects 
in the Philippines. Moslem riots in Crete threaten 
outbreaks similar to those preceding the Greek 
war. The Red Cross Society is landing supplies 
along the Cuban coast. Aid is urgently needed 
in Porto Rico. Conflicting orders compel the 
Eighth Ohio to wait in traveling equipment for 
nearly niue hours at Montauk station, ex¬ 
posed to blistering heat; much suffering results 
from this blunder. Heat still continues; during 
the past six days there were 182 deaths and over 
600 prostrations from heat in New York, Tuesday, 
September 6. 
Gen. Miles arrived in New York from Porto 
Rico. Sick men of the First Illinois delayed for 
10 hours at Montauk station, owing to inadequate 
arrangements; much suffering results. The pro¬ 
longed heat ended in a violent storm, causing 
death and destruction in New York and its vicin¬ 
ity. Massacres of Christians in Crete. Number 
of Dervishes slain at the battle of Omdurman 
said to exceed 10,000, Wednesday, September 7. 
Rebels in the Philippines are restless, though 
serious trouble is not feared. It is rumored that 
a joint protectorate will be established over the 
islands by the United States, Great Britain and 
Germany. Yellow lever has appeared among 
immune volunteers at Santiago. Terrible desti¬ 
tution exists among the Cubans; Gen. Wood 
issued 51,000 free rations in one day, and must 
increase the capacity of the free sujjply depots. 
Fear is expressed lest the typhoid germs from 
Camp Black may infect the Brooklyn water sup¬ 
ply, Thursday, September 8. 
The Cabinet considered Secretary Alger’s re¬ 
quest for an investigation of the War Depart¬ 
ment, but no decision was reached. Senator 
Gray of Delaware has been appointed a member 
of the Peace Commission. Other members are 
Secretary Day, Senators Davis and Frye, and 
Whitelaw Reid. Recruiting agents of the Philip¬ 
pine insurgents are causing trouble by impress¬ 
ing the employees of foreign residents, Friday, 
September 9. 
AFTER THE WAR. 
THE SOLDIERS IN CAMP WIKOFF. 
[editorial correspondence.] 
The Camp Location. 
This camp is situated on the extreme 
east end of Long 1 Island, on Montauk 
Point, though the point itself is several 
miles from the station called Montauk 
at which the passenger over the Long 
Island Railroad alights. To the tyro, it 
would appear to be an admirable loca¬ 
tion for a camp in warm weather. It is 
surrounded on all sides, except for the 
narrow neck of land leading to it, by 
water. It is rolling ground, most of it 
high and dry, but as there cannot be 
elevations without corresponding de¬ 
pressions, there are some low places; 
but on the whole, the elevation is good. 
The soil is light. On one side of the 
camp is the ocean with all the advantages 
that that implies ; on the other, is a body 
of nearly fresh water, but which the 
troops were cautioned not to use for 
drinking purposes. 
The principal requisite for a healthful 
camp is a plentiful supply of pure drink¬ 
ing water. This was said to be attain¬ 
able by means of driven wells, and after 
much delay, the supply was obtained all 
right, although the authorities cannot 
agree among themselves as to its con¬ 
tinued purity. The doctors are still 
quarreling over this point. It would 
seem that from deep wells, the water 
would be all right. But there was de¬ 
lay in sinking the wells, delay in getting 
the machinery, delay in piping the water 
to different parts of the camp, and dur¬ 
ing the hottest of the hot weather, the 
machinery broke down, and the larger 
part of the supply was cut off. 
One of the greatest drawbacks I can 
see for this location, is the miserably 
managed railroad, which is the only 
means of reaching it. Any railroad 
which cannot do any better than to run 
a special, fast express, so as to lose 
from one-half hour to two hours, in a 
run of a little over 100 miles, can lay no 
claim to being - a decent railroad. Then, 
too, the rates for passengers, freight and 
express, are exorbitantly high. Added 
to this, the service furnished the soldiers 
has been scandalous. I have been told 
that the agreement of the Government 
was that first-class trains should be fur¬ 
nished, with sleepers or Pullman cars 
for the sick. So far from this having 
been done, many of the sick have been 
transported in common baggage cars, 
lying on straw in the bottom of the car. 
On the train on which I came from Mon¬ 
tauk, that fearfully hot night of Sep¬ 
tember 1, was a baggage car thus 
equipped. In it were a number of sol¬ 
diers, so sick that they could not even 
sit up. This car had no visible means of 
ventilation, excepting the doors, and the 
air inside was stifling and close. In such 
weather, it was enough to make a well 
man sick to ride in such a car ; yet there 
were men, weak, suffering from fever, 
gasping for breath, and some of them 
apparently kept alive only by the utmost 
exertions on the part of the doctors, 
nurses and helpers of the Red Cross So¬ 
ciety. These people were going through 
LIGHTER LANDING TROOPS. Fig 298. 
the train constantly, ministering to the 
sick, and giving them the needed atten¬ 
tion and delicacies that Uncle Sam had 
apparently forgotten they required. 
This is the kind of service rendered by 
the Long Island railroad, which has 
piled up profits from the location of this 
camp, by the thousands and tens of thou¬ 
sands of dollars. Somebody ought to be 
made to answer for this neglect. Added 
to this, regiments of soldiers who had 
been sent to their own States to be mus¬ 
tered out, had been kept waiting for 
hours in the broiling sun of those hot 
days, because somebody had blundered, 
and transportation which should have 
been ready on time, was not ready. 
Camp Conditions. 
There have been many conflicting re¬ 
ports about the condition of our soldiers 
in camp. Hundreds of them have been 
seen around our streets, during the past 
weeks, and if their appearance counts 
for anything, one cannot but believe that 
many of the reports have their founda¬ 
tion in facts. Hundreds of them have 
arrived in the city from the different 
camps, who are utterly unable to walk 
or to help themselves—others are noth¬ 
ing but total wrecks, hollow-eyed, sunk¬ 
en-cheeked, sallow-eomplexioned, barely 
able to stand. Strong, vigorous, healthy - 
looking soldiers have been the exception, 
and not the rule. The R. N.-Y. wished 
to get at the real condition of things at 
Camp Wikoff, one of the largest of the 
encampments, and on September 1, I 
visited Montauk. 
Around the Station. 
On alighting from the train at Mon¬ 
tauk, one encounters a lot of cheap, 
makeshift buildings, hastily constructed 
for waiting-rooms, restaurants, express 
offices, etc. On the left, a few rods away, 
lies Fort Pond Bay, in which the trans¬ 
ports which brought the troops from the 
south, anchored. Few of the transports 
could approach the small pier to unload, 
but most of them were obliged to anchor 
some distance away, whence soldiers and 
equipments were brought ashore by 
lighters. Scattered all over the inter¬ 
vening space, in all directions, was a 
grand medley of soldiers and civilians, 
privates and officers, men and women, 
afoot and on horseback, carriages and 
ambulances, and great army freight 
wagons, drawn by four or six mules or 
horses. It seemed like pandemonium 
let loose. Everybody seemed to be look¬ 
ing for somebody, but nobody seemed to 
be able to find anything he was looking 
for. The nearest part of the camp was 
on a hill a mile away, and any strangers, 
of whom there were many in search of 
relatives or friends, were obliged to walk 
or pay 10 times the normal price of a 
ride, to some shark of a driver. 
The Landing of the 9th Massachusetts. 
On the pier and on the lighter that had 
brought them to shore, were a large 
number of the 9th Massachusetts, who 
had just come from Santiago. Their 
landing is shown at Fig. 298. They had 
been sent up in the transport Alleghany, 
which has been called, and I think 
rightly, a cattle ship. Fourteen of them 
died on the passage, and of those who 
came, a large number were so weak that 
they could not stand, and none of them 
looked able to march to the camp. The 
quartermaster of the regiment was one 
of the few who had not been sick, but 
he had lost 36 pounds since leaving for 
Cuba. I talked with a number of the 
men, and not one of them but said he 
had had enough of war, and some of 
them said they would not go back to 
that place again, for the whole island. 
One boy of 18 was literally nothing but 
skin and bones. F. H. v. 
(Continued next week.) 
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