DR. METCALF AT MESSINA.
Dr. Francis Metcalf, formerly of the United States Army, who, during the Spanish War was a surgeon on the U. S. A. Hospital Ship Relief, in a personal letter written January 15th from Capii to Surgeon-General Torney, U. S. A., says:
Embarking the Injured.
Dr. Metcalf at Messina.
“Of course, I volunteered immediately to go to Reggio and Messina and stated my former service on the Relief. I was accepted and was the only American there, excepting a couple of correspondents and the vice-consul. To avoid red tape and the questioning of orders I stuck the old insignia (the Red Cross) on a riding suit. Technically I suppose that violated the proprieties, but it wasn’t much of a time for technicalities and it avoided a lot of palaver. At any rate, I didn’t discredit the corps of which you are the head.
“Unfortunately, I was not able to do as much as I should have liked to do. I did accomplish a little, though, more especially in the embarcation of the wounded. They were all being carried up the longest and narrowest sidestairs I have ever seen alongside a ship, sometimes head first, more often with the head down and banged and jostled unmercifully. They were lying alongside for hours, seasick and unhappy, until I tried the old Relief trick. I enlisted the aid of the ships’ officers and used a boat fall, clearing out the small boats in short order and sending the patients up without suffering until I had every gangway crowded. Nothing you have read in the papers nor experienced in San Francisco can give you an adequate idea of the situation down there. It was just one infernal smash and not less than a hundred thousand dead at Messina alone. The wounded were in horrible condition, as gangrene was almost universal.”