An old ramshackle building long before abandoned as unsafe and undesirable was owned by the city and known as Los Fosos. Being worthless and unwatched, it had become the lodging place of a horde of beggars and tramps, and when the unfortunate reconcentrados were driven into the city from their homes in the country hundreds of them flocked to this miserable place. Miss Barton found there men, women and children crowded together in a most pitiable and disgusting mass; and suffering from disease and exhaustion and in such a state of filth that her party was unable to endure the stench and had to get out after a very short stay. These poor victims of cruel war were lying on the bare floor in their dirty rags, and entirely helpless except for such poor aid as they could render each other. Many of them died daily and their corpses would lie for hours before being removed. Altogether it was one of the most horrible pictures imaginable.
Permission was obtained by the Red Cross to repair the building and make a hospital of it, and carpenters were put to work to strengthen the swaying floors and batten up the sides and make the roof rainproof. Three rooms were partitioned off for a dispensary, store room and kitchen. Scrub women were put to work and a plentiful supply of soap, water and disinfectants soon made a great change for the better. When the place had been cleansed, new cots were brought in and clean bedding put on them. Up to the time of their forced departure those devoted nurses worked faithfully from early morn till late in the day to keep the place decently clean and instill habits of neatness into those miserable beings. Deprived of the pride and care of those trained women, it is easy to believe that within a week after they left, Los Fosos had resumed its former reputation as the most unsavory spot in all Havana.
During the time that Los Fosos was under the care of the Red Cross the best medical skill obtainable was given to the inmates, and the untiring care and attention of as faithful a body of trained nurses as the world has ever known was freely given them, and the best of nourishing food and delicacies were abundantly supplied; and if fate had willed that this body of self-sacrificing men and women should remain, there is no doubt that, in the course of time, this old pesthouse would have become a famous hospital with a reputation second to none.
Relief Work Discontinued.
One of the most comprehensive systems of charitable work had been thus inaugurated and was doing incalculable good, and was receiving praise and gratitude from all classes, when it was announced that the official relations between Spain and the United States, which had been strained for some time, were about to be broken. The American Consul-General announced that he did not think that it was safe for American citizens to remain in Cuba while the excited state of feeling existed, and that he should leave on a certain day, and he advised all Americans in Cuba who wished to go to the States that he would provide transportation for them. The time given for settling affairs and preparing to leave was less than a week, and accordingly there was much excitement and great sacrifices had to be made, which in many cases meant ruin and beggary. Quite a number of the refugees afterward became entirely dependent upon the bounty of the Red Cross at Key West and Tampa, Florida.
When it thus became necessary to decide whether the Red Cross should abandon its work in Cuba, Miss Barton called her staff around her (as is her invariable custom in deciding all important matters), and asked for their individual opinions as to the advisability of their leaving, and a full discussion of all the points involved ensued, and a unanimous decision was arrived at. All Spanish officials, national and municipal, had never failed to show the utmost courtesy to all our members, and time after time they had shown their sincerity by repeated acts of kindness, and none of us believed that they were likely to change their attitude toward us. But when it was considered that war was almost inevitable, and that if we remained in Cuba we should be shut up in an enemy’s country and unable to communicate with our friends and relatives, who would be daily harrowed by sensational stories, it was decided that we should withdraw when the Consul-General was ready to leave.
When it became known that we were about to leave Miss Barton received some very hearty assurances of regard and protection from high Spanish officials, and many Spanish and Cuban ladies and gentlemen called on her and assured her of their high regard and deep gratitude for all she had done for their suffering people.
Archbishop of Havana Blesses Lee Orphanage.
The day before we were to leave Cuba the Archbishop of Havana came to the Lee Orphanage, where quite a number of the best people of the city had assembled, and gave his blessing to the little institution; which was, with those Catholic people, an augury equivalent to a guaranty that the success and protection of the undertaking was fully assured; and, indeed, we learned several months after the war had begun that the Spanish authorities had not only taken the most scrupulous care of this hospital, and all its abundance of provisions with which the Cuban Relief Committee had supplied it, but they had also placed a guard around Miss Barton’s residence and had kept it inviolate from all predatorily disposed persons. After the war some of our party visited the residence and the orphanage, and found provisions which had been left at both places were still on hand.
Of course it was to be expected that the hospital, being deprived of the example of the trained Red Cross nurse, with her habits of order and neatness, would naturally retrograde in many ways, and our party therefore was prepared for the many evidences of neglect and disorder that met their eyes on their return visit.