TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10147, 21 September 1898, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Except for the difference The Wounded in climate, which was at not altogether to the Santiago. advantage of the Ameri-

cans, the condition of affairs in the military hospital at Santiago reminds one of nothing so much as the awful mismanagement of the Medical Department in the Crimean war. The field hospital at Santiago was three miles distant from the town, and was in every way utterly inadequate for its purpose. Mr George Kennan, who accompanied the Red' Cross expedition to Santiago, and has published a gainfully vivid account of the sufferings undergone by the wounded American soldiers, says that the hospital corps was wretchedly under-staffed. Instead of fifty doctors there were only five on the first day of the fighting, and ten on the secondhand through their hands all the wounded in an army of 20,000 had to pass. The surgeons could take no rest. The five who were first there worked incessantly, almost without food or rest, for twentyone hours. They stood by the operating table hour after hour, and in twenty-four hours 300 operations were performed, under circumstances which almost forbade successful results. "Despite the utmost exertions hundreds of seriously and dangerously wounded men lay on the ground for hours, many of them half-naked, and nearly all without shelter from the blazing tropical sun in the daytime, or the damp, chilly dew at night." At the k end of the second day's fight the condition of the hospital was unspeakable. The resources and supplies, except of instruments, operating tables and medicines, were very limited. There was tent shelter for only one hundred men, there were no cots, hammocks, blankets, pillows, no spare clothing, no .suitable food for wounded men except a few jars of beef extract, malted milk, &c, brought in his private baggage by an officer, and reserved for the most desperate cases. "The tents set apart,for the wounded were soon filled to overflowing, and all that a litter spuad could do with a man when they lifted him from the operating table was to carry him away and lay him down, halfnaked as he was, on the water-soaked ground under the stars. Weak and shaken from agony under the surgeon's knife and probe, there he had to lie in the wet grass, with no one to look after him, no one to give him food and water if he needed them, no blanket over him, and no pillow under his head." Can one conceive a more terrible state of things than this?*

Hampered by such fearful An Army odds, the medical force of Heroes, bravely did what they could. Late in the evening of the first day, when there were ten of them at work, operating tables were set up in front of the tents, "and the surgeons worked at them all night, partly by moonlight and partly by the dim light of flaring candle's held in the hands of stewards and attendants. Fortunately, says Mr Kenhan, "the weather was clear and still, and the moon nearly full. There were no lanterns, -ap-. parently, in.the camp, and if the night had been dark, win/ly, 0 r rainy, four-fifths of the wounded- would have had no help or surgical treatment whatever. All the-opera-tions, outside of a single tent, were performed by the dim light of .an unsheltered and flaring candle, or.at most two. More than once even the candles were'extinguished for fear that they would draw the fire of the Spanish sharpshooters, who were posted in trees south of the camp." The army in Cuba has been described time after time by war correspondents writing in the heroic vein, as one of heroes, but nothing they did in the heat of battle spoke so highly of the courage of the troops as the conduct of the wounded. "I didn't hear a groan, a murmur, or. a complaint once an hour," says Mr Kennan. "From the long row of wounded on the ground there came no sound or sign of weakness. They were suffering—some of them were dying—bnt they were strong. Many a man whose mouth was so drc and parched with thirst that he could hardly articulate, would insist op my giving water first, not to him when it was his turn, but to some comrade wtio was more badly hurt or had suffered longer." Not one asked to be treated out of his turn because of the severity of his wound. "On the contrary, they have repeatedly given way to one another, saying, Take this one first—-he's shot through the body. I've 6aly got a smashed foot, and I can wait.' It is a picture to draw tears from the eyes. No praise can be too high for men. wfco bore themselves so stoutly in the valley, of the shadow of death." To quote Mr Kennan again, "They were suffering—some were dying— • but they were strong." But what can be said of those in authority whose negligence or stupidity gave rise to such a state of things as has been described? Something more than abu*e in the newspapers should ] be their lot. "" I

1 M. Louis li A* R«ii(Tf»mnnr. t

, ■ • ' — , "'-*<pCi he cable news we $$£%C sh this morning, tea&js|b'7 a throw further dou^'. ! upon M. Louis -$$$; Rougemont's story of his .adventures in An»sV tralia, and unless he can offer strong of its truth, we are afraid we shall hav»f;: ' to regard him, not as a combination' "tfV' Robinson Crusoe and Buckley, the wito•'.■!white man, rolled into one, as one before whom all modem romancer? -V must bow their heads. They ut. leajfc have not had the # honour of reading ths :, manuscript of their gorgeous before that august body, the British A». sociation for the Advancement of Science, \ Readers of the '"Wide World Magazine," - in which this talented individual has begun to weave the glittering fabric oi his ex.'' periences, will not need to be reminded of - the extraordinary story he unfolds. Riifej Haggard never conceived a bolder thente. It opens magnificently with the wreck of the pearl-laden vessel on a low sand-bank, • and the saving of Rougemont, the only survivor, from drowning in the powerful undertow by his faithful dog, whose tail he held in his mouth and was thereby towed ashore -*-"what a dog, and what an under-low," as an Australian contemporary respectfully ejaculates. These stirring incidents serve as the prelude to a series of incidents of the most thrilling character. Othello nevtar charmed the ears of Desdemona with the recital of more perilous adventures thim _\[, - de Rougemont experienced. On this sandbank prison, a hundred yards long by ten • yards wide, the modern Crusoe lived toif N more than tM r o years. His hut was built of pearl-shells, piled one on the other, after the style, we suppose, of tho grottoes .London street children used to build of oystet shells—"An extraordinary undertaking,' re. marks a Melbourne paper, "seeing tfoat the whole of the timbers of the ship were availablo for house-building. He even went to the trouble of growing wheat laboriously in turtle-shells in a soil made from a mixture of turtles' blood and sand, so that he could get thatch for his house, and having on board the ship a large quantity of New Guinea wood, which, when ignited, smouldered for hours, he was able, once getting a tire, to keep it alight for two and a half years.", To keep his reason he addressed long sermons in a loud voice to liis dog. which, ua it had saved his lite, was hardly the treatment the unfortunate animal deserved. He rode on turtle-back in the lagoon, guiding , his strange steed by placing his ■ toes in _ v either eye, according to the direction in w<Jiich he wished to go. He cut out the bottoms of condensed-milk tins, and scratching messages on them tied them round the -. necks of pelicans and sent them off as in* voluntary postmen —and this at a time when condensed milk was hardly known outside England and Switzerland. Subsequently ho reached the.mainland, and spent twenty- j ,Hve years,among cannibal blacks. To say , 1 that his adventures during this period were, > ,v ' marvellous is merely to demonstrate the in- , adequacy of the .English language as a -?;' medium for description. Altogether -tiia ;j story, as an English paper says, is the mosfc t 'J amazing one a man ever lived to tell, "and ; having regard to the advance of civilisation, "' -> it is extremely unlikely that any other white mnn will aguiu have an opportunity of going through similar adventures." " Unlikely" < hardly seems the right word. Mb Ghahles Ryan, of - j Upper Macedon, Victoria, ; t - who died a tew days ago,' -, was one of the oldest resi-j \ dents of the colony, and one of the most widely, known. He arrived' in Victoria from Ireland in 1839, and at once . | commenced life as a sc-tiatter, taking aft !,, .' country which until then had been untjrod^ , *; ■ den by white men. Success followed J>J& '"*." ; operations throughout life, and as' a toralist he gained a reputation which ex*-*f - tended far beyond the borders of Victoria. ';' , In the early days of the colony Mx Ryan/ it is said, participated in many a stirring • adventure. One of these might have had aft far less satisfactory ending than was actually /"*'■ the case. A brother-squatter had had iiusV. j station raided by bushrangers, and had, ia -- hot haste, gathered together, a party of -: friends, among them Mr Ryan, to follow 1 np.;:-,.' the robbere and capture them. After camp? ing one night in the ranges, Mr Ryan stay'id ' o£ behind the others to try to recover a stray- • ing horse, and then set out to overtake hi 3' /y companions. After going a few miles lie '--•[: saw some horsemen a mile or two. ahead <ti ?:., '. Mm. "Cooeeing loudly, he spurred his horsey ;_* forward, and dashed right into the midst of -"- ,- x the bushranging gang. Mr Ryan was'in.- * -, stantly disarmed, and placed in the centre t>f -■ ; ,' the party, while a naif-drunken fellow vras. „"' ', put with him as guard, and was instructed - 1 €' not to be afraid to use the double-barrelled *, , v gun he carried if occasion required."' It* an intensely hot day, and Mr Ryan asked """ leave to have a drink at a creek. This was' refused, but Gepp, the leader of the blMh"'-\ rangers, offered to let him have some brandy >. from a bottle they had stolen. The bottle '* . had, however, to be opened,' and this proving a matter of difficulty, Mr'Ryan offered the use of his knife, a big plated, dagger, of.- -" splendid workmanship. "Gepp glanced at the knife," says the report in the "Argus," "and ■ , with a grin transferred it to his .own' pocket, remarking that it might come in -. - / useful one day." • It came in useful sooner than he anticipated. Not long after the . bushrangers caught, sight, of then* pursuers, ■ and actually released Mr Ryan that he, , might rejoin his friends. The bushrangers '■, then took refuge in a hut and were two of them being killad in the jflgbiii-; "Gepp, the leader of the gang, was struck' '-,- over the breast, but, strange to say, &3 J,. bullet was turned aside by the knife he had ,* taken from Mr'Ryan, and the man wa» i •, captured. Afterwards, when awaiting exe«y-\ cution in Melbourne Gaol, he was by Mr Ryan, to whom he said,. 'I wish I,>, had let" yon have that drink of water, Ryan. Then I should have been shot like a man, instead of being hanged like dog!' " Australian history must be full stories to the full as interesting and eicittogas this one—tales of a time of which n6ve{?i£f : but the old settlers can speak. "* fl .-;^ : ' shall gather them up, so that future gent \Z •' rations shall be able to form some idea * \ ,- the difficultietl which their pioneering fore"- *- _ fathers experienced in laying the founda tions o£ the Australian nation?

An Adventiu with Rushrancers.