miscellaneous assortment of rags worn under the name of clothing, I was
little prepared for the sight of the almost nude condition of the great
mass of people, which came to my notice on first entering on the relief
work of the Sea Island Sufferers. After a couple of days and nights
spent in the clothing room in Beaufort, packing barrels and boxes for
the Hilton Head District, we proceeded there and amid loud exclamations
of "closen" had the freight hauled to our camp. Before an hour had
passed we were besieged with applicants, but as our present supply was
limited, we could only attend to a few of the worst cases, and these
were told to come at ten o'clock the next morning. Having already
procured the information regarding the families--ages, sex and number of
children--we spent the time in putting into bundles suitable clothing
for such as had been told to come. Fearful of being late, they began to
assemble by daylight, and as each man or woman was seen emerging,
"toting" the bundle, a hum of voices would assail the lucky one with
"Bress de Lawd; what ye done get?" The experience with this first
installment showed that some work must be expended on the clothing
before distribution, to make it more serviceable. As the men were put to
work in the ditches, so the women who were able to leave their families
were called on for a week's work each in the sewing tents; a sewing
machine was borrowed from one, and Miss Mary Clark (who was put in
charge) assorted the garments, giving to some patching to do, to others
buttons to sew on, to others apparently useless garments to make into
children's clothing. When all got steadily to work, one would commence a
patter song, the rest would quickly join in, and, to the accompanying
rattle of the sewing machine, work and music blended. To hear them sing,
one would hardly think they had just passed through a great calamity;
but it was the calm which follows the storm--they knew their troubles
were over, and they were going to get "kiverin" for the "chilluns." How
they worked! Garment after garment was quickly mended, examined by Miss
Clark for faults, and then placed in its proper barrel, ready for giving
away. When all the clothing had been repaired, the list of needy ones
was examined, and, as before, the _most needy_ told to come the next
day. But the "most needy" generally included half the island, for
telegrams never flew faster than did the news that clothes were going to
be issued. Then, when the last garment had been issued, some happy, some
dejected, they would go away to await the next issue. So week by week, a
constant stream of barrels, boxes and bundles would be received, mended
and given away to those who, many of them, hardly knew what a whole
garment was. Occasionally one, more crafty than the rest, would try to
excite extra sympathy by producing a goodly array of "motherless
chilluns," borrowed for the occasion, in the hope of getting an extra
supply, not knowing that we already knew the full number and ages of
each family. The system adopted by the Red Cross of first quietly
getting its information complete, and then going to work, knowing what
to do and how to do it, showed its value in preventing imposition, which
must always be met with to some extent, in all charitable work. In this
way 3,400 garments were repaired and given away in this district,
besides shoes, hats, etc.
While the sewing was in progress in one tent, I helped attend the cases
in the hospital tents, and made daily calls when necessary on patients
who were unable to come to me. My experience in Hahnemann Hospital,
Chicago, fitted me for this part of the work. In all this work the lack
of suitable supplies had to be overcome. As soon as our busiest season
had passed and the sickness had abated, I opened a free school in one
room of our house, expecting to teach reading, writing and arithmetic to
ten pupils. The attendance rose almost immediately to forty and we gave
up another room to the use of the school, and I had one of the older
pupils assist me with the younger ones. To Mr. Proudfit, of Morristown,
N.J., are due our thanks for his generous contributions, enabling us to
purchase slates, books and other school supplies.
WAREHOUSE AND SHIPPING DEPARTMENT.
In introducing the dual reports of Dr. E.W. Egan, I imagine that I
realize something of the feeling of the Queen of Sheba when she
proclaimed that the half had not been told. The practical, unswerving
and unique method of procedure pursued by Dr. Egan with these thousands
of ignorant, hungry wards and waifs would constitute an interesting
study for the most advanced philanthropist. The problem, as he tersely
states it, of how to make thirty thousand dollars feed and shelter
thirty thousand people a year, was not easily solved; and yet, largely
under his original calculation and undeviating faithfulness to his own
plans, it was solved, and how successfully, all the years from that time
to this have testified. The medical aid which he established among these
poor, deluded sufferers was as if an advanced clinic from his _Alma
Mater_, Jefferson College, or the University of Pennsylvania, had been
suddenly opened in their midst. The old dislocated joints, broken bones,
tumors, internal diseases, carried about and dragged on through years of
pain, disappeared; they literally took up their beds and walked. Their
faithful hearts, like their eyes, followed him in admiring confidence,
as with hurried step and quick glance he passed among the distributers
of the warehouse; and if he told them that a pound of meat and a peck of
grits was enough for a week--all they could have and must be
supplemented either by work, if obtainable, or fish or game, if it could
be caught--there was no complaint, no demur: "The doctor said so, and it
was all right."
It is a comfort to me as I write to know that his skillful hand is now
on the keys that have for such weary months locked in the untold agonies
of the terrible dens in western Cuba, designated, for the lack of some
more appropriate term, as "hospitals."
REPORT BY E. WINFIELD EGAN, M.D.
The first official word of the Port Royal Relief Field, ambiguously
called the Sea Island Relief Field, came to Dr. J.B. Hubbell, the
general field agent of the American National Red Cross, with whom it was
my privilege to be at Indianapolis, attending the annual reunion of the
Grand Army, where, for the first time in the history of that
organization, the Red Cross of Geneva took its place upon the arms of
the surgeons, the ambulances and the tents which were regularly
distributed along the line of march. Twenty-four hours found us en route
to Beaufort, S.C., which was to be the headquarters of the American
National Red Cross, through its year of effort to take care of 30,000
human beings living upon the islands, known as the "Sea Island" or Old
Port Royal group, as they were called during the war, lying off the
coast of South Carolina, between Charleston and Savannah, and which had
been devastated by that memorable cyclone of August 27, 1893.
I reported to the president, at headquarters, for duty the twenty-eighth
day of September, 1893. Upon arrival I found the president and field
secretary quartered in an unused club house, using parts of billiard
tables for dining purposes, desks made of dry goods boxes, crude
furniture made in a day and nicely upholstered with manila paper--in
short, it was camping out indoors.
The local relief committee was still in charge, Miss Barton and her
staff meeting with them by invitation as an advisory board.
The Red Cross headquarters was the scene of busy census takers; men from
every part of the field were constantly coming and going, bringing
reports of the number of people, their condition, the condition of their
homes and their needs.
Their reports were being carefully indexed and entered upon one great
book for future reference, a record of the greatest relief field America
has ever known.
October 2, came my "marching orders" which were, "Take charge of the
warehouse and stores, make an inventory of them, disperse these men and
rid this city of the demoralizing influence of idle people." The doors
were closed and preparations for an inventory begun.
The manner of distribution previous to November 2, though performed by
willing workers, was not, could not be, that systematic distribution
which comes only after years of experience.
The warehouse had to be cleaned, partitioned, shelved and made ready for
the repacking, separating heavy from light goods, and getting ready for
receiving and shipping. The inventory showed not enough food to keep ten
families two weeks.
On November 9, the doors of all the departments at headquarters were
opened. The question of remuneration for workmen's services must be
determined upon and a standard adopted. There were at headquarters
twenty-five workmen in-doors--white and colored--beside the cartmen and
out-door laborers.
A standard of fifty cents in value was adopted for a day's work and was
given in flour, meal, grits, pork, or whatever there was in the
storeroom at the end of each day, and the next day an entirely new set
of men was employed, and this daily change lasted over a month, thus
distributing to over a thousand people something beside the _regular
weekly_ distribution.
Women were engaged to sew sacks and other light work (just as necessary
as heavier), and they were paid in the same manner and at the same rate
as men. Will some of my readers think that these women, some with large
families to support, and all having some one depending upon them, should
receive less than the men, because they were women?
Shovels, spades and axes came in a few days in response to an order from
our president, and men were put upon the public roads to clear and
improve their condition and repair the damage which the storm had done.
The tools were all marked before they left headquarters with a Greek
cross--on the steel or iron part they were stamped with a steel die and
the wood handles were burned with an iron die.
This marking served many purposes. There was an indescribable respect
for the Red Cross among the people it served and its insignia was its
representative which meant a great deal for them.
It removed a temptation; they were instructed that those implements were
only loaned and must not see idle days, and were to be passed on to the
next workmen when their labors were finished. The marking made them
undesirable property and none were lost, though hundreds were at work
all the time. Many were broken, and the pieces were returned to
headquarters, mended and put into circulation again.
Other sets of workmen were those who opened old drains and made new ones
through the low farming portions of the islands. These men generally
worked one week in relays of twelve. (A more detailed account of these
drains will be found in the general field agent's report.) Six months
later, when the high water came, a few who had refused to go into these
relays of workmen and open the drains, lost much of their crop--could a
rebuke have been more eloquent?
All the workmen were paid from headquarters through their overseer, who
received the clothing, grits and meat, and proportioned it to each man.
In all cases where a man worked, he received the regular weekly
allowance of one peck of grits and one pound of meat, in addition to
what he received for his work.
The spirit shown by these people, after they had been instructed in the
demoralizing effect of free and plenteous distribution, was remarkable:
they did not beg for food, they asked for work, and the Red Cross made
work for them.
The relief supply was received at three points: the railroad station,
about one and a quarter miles from headquarters, the steamer "Pilot
Boy," bringing goods from Charleston, and the "Alpha," bringing a few
goods from Savannah. Freight was brought to headquarters in small carts
drawn by horses or cattle of any kind, and it was always an interesting
sight to the stranger: the animals were driven with a bit, with ropes
for harness, and in most instances the bend of a tree had been sawed out
and used as saddles, on which were ropes or wire holding up the shafts,
with burlap or crudely made cushions to protect the animal's back--all
indications of the primitive condition of a people who were to be the
wards of the Red Cross for a year, but who were also to be given an
object lesson in practical life which was more to them, more to the
country, than the little allowance of grits and meat to which they must
add something more to support their families. "They must not eat the
bread of idleness," said our president. "We must not leave a race of
beggars, but teach them the manliness of self-support, and methods of
self-dependence."
The distributing was done through sub-committee men, representing
anywhere from five people into the hundreds. They were the appointees of
the local relief committee and retained to the end of the field, with
but few exceptions. They came weekly, tri-monthly and monthly; those who
came thirty and forty miles in crude boats were given supplies enough to
last a month, for it was a long and sometimes difficult journey.
Each sub-committee man presented himself at headquarters and was
referred, in his turn, to the main office, where an order was issued for
whatever the notes of the investigating committee called for--grits,
meat, nails, hatchets, saws, lumber and clothing the most frequent.
These orders were brought to the shipping room, where they were filled,
marked with name of sub-committee man, his address and a Red Greek
Cross, the insignia which would entitle it to protection and many times
free transport to its destination. A complete record of this was made in
the shipping room.
A most important step was the uniform issue to each person on the Red
Cross books. How was it to be done? What could be done? All important
questions were as familiar to each officer as his own department
questions. The president would call her staff together (and many times
it was in the small hours of the morning) and present the question for
consideration. It was at one of these meetings the fact had been
presented that the prime problem was "How to feed 30,000 people with
$30,000 for one year?" It was evident that they must be provided with a
way to produce something themselves, and to this end all assistance was
given.
One peck of grits and one pound of pork to a family of seven for one
week was the regular Red Cross supply, and this was given to all who
needed assistance, and the laboring men received one peck and one pound
for their work.
The description given us of the negro on our arrival was not flattering.
"He cannot be trusted!" "He'll steal anything he can get!" "You can't
make him work!" and similar expressions came from all sides. But Miss
Barton had seen the negro before and knew the best way to lift him up,
and her wisdom was manifest all through that field, as the splendid
gardens (producing more than the people could eat or sell), the mended
condition of the clothing, the division of cottages into rooms, the
carefully selected, bottled and labeled seeds for next year's planting,
and the general elevation of their habits proved beyond argument.
They were treated like gentlemen and they felt the responsibility. They
were trusted and told so, and they lived up to the trust. They were
shown the necessity of work, and they worked like men and women. No race
of people could have borne their affliction better, more cheerfully
(they are pre-eminently a cheerful, happy people) and with less record
of crime than did these 30,000 people, the vast majority of whom were
negroes.
One important and erroneous impression among some of the less
intelligent was that seeds were of little account which they raised in
their own garden, and the proper procedure was to buy each year from the
merchants "new and good seeds," and that practice was common.
One day one of the sub-committee men brought in a very large,
magnificent onion, and with some pride presented it as a result of his
work, and said, "Miss Barton, if I could git some ob dat y'ar seed, I
reckon I could raise onyun 'nough to pay fo a critter nex' year."
"Well," said Miss Barton, "do you think you could not raise seeds enough
from those onions?"
"Oh, bress you, no marm. You see dem ain' good what we raise; we has to
buy de seed."
Then followed a long explanation and agricultural logic such as Jack
Owen (for that is his name) had never heard before, and when he left he
said: "To tink dat I could'n know befo' dat a good onyun mus' bring good
seed, and dat good seed mus' bring good onyun. I sabe my seed now, sho."
When he returned to his plantation, he called his neighbors together and
gave them as many of the instructive points as he could remember, and
they now plant seeds of their own raising and have established, in a
very crude way, an exchange of seeds from "up country" and neighboring
islands.
An early crop was of great importance to the wards of the Red Cross, and
our president began to look around for white potatoes, knowing their
early productiveness. The merchants said the soil would not raise them;
the negro would not take care of them; they did not know what they were,
and if they did raise them, they would not eat them.
Inquiry showed them to cost $5.00 per barrel, and was it any wonder they
did not eat them?
In the face of all this opposition Miss Barton ordered over one thousand
bushels of white potatoes for planting. These were brought to
headquarters and cut into small pieces (each having an eye or sprout)--a
novel sight, the forty women cutting potatoes for seed. These were
distributed from headquarters and from the two Red Cross
sub-stations--Wadmalaw Island and Hilton Head Island--representing
respectively the northern and southern end of the district. It is almost
needless to add that the potatoes were planted, from which a fine crop
was raised and eaten, and the people were grateful.
Corn for planting was another important distribution; 2200 bushels of
corn were distributed, and a second crop raised by many who had never
asked mother earth for more than one crop. There were many doubts among
the people as to the possibility of a second crop, so a second planting
was urged to get the fodder for their cattle, and the full corn in the
ear rewarded their second planting.
MEDICAL AND SANITARY REPORT.
BY E. WINFIELD EGAN, M.D.
The storm had left the sanitary condition of the islands in a very
unhealthy state, and it became necessary to establish a medical and
surgical department at headquarters.
Dr. Magruder of the United States Marine Hospital Service had done very
efficient work in the vicinity of Beaufort, but many of the wells
refilled with a brackish red-colored water and there were many cases of
illness, two-thirds of which were fever, which, in the healthiest times,
exists upon the islands.
It required many emptyings of the wells to get good water and many wells
had to be abandoned, as good water could not be brought into them.
A clinic and dispensary was opened from 12 till 2 daily, at
headquarters, and patients were required to see a local physician before
they applied to the Red Cross, and if they could not get medical aid
from any other source they were admitted and treated.
This precaution was taken to protect the local physicians, who were
themselves heavy losers by the cyclone and could not afford to do as
much as they wished to. There were some noble-hearted men among them who
counted no sacrifice too great to relieve their fellow beings.
It is always the policy of the Red Cross to protect the merchants and
people who have goods to sell, and giving in the way it does, it not
only protects, but improves their business after the first effects of
the calamity have passed off--say two or three months (according to the
field) and it is conceded at every field where the Red Cross has worked,
that it has left the locality more prosperous than even before its
calamity.
The average number of patients treated daily between November ninth and
April 2d at this clinic was seventy-three. Nights were devoted to seeing
those patients who were unable to leave their beds, and this
"out-patient" service was only made possible by the tireless, faithful
and competent nurses who had volunteered their services to the cause of
humanity and had been assigned to the medical department by Miss
Barton.
Patients came from all parts of the field, and as there was no hospital,
they were placed in families who were on the supply list, and something
additional given for the care of the sick.
Sunday was given wholly to surgical cases and the operating room was
often opened at daylight and not closed till dark; operations varying
from a simple incised wound to a laperotomy were performed and the crude
appliances often made the surgeon wish for a moderately well equipped
operating room in one of our hospitals.
It would be difficult to write a very clear medical history of the
majority of cases from a subjective examination, and I insert one as an
example:
"I got a lump in de stomach here, sir" (pointing just above the pubic
bone), "and he jump up in de t'roat and den I gits swingness in de head.
Dat lump he done gone all over sometime; I fine him here and den he go
way down in de leg."
April 2. A telegram from our president (who was in Washington, D.C.),
ordered me to the northern end of the district, with headquarters on
James Island, and on April 4 the scarlet banner of humanity waved over a
hastily arranged office where for two weeks from forty to fifty patients
were seen every day, when it became evident the trouble was in their
drinking water. A tour of the island showed wells only twelve inches
deep and draining the surface for rods around. These were curbed,
cleaned, dug deeper and in many instances filled up and new ones dug.
Three barrels were generally sunk for curbing.
This labor was performed without a promise to pay, willingly and well,
and it was not long before the daily number of applicants for medical
aid on James Island was reduced to ten or twelve.
Medicines and surgical dressings were provided for the work in this
district by Mr. E.M. Wister, of Philadelphia, Mr. John Wright, of
Greenfield, Mass., and others. These gentlemen not only contributed, but
came personally to the field to lend their aid, the former spending a
week at a time in the Cumbahee River district, in a small crude boat,
among the unhealthiest parts of the islands.
Many rough places were smoothed by Mr. W.G. Hinson, of James Island, who
did much to lighten the work of the Red Cross representatives in his
locality, and it is always a pleasure to look back upon his efforts to
help the people in their affliction.
One of the great evils existing upon the islands is the charlatanism
practiced upon the ignorant.
"Traveling doctors," who never saw a materia medica, infest the country
and sell every imaginable cure, as well as cures which are not
imaginable.
Removing lizards, toads and various other things from various parts of
the body is one form and perhaps the highest type of medical fraud. The
"doctor" will declare the patient "conjured," and at once contract to
remove the offending spirit, the usual fee being five dollars; in 90 per
cent of such cases, he takes a lien on a cow, horse, or pig, and
finally, by foreclosure, gets the animal, for by the present unjust
system of trial justices, almost any verdict may be rendered.
I was asked to see a case one evening which was described to be a sore
arm. It was four miles distant, but the husband of the patient had
driven over for me because "de pain is powerful bad, sir."
I found the woman sitting in a chair, her right arm resting on a barrel
that had been rolled in for the occasion, an immense poultice of bread,
meal, feathers and numerous other ingredients wrapped around the arm,
the whole weighing about three pounds. As I lifted the cloth I found a
mass of the ordinary ground worms dead upon the surface. With a cry of
pleasure, the couple said, "Dat 'em! Dat 'em! He tole us dat arm full of
worm and sho' 'nuf he come out."
Could anything appeal more piteously; could it be more pathetic? Think,
at our very doors exists such barbarity, while each year thousands upon
thousands of dollars go as many miles to help a people far beyond some
of the people of our own country.
I removed the poultice, washed the arm, and found a compound
communicated fracture of both bones of the forearm.
Who could stand by such a picture with an unmoved heart or an
unmoistened eye! Tell her the error? No; only asked her not to let
strangers treat her when she was ill and advised her to go to some
doctor she knew in the future.
Dried green peas coated with sugar was one of the staple drugs, and
others as useless, but not as harmless.