Jewels from Jane - March 17
This postcard was given to Sister Mary Delphine Dillon as a remembrance of Matanzas, Cuba.
MARCH 17
2nd Division Hospital
Matanzas, Cuba
March 17, 1899
Rev. Mother Agatha [Guthrie]
My dear Rev. Mother,
Today being the feast of St. Patrick, I feel you will not mind getting a few lines from one of your Cuban children, even if it is Lent. I know you will be pleased to hear that all keep well and seem to like Cuba very much. Of course, the liking we have for it does not prevent us from longing for home (Our dear convent home) more than once a week. And we are all glad too we were permitted to come to Cuba, for our experience here is worth much, that is, in thanking God for our Holy Faith and preserving us from the poverty we have seen in the poor Cuban people since we arrived. Men, women and children look starved. It would go to anybody's heart to see those poor little children with scarcely any clothing, and their little faces the picture of distress. They are on the streets in large crowds, every corner we turn. They follow us for medals. They show a little faith by kissing them with great respect. The young ladies are on the streets in large numbers also, some very beautiful young girls. We were thinking on Sunday what a large Sodality could be gotten up if we only could speak Spanish and a Sunday School for the little boys and girls also. Indeed they need someone to take an interest in them. There seems to be very little done for them as far as we can see. Of course, the Government is doing something for them just now by giving them something to eat. The men are a lazy set who will eat all they can get but they do not care for work. The government employed them at $1.00 per day when we first came here, but they struck for higher wages, and they dismissed them, so they are without work since, except those employed as ambulance and wagon drivers, in the Regiments. Well, dear Rev. Mother, all your daughters are kept pretty busy taking care of Uncle Sam's sick boys. There are quite a number of them sick just now, 20 in my ward and nearly as many in each of the other wards. Mother [Liguori McNamara] has a yellow fever case out on the lawn, as we call it. I wish you could see it. I think a better name for it would be the rock pile. Thank God our dear Mother keeps real well, although she lost over 21 lbs. of flesh since she's been in the U.S.A. Well, Rev. Mother, there may be a chance of getting the Sisters home some time or another, but if Mother continues to get all the honors that have been bestowed on her since we came to the Army, especially since we came to Cuba, there will be a hard time to get General Sanger to let her return. It is nothing but Mother Superior here and Mother Superior there. He said a few days ago Mother need never write an order. She may go and get what she needs, just the same as if she were in her own house. Some of the men who heard him saying this said it was the first time he ever gave a woman that privilege. Yesterday Major Winn was a little out of sorts with some of the doctors who signed papers to get things from the drug room uncalled for. He came along yelling, "The signature of no one in this house will get any credit except Mother Superior's or mine." Mother had a good laugh when she heard this last night. More came to her than to the Major himself. He is a very kind man to us all, but the name he has is Winn by name and win by nature. You could hear him all over the house from morning till night.
Now, dear Rev. Mother, I must tell you what Sr. Raymond [Ward] did a short time ago. We had a stove in our kitchen that smoked a great deal. General Sanger came in a few times and found all of us with red eyes. He wanted to know what was the matter and was told it was the smoking stove that did it; he gave orders to have it attended to, which was neglected for some cause. So in a week after he came in unexpectedly and what did Sr. Raymond and some other Sisters do but wet some wood and pile it into the stove to make smoke for the General. Well, when he got to the kitchen and found the stove smoking, you would think he would take the roof off the house, and would not leave till the stove was attended to. So that is how things have to be in U.S.A. I am telling you this for you to see what tricks have to be played, if we want to get our allowance. You remember what we told you on the cars coming to Charleston about our allowance. Well, we have no trouble about that here, as everything is attended to very closely and we are well taken care of since we moved to our present quarters. I am so glad you did not come with us to Cuba, for our first two weeks experience here will never be forgotten, but now we have everything very home-like, Mass every morning, confession every two weeks, all our spiritual exercises, etc. The only thing missing is not having the Blessed Sacrament, but God knows our hearts, that we would love to have Him dwelling with us, if things could be fixed so. We have a large room to sleep in, the best in the house. Off this room is a small one used as an operating room. This, we thought at first, would make a nice little chapel, but no, it would not, as it is used for a passage, as there are tents on the roof and no other way to get to them but by going through this room. And the porch could not be fixed as a Chapel, as it would not be safe to keep the Blessed Sacrament there. Mother has tried every way, but has not succeeded so far. We go to the Sisters of Charity chapel and make our visits as often as we can. They have a very nice little chapel, but the other part of the house is terrible. It is dreadful to see the condition of their place. General Sanger had large tents put up in their yard and all the sick moved from the house to these tents. They have from 4 to 6 deaths there every day. They sometimes have to put 2 bodies in one coffin. It is too bad that the sick have been so neglected. It gives the officers and men much to talk about, although I think the poor Sisters cannot be blamed for it all. Of course the place could be kept a little clean. They say there were 20 wagon loads of dirt removed from there. Now, dear Rev. Mother, I fear you will think it unkind of me for taking up so much of your precious time to read this uninteresting letter, but I felt Mother has described all the beauties of Cuba and all the things of great interest, so I told you the little things.
How is dear Mother [Agnes] Gonzaga [Ryan], also Mother Julia [Littenecker] We were sorry to hear that both of them were sick. May God grant that they are quite well by this time and that your dear self and each of the Mothers and Sisters home keep well. You all shall never be forgotten by the Cuban Sisters for your great kindness to each one of us since we left home. Indeed, we attribute everything to the prayers that have been offered up for us and may all we have done since we left home be to God's greater honor and glory. This is our fervent prayer each day.
I will now say good-by. Mother and each of the Sisters join with fond love to you, dear Rev. Mother, and each dear one home, I am,
Your ever grateful child in S.H.
Sr. Delphine Dillon
Spanish-American War correspondence
